“Mrs Austin’s Lemon”

Original collage idea using painted papers from my palette, torn and pasted on painted background. The lemon relates to an art teacher called Mrs Austin who taught me art in high school. Every week she would pull out an old print of a Cezanne still life with a lemoninnthe foreground and describe the effectnof the lemon on the composition. Years later i was standing with an Australian friend infront of the original Cezanne in a gallery inNew York. Showing off I repeated the story of the lemon and its role. My friend look at me for a long moment and said “Did you have a Mrs Austin for art?”

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My first job was as a trainee layout artist and ultimately my career in advertising took me all over the world, working in prestigious agencies such as Young & Rubicam and McCanns in various capacities: art director, creative director and copywriter. A highpoint was winning a Silver Lion at the Cannes International Advertising Festival for a series of TV commercials.

In 2004 my husband and I relocated to the beautiful Whyanbeel Valley in Far North Queensland and built my dream studio adjacent to the world heritage Daintree Rainforest. My extraordinary surroundings, the world’s oldest rainforest, the Great Barrier Reef, the fauna and flora influence my art. The colours and patterns of nature are everywhere, unique and irresistible.

I have shown my work in many exhibitions at Cairns Regional Gallery, the Tanks Art Centre in Cairns the Port Douglas Sugar Wharf and Community Centre. I have also conducted watercolour classes at Art House Port Douglas and Douglas Arts Base Gallery in Mossman since 2005 and more recently with the North of the Daintree River Art Society Inc. I am a member of Douglas Arts Base and Port Douglas Artists Inc.

In 2010 I was awarded a $10,000 Regional Arts Development Fund Grant from the Queensland Government and Douglas Shire Council for a solo exhibition "Painting Paradise" . In 2021 I received $9,000 in RADF Grants for developing and presenting the Inaugural Port Douglas Sketchfest.

In the past two years I have moved from transparent watercolour to mixed media and collage which has allowed me to continue my love of experimentation. I'm now engaged daily in painting in both acrylic, collage and oil and cold wax on birch wood panels and archival watercolour paper. I have found a new freedom of expression in intuitive abstraction. Colour remains my obsession closely followed by design.