Modern art has mostly been interested in innovation and at times I have been told my work needs a bit more angst. However, in the past, beauty in art was important for its capacity to inspire. When we see something beautiful we say it was breathtaking, or it took my breath away. I am interested in the way a painting can move us sometimes with angst and sometimes with beauty, a two dimensional form that evokes emotion. Also I often paint the background and foreground merging, to express that under the skin we are “All One,” we belong to earth as mother, rather than earth belonging to us.
RECENT WORK
My most recent work has been affected by the ‘black summer’ of fires and the Covid 19 pandemic, these images often depict a desire to transcend or fly away. Also often the background and foreground are merging to honour our connection with the environment.
CONNECTION
This collection contains a series of images reflecting the artist interest in our interconnectedness with the environment. The mood is expressed though the use of colour, facial expression and lyrical abstraction.
MOVEMENT
This selection is a collection of energetic figurative works. The artist uses strong colour combining energetic textured areas in the figure with soft smooth graduated areas of colour in the background. Sometimes background and figure merge with a sense of light flowing over the figure. The paintings are an attempt at expressing our emotional and spiritual movement through life rather than physical movement.
DREAM
This collection was a series painted after the artist realized her longtime dream to paint in Ubud Bali. In several of the works the images overlap or there are several images on the one canvas that are not immediately obvious. Often the background and foreground are interlaced adding to the surreal or dream like quality of the work.
WAKE UP!
This collection in pastel, encaustic and oil on canvas, are all works created after the shock of the Bali bomb blast and 9/11 in photo new list style to express that feeling. Prior to this, the artist’s work has a more dream like quality.
BALI INSPIRED
The subjects in this category are taken from Balinese life. Some pieces are lyrical but also there are several portraits of Balinese people and one commissioned portrait in a Bali context. It also contains 2 pieces ‘Picture Perfect’ and ‘Two Faced’ painted about a violent incident which occurred between two villages at the same time as the 9/11 disaster in America. Although the events were unrelated they bore strong parallels.
NATURE ENLARGED
This selection is of leaves and flower studies often life size or an enlargement of actual size. The artist was inspired by the lush strongly lit foliage found in her garden in Bali and in the bush in Australia. Choosing to enlarge or paint the pieces life size enhances the feeling of light and contrast in the subjects and adds power and energy to the works.
LOTUS
“Beauty from the Mud” The lotus flower is an ancient divine symbol in India; its unfolding petals suggest the expansion of the soul; the growth of its pure beauty from the mud of its origin holds a benign spiritual promise. Paramahansa Yogananda. Sometimes when life is at its most messy and difficult this is the ground for new growth and renewal. This collection is an expression of that awakening and includes paintings in oil, acrylic and pastel on canvas.
DRAWING & MIXED MEDIA
The paintings in this category result from the artist experimenting with colour and mixed media, the images appearing through a process of play. The choice of colour texture and image are an immediate expression of the moment, and the artists’ mood at that point in time.
ROOM DIVIDERS
This collection contains examples of canvas room dividers or screens, individually painted. They stand on concealed small plastic feet to lift them of the floor, the panels are hinged, and they are lightweight and portable. In this collection the artist was inspired by back lit leaves and tree images. These murals can be made to order both in size, number of panels and design.