About

Initially it never occurred to me to specialise in any particular art medium. While drawing, painting, design, printmaking, and photography are all exciting and stimulating for me, I’ve always felt a greater connection with the free and spontaneous effects and feel of drawing, or mixed media where drawing is involved. I like to “get my hands into the image” that I’m creating, to imagine the sensation of the lines and surface texture of my subject, to imagine being the subject, then transferring that feeling to the surface I’m working on.

My work is mostly a response to what I experience in and about nature, to emotions and gestures and the interactions between people and other animals.

I studied part-time at TAFE and jointly won the Painters Award with a fellow student at the final-year student art exhibition. From there I was accepted as a part-time student in Printmaking at RMIT in Melbourne. In my first year I had a wonderfully encouraging lecturer in Danny Moynihan, printmaker extra-ordinaire, who was a natural at bringing out the best in his students. And so I developed a deep affinity with, and appreciation for printmaking. I still try retain an impression of drawing in my printmaking, or try to create confusion about whether it’s a print, a drawing or a painting.

My more recent transgression into digital art follows from my interest in printmaking and drawing. With my digital art, I’m still driven to drawing into the image by means of a graphic tablet, or simply with the keyboard mouse. I love the occasional bold or subtle statement, or edge, made by the addition of a drawn line.

Currently time limitations dictate that I work from my home studio which has limited space and a smallish printing press, and this determines the size of the prints I produce. However, I have always tended to create smaller images in printmaking, even when I did have access to larger presses.

I prefer to do large drawings, and I love to paint on large surfaces.

Having only exhibited in group exhibitions during my fine arts study years, and in the odd community based exhibition, I am now focussed on putting together a “real” resumé of exhibitions, and working towards exhibiting seriously as an artist, in both group and solo exhibitions.

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Exhibitions:

• Five works entered in the Small Works 08 Exhibition at the Brunswick Street Gallery, 322 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy – 2008

• A rage of works are also exhibited on my public Redbubble site since early 2007.

• Much of my work can also be seen on my website at
http://whirligigcreations.com

• Participation in student exhibitions during my study years.