I was born in Brisbane, Australia in 1964 and moved to New Zealand in April of 2000. In 2014, I married into the New Zealand farming life. I am very passionate about the two countries l call home.

Art in Australia

From the time l was able to hold a pencil, l have been a practicing artist. In my early teens, l spent many hours in my room indulging in drawing. Before I knew it, the sun was going down and I was astounded at where those days went. I wasn’t much interested in anything else, except for explorations of my own grandiose imagination.

When creating, l was being stubbornly fussy about what I was trying to achieve, outside of basic school art. My main subject matter was in the human face and form. It still holds a lot of interest for me today. It is a good challenge.

In my late teens, I wanted to further my education and that took form in the way of night classes in airbrushing /custom painting and in classical drawing tuition. My methods were to observe, copy, and experiment. Working with the mediums of pencil and charcoal were a ‘safe’ zone. I enjoyed the simplicity of the two-tone works. Eventually, I pushed forward to watercolours.

I began to seek out training to those results I aspired to. Working with oils, l enjoyed the new intensity of colour. Through these years, the family became a priority. With consistent income preferable, l worked within the photographic restoration industry (this being before Photoshop came into being). My art education was thrust up an unexpected level as I became more familiar with colours and tones necessary to get life-like results and explored products I’d never have played with otherwise.           

As the years moved on, l developed my ‘own’ art in the form of watercolours, oils, and charcoals and continued to push into different subject matter. Thus, I am described as a versatile artist.

Art in New Zealand

My colour palette needed a complete over-haul due to environmental colour differences between the two countries. (I still find this quite extraordinary). As l became more familiar with art in this country, l felt quite strongly that l needed to introduce myself with a point of difference...

Working in the restoration business, had opened my mind to the significance of images. When l realized the rich history of the sawmilling industry here, it seemed almost larger than life to me. The artist's eye and brush were on the blade in no time. With the thought of creating detailed artworks on these historic sawblades, the paintings could be created from photos belonging to the family. For those that reminisce, these become heirlooms to hold for younger generations. The saw works have become my signature works. It never ceases to amaze me how a composition could cover an entire life story. They are intensive and time consuming; however, worth the efforts, when my clients are thrilled with the results.