Art is a passion I’ve been chasing for years. I’m curious, fascinated, and inspired by life’s experiences and the strange beauty found in unexpected places. My mother was an artist and painting often took precedence over dinner. We were never far away from the smell of oil paints.
Being banned from a school art class didn’t stop my doodling and creative thoughts. Art school was where I wanted to go but was told it wasn’t a profession. I was allowed one semester before being hauled out to study nursing at a London hospital. The only drawing at that time was on the children’s ward where I would sketch some of the sick children, and back in the nurses’ quarters, draw some outrageous fashions, … this was the 60’s where imagination ran wild.
My early life in England was followed by marriage, babies, and world travel. Finding our feet in Australia meant taking the children to art classes at Claremont Tech. As the children grew, I was employed by a tile company painting house numbers, a process of on-glaze painting, which was also used to paint basins, toilets, kitchen back drops, and decorative tiles used in garden schemes. I taught my style of on-glaze painting at Claremont Tech.
After finding a studio in Fremantle I worked in oils and pastels, stimulated by sojourns in the South of France, and long walks and Caminos in Europe, which led to three successful solo exhibitions in Fremantle.
Later, we moved to Margaret River, where I made a studio in the shed. After another successful exhibition in the Church Gallery, the time for art became more available and the idea of having Open Studios in the area became a reality.
This will be the eleventh year I have been showing work in MRROS from my studio, now attached to our new house in the Witchcliffe Ecovillage. I have continued my pursuit of the surprising beauty of glass, although other subjects, some more abstract, have also absorbed me. I am still involved in a process of layering and looking at what is behind an image. Having crept into my 80’s, I have also become more acutely aware of the changing styles of older artists; of how the works of some of my predecessors have become, perhaps, more lyrical with age.
In my own case, my reading ability, and visual perception is shifting, while my love of colour is continuing unchanged and continuing to drive my creativity. I will be intrigued to find out if art enthusiasts and would-be buyers who view these recent works will be able to perceive any transformations.