View Artwork
Although born in Brisbane I grew up in outback North-West Queensland.
The dramatic power of the harsh sunlight gave everything a striking sculptural quality. It captivated me and now I understand that this was the catalyst that would later become my passion for painting light and dark…chiaroscuro!
The stimulus to be an artist began at a young age while flipping through our illustrated set of encyclopaedias where I discovered Greek and Roman architecture and sculpture. Suddenly, the effects of sunlight I saw around me started to take form.
But it wasn’t until I discovered TITIAN, VELAZQUEZ, and CARAVAGGIO that I knew I wanted to be a painter in the classical realist tradition.
Still in my youth, I sold paintings, including commissions, and won a Highly Commended and People’s Choice award at the Ernest Henry Memorial Art Competition. However, I still had no formal training and my family expressed their concerns about a future as a Fine Artist. Consequently, I ended up studying graphics at the Queensland College of Art and graduated in 1983 winning the ACIAA award. After working briefly in advertising I fell yet again under the spell of the artist muse and embarked on an intense study of the painting methods and materials of the old masters. The Queensland Art Gallery provided me with a base for my education.
I spent months pouring over classic art books, treatises, and restoration material generously supplied by the Curator and the Conservator of the gallery. During this period, I painted a copy of Young woman in a fur wrap (after Titian) c.1629-30 by PETER PAUL RUBENS held at the Queensland Art Gallery. I won various Art prizes including the Nerang Art Festival and my work was exhibited in various art shows such as the John Paul College’s Bi-Centennial Art Exhibition and Wynn Schubert Art Gallery.
In response to starting a family I once again joined the advertising industry where
I worked as an Art Director and later formed my own design consultancy wherein I worked successfully for 16 years.
It was always my intention to return to my preferred career as soon as I could give it the dedication it deserved. With a renewed vigor I started painting again in 2002.
In that same year I became a finalist in a national still life/floral competition held by Australian Artist magazine. As a result my painting was published in their magazine (Edition: 222 December, 2002). Subsequently, upon their request, Australian Artist then featured another of my works in their “how did you paint that” article (Edition: 231 September, 2003) and again in their section “is your painting here?” (Edition: 236 February 2004). Currently I am working on a number of new paintings for a feature article to be published in the International Artist magazine, again, at their request.
