Just had some good news! I'm a finalist in the Southern Buoy Portrait Prize: very happy about this!
Thank you for being here on my bio. Painting is one of the great loves of my life. Melbourne based, I now work in acrylic and charcoal more often than oils or pastel. Long experience has been my teacher, though I've had some wonderful tutors along the way. For many years I painted Australian landscapes in oils with success and recognition. But around 2006 I branched into acrylic paint and abstracts until I found the joy of painting people.
Now when I start a painting it is with great anticipation and minimal planning. I've been painting faces for several years and love seeing a believable face emerge from the canvas. Once the face is there, I loosen up with all else on the canvas and let the paint and the idea of the image guide me. Beyond the face, I want to go past realism with wayward colour and bold, visible brush and knife marks to create an impression that hints at, rather than explains a mood or setting. Sometimes I'll add collage, or create drawn pattern but always with at least one face and strong line to anchor the image.
Currently I'm working on becoming looser with my mark making using charcoal, pencil or oil pastel, and more abstract in design. I want to keep some realism in the faces, but swerve outside that for whatever else is on the canvas.
I’ve had several exhibitions at Ryazanoff Gallery, and been invited into group exhibitions at 26Advantage Gallery, Oak Hill Gallery and the the Inaugural McClelland Artisans where I won the People’s Choice Award.
I will continue in both acrylic and multimedia, not feeling bound to conform to existing 'portrait' norms, but to paint a face that communicates some very human quality to me and hopefully to you, the viewer. I intend to continue to experiment and learn for as long as I paint.