We wake to such disquiet in our current world daily.
My paintings seek to expose the joyous, tender and humorous details in our everyday surroundings which are so easily missed. In other words, finding the extraordinary in the ordinary.
When asked what it is that I seek to achieve with my work, I guess it's that I want the audience to gain a smile and also, with some of my paintings, to tap into childhood memories. In that vein, I've always been a bit obsessed with black and white documentary photography from the masters, whilst I equally love to study the little black and white 'snaps' parents of my generation captured on their Brownie Box cameras.
Within months of completing a Painting major at the Queensland College of Art in 1986, life swiftly necessitated other directions. Whilst I was working with artists and in art related fields such as graphic design, author/illustrator (Angus and Robertson Publishers), art museum curator {New England Regional Art Museum) and as a Visual Arts teacher in Darwin and Regional NSW, it was 30-something years before I was able to stand at an easel again.
In early 2021, I found my paradise and fabulous studio just out of Armidale and am making up for all those lost years. In this time I have won several awards, including coming First in Figurative Painting at the 2022 Royal Easter Show with 'Showgirl, 1961'.
I have painted successful commissions from Sydney, Geelong, Darwin, Port Stephens and currently have a request from San Francisco. Now that's exciting!