Biografia
From an early age drawing was my pre-occupation, and my parents who were also interested in painting, encouraged my creativity. I finished college after majoring in Painting and Drawing, and taught art in Queensland high schools till end of 1982. Two months were spent travelling in Europe and Britain in ’83…an extraordinary chance to visit galleries, museums, famed architecture and ancient archeology. This was really inspirational for my art practice. On moving to the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales in ‘87, the rain forests and ocean became my principal stimuli to create, and I continued to do so while raising two children. Two solo exhibitions happened during this time. In 2002 I returned to Brisbane and have developed my art practice, participated in many group shows and three more solo shows, and took part in many workshops, both as a student and a teacher.
I’m inspired by
New York School of Abstract Expressionists (Will de Kooning, Rothko, Newman for brush technique)
Andy Goldsworthy (Site specific artist with a strong connection to land)
Gerhard Richter (great contemporary painter in many genres)
Other artists such as Yayoi Kusama and Aida Tomescu
The power and beauty of the natural world!
In fact, my experience and enjoyment of the natural world and conservation values, are the key driving force for artwork production. I like to reference this in the “Remembrance” works, which are about creating connections between memories and feelings of places…capturing the essence or spirit. I’m also drawn to work with ideas of the inner landscape and the transmutation of this into bold artworks from imagined worlds. The idea of “alchemy”, on an inner level fascinates me. The inner world/life/attitude/feeling somehow reflects the outer world, and this I portray (in an abstract manner) in all its multitude of forms and colours. Reliance on intuition and years of technical experience, results in an art object with a life of its own that I like the viewer to contemplate and interpret. Life and art go hand in hand for me…. inseparable, sometimes joyous, sometimes difficult, but always ever present.
