In August 1968 my family relocated from South Australia to the Pilbara Region of WA.

I started my painting journey as a child growing up in the small closed mining town of Mt Tom Price. My father would take my sister,  brother  and me on adventures out into large creek beds and the lush gorges in Karijini National Park.

My childhood playground was one of  a magical world in an oasis hidden deep in the desert. Here time stood still as I  busily skipped and hopped from one ancient  rock formation  to  another  with not a care in the world, only stopping momentarily to admire the beautiful ferns. I would crush pigment from the colourful rocks found in the stillness down in the gorges. The only sound you could hear   was the gentle rhythm of the trickling water as I scooped the powder up to  take it  home. Once home I would mix it with water and use it to paint objects & paper with my fingers. It  was evident through my school years even then that a career in Art in the future was inevitable. I was highly influenced by the spiritual quality and striking natural palette of Karijini National Park throughout my visits to this paradise which spanned for more than two decades. It is from the Pilbara & North West that my unique Impressionistic style, rich in vibrant colour and powerful contrast began to develop. My love and respect for the natural environment and its preservation began to shape the way I responded to and depicted the landscapes I painted. I have 6/60 vision from a congenital eye disorder  which further underpins the stylistic tapestries  I paint. Through the strength and raw emotion conveyed in my painting I explore “how I see and connect” with the scene  through  memory, movement  and touch as I am painting.

I left painting for a number  of years when I finished school while I travelled and entered the workforce. I then gained entrance to TAFE then into University where my art became aligned  with and further driven by the techniques and theoretical ideologies within the Art periods from Impressionism through to Surrealism.. I was highly influenced by artists such as Monet, Renoir, Degas, Seurat, Cezanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Matisse, Duchamp, Picasso, Klimt, Salvador Dali and Frieda Kahlo . I particularly love to paint using Matisse /Jo Sonja’s, Hydrocryl acrylics and Posca pen. I use a combination of implied texture and or impasto techniques  embellished with intricate line-work or bold mark-making to further enliven the unique, somewhat idealised (ideological) landscapes on my canvas. The ideology that informs and underpins my painting is my personal response to and engagement with the natural world. Also of critical importance to my work is my commitment to foreground to the general community the  necessity  to  conserve  the stunning natural  environment we are so very blessed to enjoy.