I was born in the City of Bradford, Yorkshire, England where I lived for 35 years. Bradford is an industrial town known for its wool, the City and environs heavy with “dark satanic mills”, huge chimneys belching smoke over all. I remember vividly the “greyness” of it all. Despite this, and a humble working class home, my father was a clever gardener and I drew for hours as a child flowers, bees, butterflies and cabbages and kings!
However, I had to choose a trade so it was off to commercial college and a working life as a legal secretary. No time for art bringing up a family then my marriage ended and it was back to work in the legal field. In between I did have the opportunity of attending Bradford College doing a 2 year art course.. The course comprised half Art history, half life drawing and painting as well as still life, and a thorough grounding in colour theory which I have found to have been tremendously helpful in my later renewed art career for me personally and in teaching others. I gained a high distinction in Art history testament to my passion. David Hockney had been at Bradford College before my year, attending the Slade then on to fame in Los Angeles. As students we were all pretty in awe of him. Indeed I lived in the same area and knew his lovely family.
I re-married and we decided to come to Australia. It was a typical migrant story of working hard, educating the children and getting another home together. No time for art but living in Sydney I was able to keep my passion alive by going to all the great exhibitions and devouring books on Australian Art. The only Australian Artist I knew in England was Sydney Nolan whose influence can be seen in my paintings. I particularly remember a retrospective of his at AGNSW in the 80’s which blew me away especially a whole room devoted to his Riverbend series.
I fell in love with Fred Williams who also reflected Nolan in his work. People say I am a “colourist” which is probably related to Hockney. I have recently come across Tim Johnson who is interested in spirituality particularly Aboriginal and Buddhist philosophy another deep interest and influence of mine also. I saw the Emily Kngwarreye exhibition in Canberra last year and was truly in awe of her magical work depicting her relationship to the land and its animals. I see my work moving forward along all these lines. I love the Australian bush and outback and I am often inspired by poems. I do some poetry writing myself along these lines. A painting Silver Sprite for instance was from a poem talking about the silver mines in Broken Hill and what would happen when all the silver was gone. The spirit of the silver mine is leaving in that painting but Broken Hill still thrives as a tourist destination and art lover’s paradise.
Because of my husband’s job with the Dept. Corrective Services we have lived all over NSW from Glen Innes in the North, Broken Hill in the West to Cooma now in the South. All these places and legends I have been painting. I still have a collection of about 60 but have sold many more.
I work predominantly in acrylic and oil in my large paintings. I also work in mixed media and drawings. Though I predominantly paint landscapes and genre, I love figure work too.
I have had two solo exhibitions in Cooma and have taken part in group exhibitions all over the state wherever we have been living. My paintings are currently shown at The Raglan Gallery, Little Gallery and Red Polo Gallery Cooma. I aim to expand into entering National competitions in the future particularly the Portia Geach Portra and Country Energy Landscape competitions.