Marbukk paints bright and colourful paintings, mostly of the landscape, wildlife and birds of the Mallee. He often paints thickly textured works with layers of dot work to build up the colours in the image.

Marbukk told us about the flow he gets in when he paints in his shed out the back of his house.

‘Sometimes I sit at it for 8 hours, sometimes just a couple of hours. Some days I can go out all day and miss tea. I get lost in what I’m doing. When it does happen, I don’t even come up for lunch, I just get engrossed in it, when I really get in the mood, you feel that roll, that free mode and you don’t want to stop it.’

Before prison though, Marbukk didn’t think he had any talent whatsoever and it was only through connecting with other men in The Torch program that he explored his own skills.

‘When I was in jail, I was drawing, just doodling and someone saw. Convinced me to begin painting. Other men encouraged me, showed me a few things. And we all encouraged each other. I could sit and watch other artists paint for quite a while, and while I was watching I would get ideas to paint myself.’