The Plant, The Pot, The Light and The Ashtray

My work is very much about reflecting the current world around us, be it people, cityscapes and the objects we surround ourselves with. I have these objects at home and was thinking about how the objects we surround ourselves with, reflect part of our personalities. I very much like retro objects with a modern twist. In this painting, I wanted the objects to be the hero’s of the painting hence the plain backgrounds. I have been very inspired by Wayne Thiebaud and his painting of objects and I employed some of his techniques in this piece, the outlining of the objects in bright colours and the use of blue in the shadows. The large scale of this canvas gives even more presence to the objects.

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I graduated from Lancaster University in 1992 with a degree in Visual art and London University in 1994 with a Graduate Diploma in art education. In 2002 I moved to Melbourne and joined The Beaumaris Art Group to continue my art practice in painting and teaching. In 2016 I joined Le studio in Mordialloc and have been painting and teaching from my studio here ever since. As well as exhibiting in various galleries, I have been selling my work nationally and internationally.

I am very interested in people and I love loving in a big city, so a lot of my work includes people. My work is mostly figurative, usually acrylic on canvas, and mainly set in urban landscapes. Most of my work begins with a sketch or photograph taken from life, a street scene in Melbourne, a train on a Japanese subway or an alleyway on a walk with my dog. I am constantly looking at people, buildings and trying to grab something ordinary or extra-ordinary that intrigues me. I let these images sit in my unconscious for a while to allow time to think about how I want paint that image, when I am ready to paint that image and how I would like it to ‘feel’. Light, colour and perspective are very important in my work, I subconsciously create windows and employ the use of one vanishing point to entice the viewer into the painting. My paintings are a merge of the narrative, figurative and imagination. While life goes on, I will never run out of subject matter to paint. The challenge is to paint a ‘better’ painting every single time.