For Western Sydney based artist Gary Smith, commuting on the Inner West and South West Line through Liverpool and Campbelltown are linked to memories of growing-up and witnessing the ever-growing urban sprawl across Western Sydney as paddocks slowly turned into carparks, shopping centres and homes.

Inland Drive takes you on a fly-over journey through the urban landscape of which the artist was born, raised and continues to live. Smith maps the urban landscape of Western Sydney utilising a continuous-line drawing technique in conjunction with brightly coloured acrylic and watercolour paints. His artworks are inspired by an imagined, aerial surveillance drone perspective - complete with freeways, over-passes, scrubland corridors, military sites and homes that capture the lived experiences of people in Western Sydney.

Smith’s point-of-view seeks scenarios from the urban wonderland, but what has remained constant for the artist in this ever-changing landscape are the bellbirds singing by the George’s River at Casula.

Image credit: Gary Smith, Grid Locked, 2016 (detail).