I was born in the Barossa Valley in South Australia on Ngadjuri land. After a short stint teaching in Port Augusta I returned to my beloved Barossa region where I reside and create my art.
My training as a secondary school Art and Design teacher helped me to comprehend, practice, explore, reinforce and share all compositional and technical knowledge I had. Most of my years teaching was part-time; allowing me to develop my artistic direction and personal aesthetic. This also allowed me to begin exhibiting and selling art at a young age. After teaching for 25 years, I decided in 2018 to focus instead on my arts practice and development. I have exhibited in local and regional Art Galleries as well as in cellar doors in the Barossa and Clare Valley districts. My art has sold locally, interstate and internationally.
Over the years I have moved from disciplined, illustrative, realistic work to concentrate more on intuitive, expressive abstract works. Earlier on, I focused on pen and ink studies of derelict farm ruins and detailed life drawing pieces. The past 20 years has seen me more in tune with the Australian landscape and the emotions and moods these environments offer me. I love playing around with mixtures of found and conventional media. A degree of trial and error has guided me through my more contemporary transition whilst still learning from my earlier formal arts training.
I sometimes take reference photos, make rough sketches and more importantly, take notes when visiting new environments to interpret. Most of my ideas, however, are purely personal responses to these locations based on memory and feelings. My works are more ‘landscape inspired’ than literal landscape painting. I have a growing urge to pursue the innate impulses in me to explore and share the world around me as I see it and connect to it.