The Work + The Artist
Since I first picked up a pencil as a small child, I have always been drawing.
I put myself through art school by studying and working as a graphic designer. I studied graphic design at Randwick TAFE and forged a successful career as a graphic designer, art director, and illustrator. I then worked as a creative director in my design agency and web hosting company.
I studied Fine Arts at St. George TAFE and received a BA in Visual Arts from the COFA - College of Fine Arts (UNSW) Sydney.
As a student, I was a finalist in the Telecom Art Scholarship Award, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, TAFE Student Medal Award [runnerup], and TAFE St. George.
My art practice is now the focus of my creative work. I've come full circle and returned to my artistic roots through drawing and painting.
I have been a finalist in a number of Australian local art prizes, including the Greenway Art Prize Open Section, Little Things Art Prize - Saint Cloche Gallery, Lethbridge 20,000. I have exhibited in a number of group shows. I received a commission for a site-specific artwork for EDGE Ashfield Sound, Bytes Festival.
STATEMENT
"Exploring the beauty and depth of the Australian landscape, I hope to imbue my art with a reflective intimacy, a deeply personal reaction to my environment. I strive to create an internal world, an internal logic, within each piece. In drawing and painting I hope to uncover the undiscovered within the work."
As an artist, no matter the subject, I am drawn to colour and composition. My inspiration comes from the Australian landscape, whether it's my local urban bush river area or further afield.
I believe the Australian landscape, whether we're considering the expansive outback or the diverse coastal regions, deeply influences our collective mindset, shaping how we think and see the world.
My connection to the Australian landscape stems from growing up in a bush-encompassed Sydney suburb, spending childhood holidays in central west NSW with my mother's family on a farming property, and moving there to spend my middle years. I then spent my later teenage years to adulthood spending long periods on the rocky headlands and coastal forests of South Coast NSW. I travelled a lot as a kid in Eastern Australia with my parents.
These diverse landscapes and cultures have greatly influenced my love of the landscape - the 'bush'. I have always been intrigued by the landscape and cityscapes from aerial perspex, perhaps influenced by having flown many trips to the farm as a kid!
I currently work with two distinct approaches: one that is spontaneous and painterly and another that is methodically designed and planned. I am constantly moving towards finding an internal emotional logic within the work – a story within, something not initially observed continually evolving, inspired by the different landscapes I interact with and observe.
My instinct is to explore aspects of solitude and reflection, informed by the contrasting landscapes I have experienced and a lifelong interest in philosophy, psychology and astronomy.
Generally, I have seen or remembered something that triggers an idea for a drawing or painting. I make sketches, develop these into drawings and use these as a starting point for my painting work. From the first mark on canvas or paper, a painting takes on a life of its own and demands certain things - one brush stroke leads to the next.
In my studio, I use a wide range of mediums and tools, including oils, acrylic, oil sticks, watercolour, pencil, pastels, graphite, and ink.
Just some of my influences are Richard Dieborn, Rothco, Colin Lanceley, Francis Bacon, French Impressionism, Modernism and Meiji woodblocks.