ARTIST BIO

ARTIST STATEMENT Like many artists, I knew at an early age that much of my life’s waking hours would be consumed by a powerful desire to create visual impressions of what I saw and felt. Although I started drawing before walking and painting in oils by age 11, it wasn’t until after I had satisfied my parents need for my non-art career to be established that I ended up ‘living as an artist’ I found myself living in Brazil and life itself there led me inextricably into the pursuit of artistic endeavours on a 24/7 basis. Throughout my life, my artistic learning process has been through professional mentors in Australia and overseas and through voracious personal theoretical study and practical diligence from a very young age. I was invited to exhibit with a group of adult artists at age 14 and this gave me a secret yearning and confidence to pursue my artistic path, something I was only to do professionally much later. It took another culture and the ultimate need for visual communication to lead me into an actual career in art. Although the human form and human nature inspire me, mostly I paint around themes of water, the elements, my surroundings (including ocean and cityscapes) and sometimes the themes merge. I started young in oils and watercolours but in Brazil I moved toward acrylic and mixed media due to the ability to use an array of textures. In particular (as I love the spontaneity of watercolour but loathe putting art behind glass) I have employed wet in wet techniques and layering of glazes over various textures to create works that retain the same bleeding and oozing marks of watercolour together with the translucence of glazes over clean white (on alternative substrates to w/c paper.) On the other hand my long term Melbourne-inspired series has evolved continually and in recent years and has also employed multiple layers of glazing of transparent over opaque. The common threads in all of my series are solid composition, related schemes relevant to the mood of each piece and a technical approach which I develop uniquely and specifically for each series. See portart.com.au for Exhibition History (Word)