Christopher Oates has lived in Canberra for more than 40 years. He originally worked in the public sector while drawing and painting in his spare time. Attending classes in life drawing and printmaking at the ANU School of Art, Oates has specialised in depicting Canberra’s urban, suburban and rural landscapes. Tuggeranong underpass depicts a familiar piece of urban infrastructure, the artist stating that he wanted to show that “even in the starkest scenes of cement and metal, the bush and scrub always seem to creep in”.