Inspiration
My artwork reflects my lifetime awareness of the layers of life – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.
I have always been a ‘maker of things’ and the trail can be traced back to when I was a child – I painted my first portrait in primary school. It featured in the school newspaper. In high school, I created my first mural and commissioned artworks. In 3rd year high school, I attended a watercolour workshop led by Alan McIntyre, a prominent Tasmanian water colourist. Later in high school, I began life drawing classes at the local technical college, a practice which I continued intermittently for many years in South Australia.
Although I have always been fascinated with colour, light and space and the way these elements interact with each other in the natural world, my artwork also reflects various stages of my life.
In early years, I used many mediums – drawing and painting media, weaving, ceramics, stained glass and fabrics. In 1989 after a move to South Australia, I decided for time’s sake, to focus on my core interest – drawing, light and colour.
As a mum of young children, pastels because of their immediacy quickly became my preferred medium and I worked almost exclusively with this medium for 10 years.
Initially the work reflected what I saw around me – still life subjects from our large garden, people around me and the local landscape, especially the beaches and coastal areas.
In 1992, a dramatic change in my life saw sea shells, which reveal more of their beauty as they wear away, perfect metaphors for the finite human body and infinite soul, become perfect forms for exploring my ideas about body and soul and connection to self.
In later years, the subject matter of the work has returned to my love of the Australian landscape, the water and the natural sciences – my areas of spiritual connection. I have a fascination with the interface between water and land, the way water increases our awareness of space through reflecting what’s around. These subjects provide a perfect base for exploring my interest in reflection, time and space.
All of my life I have been aware of the bigger picture of life, that there’s more to life than what we see. I believe the key to seeing more is through developing an awareness of and appreciation of the space within us and around us – much like the importance given to the spaces between the words when reading lines of poetry.
In my artwork I try to convey and give meaning to ‘the space’, through sensitive depiction of the physical elements. For me this space contains the life force, our connection to health and happiness, our connection to all of life.
ART AND LIFE