I live in Newcastle and in the past attended the National Art School in the 1970s and then went on to study with renown portrait painter Graeme Inson in Sydney during the early 1980s.
I have been painting since my early teens which makes it over fifty years and during this time have won over 60 awards in art exhibitions throughout NSW. I have exhibited in many highly regarded galleries over the years. I have had one man shows and group exhibitions with other artists in galleries in Sydney, Melbourne, Newcastle, Canberra and Newport News Virginia USA . My paintings are represented in corporate, council and private collections including the Commonwealth Bank collection Martin Place Sydney and overseas collections.
Being a lover of nature and enjoying getting out and walking and soaking up the feeling of a particular location and then trying to capture the essence of a place in paint is intrinsically what my art is about. I am a painter of light. atmosphere and depth of space.
My paintings have been influenced by earlier Australian painters such as the Heidelberg School and more contemporary landscape artists as well such as Richard Schmid and Kathryn Statts.
When choosing a subject to paint I think of it in simple terms of underlying abstract shapes that are then moulded to create depth and built upon to construct an image that is treated in a painterly manner. I believe the painting needs to be spontaneous and translucent and not laboured, using complementary colour layers in order to build depth to these works. Simplification of the subject and not getting carried away with unnecessary detail and variety of brushwork help keep the work looking looser and less tight. The principal of less is more applies to my work and my way of painting.
My work ranges from human interest subjects to landscapes often showing the grand view. Most of my landscape work is done from oil sketches created outdoors and turned into larger works in the studio.
I have been painting professionally for more than 20 years and enjoy the challenge of painting different subjects and doing my own interpretation using colour and light as the most important component in each work related to accurate values.
Thank you for reading and viewing my work and I hope you gain some enjoyment from the various paintings presented here.