Artist Statement
Having spent many years observing rugged mountain tops in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and in South America, with this piece I allowed my imagination to come to the fore. I felt exhilarated as the charcoal took on a life of its own forming the ridges which careened down the mountainside. The natural element of charcoal seemed to be the appropriate choice. Using light acrylic washes, the last vestiges of sunset give much needed warmth to an otherwise cold terrain.
About the Artist
For several years in my 20’s I enjoyed oil painting. Then in 1990 I went back to art working in watercolour, mixed media and acrylic.
I studied with Pamela Fairburn, a noted Sydney watercolourist and also with the late Arthur James, an artist of international repute in life drawing. For six years I studied portraiture both in oils and charcoal with renowned portrait artist Yve Close.
I also enjoyed life drawing and sculpture with Alan Somerville for four years. I have attended many workshops and tutorials with well known Australian & New Zealand artists including Bernhardine Mueller (master printmaker) and Patrick Carroll (multi-award winning Australian landscape artist) whose approach in both the physical and spiritual sense has influenced my use of acrylic and the way I “feel and see” the landscape. No matter how widely I travel the Australian landscape has my heart.
I exhibit at Humble House Gallery in Canberra; with the Woodford Bay Group of Artists; at the Royal Easter Show; previously through Judith Salmon of Salmon Galleries in North Sydney; at exhibitions held by Art Societies of which I am a member and other exhibitions in which I am invited to participate including the Hunters Hill Art Exhibition, Waterbrook Greenwich and Waterbrook Yowie Bay. I have been invited to both speak and do demonstrations for Art Societies and for years I was an invited judge for the Eve Vonwiller Youth Art Prize.
Commissioned works currently hang in private collections in Australia, the UK, USA and New Zealand.