Gallery
Oriental brush painting
The minimalist oriental brush style of painting known as “xie yi”, which literally means “to write a meaning” is one of my favourite styles of painting; it is often referred to as “Silent Poetry” and I love it for its deceptive simplicity.
Coloured pencils and graphite
Coloured pencils take me straight back to my childhood and I love them for their nostalgia and whimsy. Hence they are my go to medium for works about home and family, people and pets. The subtlety of graphite and its ability to render detail make it ideal for forging an intimate connection with the subject in portraiture.
Acrylics
Acrylics are my medium of choice for bold, stylised florals and still lifes that are intended to be purely decorative, and for works based on memories of and reflections on places visited.
Printmaking
Print making, with lino blocks or plates, is irresistible for its design element, its physicality and, despite the danger of not knowing how it will turn out till the very end, the final relief and satisfaction when you pull the print and there it is!
Other Media
Variety is the spice of life!
Public Art
Creating art to enhance public spaces
Commissions
Enquiries welcome regarding commissions
In the studio
I work from my home in the Lockyer Valley, Queensland, Australia
Workshops
Oriental brush painting workshops introduce participants to the philosophy, guiding principles, possibilities and challenges of this medium. I also conduct small group children's workshops in a variety of media.
Biography
Giving myself permission to enjoy the whole process of creating – conceiving an idea, immersing in research, experimenting with techniques, and finally creating a work or series of works (which sometimes take on lives of their own), is still central to the creative process. The work of Qi Bai Shi (1863 – 1957), an artist I “met” while studying at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou in 2009, continues to be a validation: No longer self-conscious, Bai Shi, in his 80s and 90s, painted only to express - and please – himself; less constrained by conventions and expectations, the simplicity of his paintings shows that he had once again liberated the freedom of expression we all have as children, before we learn the rules…