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Born in Frankston, Victoria, in 1965, I spent
my childhood growing up in the picturesque countryside of the
Mornington Peninsula, near Melbourne. Our family holidays were
trips to Tasmania visiting relatives and camping in National
Parks around Victoria, including Wilson's Promontory, The Grampians
and The Little Desert. From an early age I was interested in
natural and wild places and in bushwalking. Painting and drawing
became a serious passion for me during my early teenage years,
from when I knew it would be my life's vocation.
After graduating with distinction from R.M.I.T.
Faculty of Painting and Print making in 1987, I continued working
from a studio attached to where I was living in West St Kilda,
Victoria for the next 2 and a half years. During that time I
made a complete departure from the work I was doing while at
Art School (Surreal urban scapes) and started on the path that
has led to my present artwork; with an evolving visual language
based on observation of the subject and intuitive construction
of the image. (See my Artwork Description for more details )
During this time (85 - 89) I had an assortment
of part-time jobs including gardening, builders labouring, teaching
print making, cleaning and hospitality work. I also made 5 Summer
bushwalking and sketching trips to Tasmania's wild mountain
and coastal country. These sketches were then used as inspiration
for my paintings. I was able to save up enough by mid 1989 to
then travel for 9 months in southern Asia, from India through
to Turkey. For 16 months I lived in the United Kingdom, working
in hotels in Edinburgh and The Highlands of Scotland. From late
1991, I then spent 4 months travelling in western and southern
Europe. This was followed by 5 months in southern and south-eastern
Asia. During the 3 years away from Australia, I continued sketching
and developing my visual language so that when I returned, my
artwork had progressed and matured from this practice and from
my travel experiences.
During the following 18 months in Melbourne I
completed a Teaching diploma, before moving to Hobart where
I have lived since early 1994. After my earlier trips to Tasmania
and my time spent in the Himalayas and the Scottish Highlands,
Tasmania was the natural choice as a place to live and work
as an Artist. It's landscapes feed straight into my artwork
and have been a constant source of inspiration through sketching
and observation of it's landforms and structures. For 9 years
I worked in various studios at the Salamanca Arts Centre, before
moving (April 2003) to my present studio in North Hobart. Along
with sales of my artwork, a variety of casual work such as teaching,
exhibition coordinating, colour consulting and cleaning have
supported my Art Practice and has also enabled me to make trips
to Europe, Nepal and China since I have lived in Tasmania.
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