What do you hope to achieve through your work?
I am an expressive landscape painter, working primarily in oil and gouache. Working with colour is my artistic voice. I’m constantly aiming to push the boundaries with colour experimentation and finding new ways of applying a variety of marks and techniques to allow the painting to sing and have a higher energy vibration.
Take us inside your studio.
Our property is outside the small rural township of Walcha, in the Northern Tablelands of NSW. The area is high-altitude with four distinct seasons and very cold winters. As a result, I have the fire burning in the studio throughout the colder months. My two dogs keep me company while I’m working. My studio was purpose-built across the garden. It has an abundance of natural light with views across the garden and surrounding hills. I often have cattle peering through the windows while I’m painting.
How long have you been practicing as an artist?
I am a self-taught artist. In the final year of secondary school, I was deliberating between the National Art School or a degree in environmental management. I decided on the latter with the intention of practicing my art on the side, which I did. In 2013 after a gallerist saw my work, I was invited to hold my inaugural solo exhibition at the Walcha Gallery of Art, Walcha. This began my journey of exhibiting, and three years following I gave up my career to become a full-time artist. My artistic approaches have changed over the years. I began working in pastels and drawing, dabbled in mixed media and have been working with oil and gouache for some time now.
What is your subject matter?
It is always the Australian landscape. The landscapes vary depending on where I’ve been, though I’m always drawn to certain aspects of the landscape such as interesting compositions (angles, rock formations, depth of field) and unique characteristics in the vegetation. I paint a broad range of landscapes, such as the deserts of Central Australia, the gorge country near where I live in Walcha, coastal scapes, and so on. My painting trips always provide me with rich inspiration. Sleeping in swags under the stars really gives me a sense of immersion with all the noises, smells, and beauty of the landscape. I particularly love remote locations. Recent painting trips have found me in Central Australia and remote national parks. There’s nothing more mysterious than the sound of a dingo’s howl across the valley in the night.
What materials do you use and why?
I use oil paint in the studio on canvases and mostly gouache and ArtGraf on works on paper both out in the field and in the studio. These works can often act as studies for larger oil paintings.
What have you been working on recently?
Last summer, and throughout my upbringing, I spent a lot of time on the southeast coast of NSW, at Wimbie Beach, where my grandparents lived. I have recently completed a series of oil paintings of this area, as it’s close to my heart. The headlands provide for interesting compositions and detail. These works are for an upcoming solo exhibition with Art2Muse Gallery in Sydney opening 27th September this year.