I have lived in the Margaret River region since 2008, settling in the town of Cowaramup. In 2015 our infant daughter was diagnosed with a rare cancer, forcing us to move up to Perth for a year of treatment and recovery. Once our daughter was well again, we drove around Australia living in our caravan. It was a healing time, immersing ourselves in nature and spending time together as a family. Once home, I set up a studio in our shed and returned to my long neglected art practice with a matured appreciation and determination to prioritise doing the things you love.
I feel its necessary to explain this journey, as its influence has woven itself into the themes I carry within my work today. Connection to our environment, and the healing aspects of spending time in nature are recurrent themes in my work. I want my paintings to take the viewer into the landscape, and for them to feel a sense of calmness, an escape from the mental load of this modern life. A reminder of times spent outside in nature away from technology and distractions, and the emotions that invokes. Immersing myself in the landscape compliments my portrait practice, I find balance within the contrast of studying the expansiveness of the landscape, narrowed down to the intimacy and scale of someones face. We are all just one person out of the billions that live on this diverse and huge planet, yet we can all relate to the shared experience of stepping outside and looking up at the sky. Bouncing back and forth between the two styles of work keeps me interested and inspired.
I've always been drawn to portraits and the human form, having spent many years attending life drawing sessions throughout my 20's. Being able to recognise something about yourself in a portrait is the human connection we all share. The intimacy of studying someone so closely, and the technical challenges of achieving a likeness drive me and I have found myself heading down a path of realism with my style. I find a deep satisfaction with the process of putting all the bits together in the right place. I’m quite interested in the balance of how to incorporate realism with other styles. I enjoy adding explorative mark making to juxtapose the realism, creating something to challenge the viewer and keep them interested.
I am currently enjoying exploring the two passions in my latest work which combines the two subjects, featuring the figure within the landscape.