Mosman artist Jo Bertini's latest exhibition of desert paintings has a sad footnote. The paintings were inspired by her outback trip last year when she was due to meet up with ABC journalist Paul Lockyer.
However, Lockyer, his cameraman John Bean and pilot Gary Ticehurst, died in a helicopter crash on the eastern shore of Lake Eyre.
"I was devastated – I had only just been talking to Paul," Bertini said.

Bertini had featured in a number of Lockyer's documentaries along with her partner Andrew Harper who leads Australian Desert Expeditions.

Bertini had also helped Lockyer with his book on Lake Eyre which was published posthumously.

"Paul was due to head north from Lake Eyre and in a couple of days was planning to do some more filming with us when he was killed," Bertini said.

At the time of the accident Bertini was camped near the Pulchera Waterhole in outback Queensland.

"With all the rain, the desert has undergone an extraordinary transformation from red desert to green desert," she said.

"Where there were red sand dunes there are now fields of paper daisies and billy buttons and there are plants I have never seen like the bright lime colour of the green bird flower."
There are three more days to catch Bertini's exhibition of paintings capturing the new life of the desert. The exhibition winds up at the Tim Olsen Gallery on Sunday.