Describe what you do in a single sentence.
I paint imagined landscapes formed from memories of the places that I have spent time at – I’m always trying to capture the unseen and there is nothing literal in the colours I use.
Is there anything special about your studio?
Until recently I was living in a remote community (pre-covid) working at an Indigenous Art Centre and painting from a makeshift studio on the veranda. Keeping the desert dust off the paintings was a constant challenge. I’ve just returned to the South Coast of NSW via the North West Slopes. There is nothing special about my studio at the moment – it’s a garage.
Did you study fine arts or are you self-taught?
I was extremely fortunate to have two brilliant teachers at TAFE who instilled in me the importance and pure joy of drawing. Over the years this has served me well.
What does a typical day in the studio involve?
It is usually a very crowded one, I prefer to work on a few paintings at any given time and I usually have a drawing in progress also. I’m very much a morning person, getting started early and painting till the afternoon light fades.
Where do you find inspiration?
I have been described as having a concrete commitment to landscape. Far away mountain ranges, unusual rock formations, ancient water holes, dirt tracks, murky rivers and tall trees, that is my inspiration, and I love a good sky.
What materials do you use and why?
When I’m working en plein air it’s gouache, I keep my backpack light and limit my materials to include a tin of pencils, graphite sticks and charcoal. Back in the studio I paint in predominantly oil paint and at the moment prefer the hard surface of a board over the drummy feeling of a stretched surface.
What have you been working on recently?
Like a slow turning wheel I am just always drawing and painting the land, I have an exhibition scheduled at AK Bellinger Gallery, Inverell in spring and since moving back to the South Coast I am really enjoying life drawing twice a week.
If you could add one artwork to your collection what would it be and why?
Impossible to just choose one though I guess I would add Johannes Vermeer’s The Allegory of Painting, 1668 to my collection. A really bad reproduction hung in my childhood home for years, my father loved it – the map, the drapery, the gas light.