As I grew up in houses of theatre, music, and medicine, art was not my first love. It actually felt like something far away, mysterious, and unreachable. I loved colour as a child, and my piano teacher discovered my synesthesia during piano lessons. I had the strange ability to hear colour, and I am so grateful to her for knowing about this gift in 1980, as it is still not a widely known condition.
It was during my BA that I discovered Art History and enrolled in art college a year after graduation. Art school is a strange beast and probably not what most people think it is. In a lot of ways the past 20 years since graduation have been spent unlearning what I learned there, and studying what I didn’t learn.
Painting and drawing is what stole my heart, and I can not imagine life without a brush or pencil in my hands. These are my magic wands. The practice has often been brutal, and humiliating, but my stubbornness has kept me moving forward and exploring as an artist. My initial training was in oil, of which I was deeply in love. Health reasons forced me to fully shift my medium to acrylic by 2013, and a new parrot in the home in 2015 forced me to shift again to watercolour. Trying to keep a parrot out of brightly coloured liquid plastic was too distracting in the studio. What I have discovered is an intense love and resonance with watercolour. It’s fluid beauty feels completely aligned with my flower essences and my approach to life in general.
Birds and flowers fill my days anyway. Aligning my subject matter with the bright flowing pigments of watercolour, has been a happy discovery. Watercolour also lends itself well to outdoor sketching and journaling. I have been using watercolour crayons and coloured pencils in my notebooks for years to get down quick ideas and impressions, as they are easy to throw in a bag and use on my meanderings.
A few summers ago I trained with a somatic teacher from the UK named Helen Poynor. She teaches her students to enter the body and move in response to the earth and place, and then make on site abstract art in response to the body/land movement. I have continued this exploration as well and teach a version of it in my Ancient Practices retreats. This body/land practice also informs my life and art. Years ago I studied botanical illustration with another UK artist named Rosie Martin, which also continues to be a beloved focus in my art.
I am a proud contributor to We’Moon calendars for over 10 years, and show my art regularly in group and solo shows. I also have had an oracle deck in me since art school, and so perhaps by saying it here on my site, it will finally start to flow onto paper. My work is for sale and I do commissions, so please contact me anytime to inquire about purchasing an original painting.
Thank you.
Watercolour on paper, 2019
Watercolour on paper. 2018
Watercolour crayon and gold pigment on paper 2017
Watercolour crayon and mica on paper 2017
LIFE. Mixed media on birch. 2017 $480
Awakening oil on birchboard 2013
Earth Magic sold
oil on canvas 2010
Aspotogan Rebirth mixed media on canvas. 2015 30 × 24 $720
