Artist Robert Watson was born in 1958. As a teenager he adopted the painting name AAQUS (ah kwis).

Around 1987, he invented a world first - a new avant garde painting style.

Aaqus uses unprimed canvas or textile - as watercolourists and Eastern painters use paper.

Eastern water techniques and layered 'batik' masking of the textile are combined with Western New York School empasto and brush expressionism - while bringing protected natural landscapes back into extinction rebellion focus.

Also integral to AAQUS style and philosophy is the use of calligraphy. For the avant garde, calligraphy hovers between the artist's thoughts as words - and thoughts as pictures.

'Nan Ta Sen Hai' is in Australia's arts landscape traditions of Heide , Windgrove and Bundanon .

Aaqus was born in rural Australia. He grew up in Sydney and Hobart in areas with natural Australian forest. He has lived and worked in nine Australian cities. At 11 years, Aaqus studied with an English academic of the New York School, Ken Thomas. In the 1980s and 1990s, Aaqus worked and studied in China, Japan, Indonesia and Europe. In Australia, Aaqus has shown solo at leading Canberra and Melbourne galleries, and a group show the National Gallery of Victoria. The photos (left) show Aaqus painting a Manhattan cityscape commission on large panels, entitled 'Moon Rise Over Wall Street' (Private Collection, possibly destroyed, Canberra). The Artist's Muse is in the second photo.