About

I am a Brisbane-bred and based Artist, working from my home studio surrounded by nature and family.  My mother was an excellent dressmaker and embroiderer and I would spend idle moments sewing clothes, embroidering hankies, knitting or crocheting blankets and scarves. All kinds of craft was encouraged so my sisters and I would continually make over the holidays. This extended to Art in school where I enjoyed printmaking and collage the most; realism didn’t hold much appeal, but the essence of the moment or object did.

After 6 years and many clerical jobs, I headed to Europe and North America where my love of Art and Art History resurfaced and vowed to study this at University when I returned. Fate skewed me towards secondary teaching and I flourished in this role for nearly 2 decades. While my 2 boys were growing up, I discovered Scrapbooking and was published in Australia and the U.S.  This led to a mixed media approach, art journaling and eventually back to the making of art.

The art I wanted to learn was online; a format I still prefer. My work was a combination of collage, paint, found objects and poetry in a very whimsical, naïve style. With each workshop my skillset and confidence grew. When I returned to teaching I continued to create and entered group shows.

In 2017 I began my full time Art practice.

Experimenting with every medium and subject matter is essential to my practice. Having fresh inspiration and seeing things with fresh eyes allows me to present old themes in new ways and I love that feeling. I keep coming back to botanical subjects and portraiture but in a non-realistic way. It can be heavily stylised and collaged until the essence of what it is, remains.

My process involves pulling from every lesson and workshop I’ve taken and bringing my favourites onto the page. Sometimes an idea happens quickly, but most times it can take months for a series to be realised. My elements are handmade and unrepeatable to retain its freshness and genuineness.

I can’t imagine sitting in one genre for too long. I’m a voracious reader of the lives of Artists and their own practice, and their experiences give me confidence in what path I take with my own art practice.