From Callala Beach

Follow

About
I began my artistic journey at Bondi Markets in 1994, selling my first artwork for $5, it was a small pastel sketch of a boy holding a surfboard. I almost fell over and it was all the encouragement I needed to keep going.
I began my life journey in West Wyalong (Country NSW) and grew up Wagga (regional NSW). It was a happy childhood with holidays on the south coast, camping and playing on my parents farm at The Rock. I spent hours drawing. I loved art at school and had some very talented art teachers. My early years was spent in the Highlands of New Guinea. We would go to the markets, I was fascinated by the women selling fruit and vegetables, I would set up a stall at home and sell them back to mum. This little memory, became very significant as I started selling my work at the markets many years later.
In 1988 I made the move to Sydney to study design. I arrived a very naive girl from the country and after six years and a lot of work I graduated with my degree.
Starting my little venture at the markets was fabulous, (the little memory of the highland markets) The response was amazing and I loved every minute of my time there.
I started little A4 sketches of Bondi, then came the A2 paintings of beaches in gouache and my signature 'Chair Guides'.
I travelled overseas in 1995, to see the great art galleries of Europe. My later travels included parts of Asia, China, Greece, South Pacific, New Zealand and the Maldives. I love a tropical island, and this theme features a lot in my work from 1998 to today.
Initially I worked in a studio in Surry Hills then moved my studio home when the family came along. I have 3 kids, Ben, Imogen and Lillian who can be muses at times.
I picked up some oil paints in 2005 to enter the Wynne prize for the first time. But didn’t use them again until 2016 when I began using them in earnest. I also began experimenting with a palette knife, which as it turns out is an unreal piece of equipment.
We moved to Canberra in 2009, leaving my beloved Sydney was hard, the change of environment, the landscape, the seasons - all different and no frangipanis. It has been the right move for our family and as it turns out my development as an artist. I have more life here, more time to paint, less time in traffic, wide open spaces and fresh air.
As I began to enter more competitions in 2016 (and win one) and get shortlisted for others, it dawned on me that the greatest success and accolade I can ever receive as an artist, is for someone to love my art so much that they place it in their home.