At studio 57 I have the perfect environment to combine both of my passions, art and design.

As long as I can remember I have always felt the need to create.

Over the years it has taken many forms, from working as an art teacher to a career in Interior Design. Whilst both building and architecture still fascinate me, recently my focus has moved. Rather than designing and selecting the décor for clients I am now creating it! The desire to pick up the tools of an artist and paint what I saw became the more urgent need.

Working in oils I paint on a variety of materials, from standard canvases and board to recycled native timber. Using mainly my own photographs as reference I apply the oils by brush and palette knife, building up the layers to capture light and add depth.

Taking inspiration from our natural world as well as the built environment, I enjoy using a combination of contemporary realism and abstraction to capture the energy, feel and mood of a place.

Starting with a central idea I apply the oil paint freely to canvas or board, after that I move and mix it with a variety of tools until something develops! As a result I’m always open to new ideas, the unexpected or the ‘happy accidents’.

To quote Pablo Picasso ‘I begin with an idea, and then it becomes something else’

The Gallery of work titled ‘The Land that never Rests’ aims to capture some of the naturally occurring explosive energy in the Central Plateau in which I live.

Subsequent work follows a similar vein, as in the Gallery ‘Inner Landscapes’, where evocative atmospheric skies rise above barely suggested landforms. More Impressionistic in style they are landscapes of my imagination, both nowhere and everywhere.