For many years I survived as a self-taught air brusher travelling the globe, plying my trade and learning and sharing skills with other like-minded people, alongside my other love: driving trucks. Driving about in a truck, you get a fantastic opportunity to see things that a lot of other people may never witness, or only see once or twice in a lifetime.
I remember very distinctly the sunsets in the few days after Chernobyl: lime green, violet, brown and magenta. Spectacular sun sets and sunrises from all round the world, too numerous to mention, some reflecting in mirrored lakes with black towering shadows of mountains, and still mysterious forests that seem to store their dark secrets for millennia.
Stonehenge covered in snow, not a tourist in sight. Scottish highland in all-weather, all year round. Awesome displays of nature, rolling hills, fjords, mountains, Arabian, American and Australian deserts, rainforests, vast open plains and even cityscapes. Everything through the windscreen of a truck.
Landscape for me is always a thing I have felt part of. In a truck you are part of it. You have to be; you have no choice. You travel through it for hours and days, weeks, months, and years, spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Days and nights, you are part of it …
How can you not want to paint it?
After I married, I finally settled in Tasmania, where I traded for over 20 years as Exquisite Airbrushing.
All the work I did in this field was commissioned, and I was grateful to have a very strong, loyal and sometimes challenging customer base, varying from personal requests, corporate clients and even pieces from the world famous MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) right here in Hobart.
I set up Tasmanian Landscape Studio so I could convey extraordinary ideas to like-minded people and discerning collectors with the view that it is important the pieces have immediate impact, but also that they reward you during a prolonged viewing experience.
The more you view the pieces, the more they reveal themselves to you on multiple levels, conveying their interpretations of the journeys.
The boards for my pieces have been developed over many years using multiple combinations of types of wood, glue, suppliers, and techniques.
The paints are all waterborne, using techniques I gleaned while working for a global paint manufacturer. Some of them are highly modified and others are totally scratch made, utilising ancient ways and natural plant, and mineral colours.
Every scrap of wood is turned into something useful, right down to the thinnest slithers of waste which often end up as multi used paint-stirrers.
Please enjoy!