Starting on Earth Hour Day (26 March) in 2022 with a commitment to continue until Earth Day in 2030, every day award winning botanical artist Sharon Field is drawing and painting a species directly onto her Scrolls to “tell a story with a lasting visual impact”.

After a long career in the Australian Public Service—including many years living and working in Papua New Guinea as well as on humanitarian programs in Africa and the Pacific—in 2009 Sharon Field left her job to become a full-time artist. Having also served for 20 years as a volunteer firefighter protecting Ngunnawal and Ngambri lands (also known as the area around Canberra, the location of Australia’s Federal Government), Sharon had become acutely aware of the interconnected global climate and biodiversity crises and is an exceptional communicator on all its manifestations.

Haunted by visions of distressed ecosystems and confronted by the scientific facts in the United Nations IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (2021)—including the scale of work that needs doing to transition to zero emission energy systems while drawing down excess carbon from the atmosphere before 2030—Sharon counted the days: 3,000. So, Sharon set herself a challenge; to make a drawing or painting every day for the next 3,000 days.

For the medium’s powerful classical references, Sharon chose Scrolls for her ongoing project. Through viewings and presentations she is seeking to engage as many people as possible to join her in doing everything in their power to halt the damage and begin healing ecosystems.

Every day I am looking around, often guided by others, for a new plant to draw.

One plant a day is drawn directly onto the paper – no preliminary pencil sketches are done. Each plant is numbered, dated and described with its botanical and common names, and each has a small story attached to it. This information [ie place-based stories] is recorded in an accompanying book. The nature of the scroll means that I cannot plan the placement of each plant. I do one drawing after the other using a fine point black pen, holding archival ink. The colour is watercolour, which is painted over the pen.

The Scrolls now hold over 1,600 drawings of plants and their ecosystem partners. This represents 1,600 days since the @unitednations @ipcc report on climate change said we needed to keep global temperatures below a 1.5 C (2.7 F) degree increase by 2030. We have accelerated this temperature increase, not slowed it. And what mayhem and tragedy this is causing for people who have done the least to cause these disasters.

Sharon Field, 5 September 2026

Australia is leading the world in mammal species extinctions. The Australian Climate Accountability Project’s recently released findings reveal that “Australia is the [world’s] second-largest climate polluter when calculated by total carbon emissions [‘total lifecycle’] from its massive fossil fuel exports – beaten only by Russia, but ahead of every OPEC country and the United States”. In response, Sharon’s presentations also reference the community-led City of Yarra Climate Emergency Plan 2024-2030 to show what is possible when people unite around First Nations leaders’ care for country protocols.

A stunning, active, archival artwork of extraordinary beauty, The Scrolls are deeply moving and inspiring. They invite viewers to connect with how they feel about what is at stake from the Climate Emergency and the betrayal by the fossil fuel energy companies (and their financial and political allies) largely responsible for it. They are a powerful, timely call to action to preserve and protect invaluable ecosystems upon which all life on Earth depends.

Beyond taking responsibility for personal pollution, Sharon’s presentations provide people with meaningful tools and agency to take powerful action to address the interconnected climate and biodiversity crises we face.

Already Sharon’s Scrolls have inspired numerous artists from other parts of the world to create their own locally focussed nature honouring scrolls and projects.

CLIMARTE has been proudly supporting Sharon’s epic work since 2024 when we arranged a special international tour launch event at The Store, Abbotsford Convent, in Melbourne, as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival. Then strategically timed in the lead up to, during and just post the UN COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, Sharon presented The Scrolls in the US, UK, France, the Netherlands and Singapore.

Awards
For The Scrolls, the American Society of Botanical Artist’s Executive Committee awarded Sharon with its ASBA Vision Prize (2025). Sharon’s triptych, Nature Speaks with fractured tones … was awarded First Prize at Nature Speaks Art Prize and Exhibition 2026 at The Foundry Art Space, Echuca, Victoria. The local Riverine Herald paper published a wonderful article about Sharon’s work, which you can read here.

Coming up!

The Scrolls and The Scrolls Ensemble , the improvised contemporary music project that Sharon’s Scrolls inspired, are featuring in The Lyrebird Festival, Megalong Valley, 12-15 November 2026.  Sharon will be there adding daily drawings to The Scrolls and would welcome your company. She is delighted to be joining a stellar line up of activities which bring together art, science and conservation.

Meanwhile, you can always follow Sharon’s progress with The Scrolls here.

If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to support Sharon’s largely self-funded work, please click the below DONATE tab and add ‘The Scrolls’ in your funds transfer description. Any size donations are more than welcome!