Living in a small rural Queensland community my foray into the art world began later than most. Having spent the first 4 decades of my adult life as teacher, mother and farmer’s wife, I retired after 36 years of teaching to pursue my third life as an artist, fulfilling a lifelong fantasy. Not willing to just ‘paint’ in my retirement but wanting to explore the world of contemporary art, I drove over 1000 kilometres a week to attend university lectures to ultimately achieve a Bachelor of Creative Arts.
As I evolved as an artist, my local community, Chinchilla on the Western Downs, was impacted by the Coal Seam Gas boom, the amalgamation of our local shire into the mega-council of the Western Downs Region, and a redefining of our local culture. Our population doubled literally overnight and changed our small rural community forever.
All of these led to me seeing the narrative as the most important part of my art as I sought to tell the story of rural Australia and its people in a contemporary context. The colours of regional Australia form an important part of my artworks with compositions created from several images and from different perspectives. A strong signature of my work is a minute attention to detail.
My journey in art continues……….