Although he's one of Australia's most established, commercially successful and prolific artists, Dale Frank is a reluctant interview subject.

Eccentric, reclusive, visionary, trailblazer — a sublime colourist, even a likeable arsehole — these are just some of the ways he's described.

Which makes it even more remarkable that he agreed to be the subject of a documentary feature film — a rare thing for a living Australian artist.

With a menagerie of exotic taxidermied animals and the odd studio assistant for company, Frank not only produces enormous bodies of work, but he is realising another artistic vision: a botanical garden filled with dry climate species from all over the world.

He does all this while managing acute pain from a debilitating illness, and the wear and tear of an embodied artmaking practice that stretches back four decades.