| I seem to have been dabbling in art all my life. As a child I loved to draw people and indeed portraiture remains a passion with me. After school I started a Bachelor of Visual Arts however the lure of money and independence proved too strong and I joined the workforce. In the ensuing 16 years I continued to dabble – a course here, a painting there. The birth of my son in 1996 was a catalyst – I gave up work and soon I was painting and drawing every spare moment I got. I began advertising my portraits in a national parenting magazine and I am now commissioned for portraits both nationally and internationally. Since 2001 I have been concentrating on oil painting (both still life and figurative) and I continue to evolve in this area. The high point in my career to date was my participation in the Fourth Edition of the Biennale Internazionale dell’Arte Contemporanea in Florence Italy in December 2003. Participation in this event was by invitation only and artists were chosen solely on merit by an International Committee of renowned critics. The Biennale was a wonderful opportunity to interact with international artists, each at varying stages of their careers, and to witness a synopsis of the development of art worldwide. As an artist I am passionate about form and light - the effect of light on any form truly inspires me. This is manifested in my work bilaterally via figurative and still life painting. My latest work explores the theory that simple images have a complex impact on the viewer. When faced with an unadorned image one is free to interpret and indeed conform that image to one’s own individuality - complete with all the preconceptions and prejudices inherent in each person, effectively turning a simple object into a thing infinitely more complex. I believe that, like a Rorschach test, each person interprets an image differently and by paring an image down to the ‘bare bones’, the impact on the viewer increases dramatically and the painting becomes multilingual - a complex myriad of interpretations which in turn breathes further life into that painting |
