Absent Presence Painting

During my art/painting practice in these past 25 years I have experimented with many mediums and in all genres, but what continues to hold my interest and where I consistently revisit is the landscape and objects within the landscape. I also like to explore the concept of dual worlds where order and chaos compete with each other - where the representational morphs into elements of abstraction. Our lives are so fragmented with the pressures of society – I feel the urge to represent this overlapping and splintered nature and facets of our personalities , especially with my figurative work within the landscape, attempting to capture movement and the constant flow of time. A lot of my figurative landscapes are allegorical set against sweeping abstracted skies which set the stage for the drama to unfold. My work practise finds me doing a lot of research and preliminary paint sketches and the ideas may come from a piece of poetry, mythology, ancient history or from my own photography. In recent years I have been preoccupied with 18th century Baroque and Rococo eras. My work is highly expressive, allegorical and otherworldly, where boldly applied textural brush marks give way to blended patches of calm, the paintings a reflection of these two conflicting worlds. I have been fortunate to have been selected as a finalist in the National Still Life Art Prize for the past 6 years as well as winning landscape and portrait awards in the Coffs Harbour and Sawtell Art Prizes over the past 12 years. In 2019 my painting was featured in the Television Series, The Block.