As a migrant from the UK to Australia, I feel an incredible sense of gratitude to live here in Sydney. Over the last 20 years I have come to adore the Australian bush and feel a very strong connection to the land I inhabit and the nature that surrounds me. My love of the land is what inspired me to pick up a paint brush and will continually inspire me for as long as I can make art.

 

As a young child I was always interested in the natural world. My first aspiration was to become a naturalist, along the lines of one of my early heros, Gerald Durrell. I always had a leaning to the sciences, but a strong appreciation of, if a perceived lack of ability in, art. I went on to study Natural Sciences at university, achieving my undergraduate degree from Cambridge, and a PhD in Chemistry from Oxford University in 1997. I then worked for 15 years in strategy and change management, at McKinsey & Co and CSIRO. After a lifelong interest in art, I started painting full-time seven years ago.  Rather than pursuing a formal art school education, I sought out inspiring and talented artists to learn from. My art practice focuses mainly on landscape and portraiture using a range of methods and media.

 

In portraiture, I particularly focus on interesting and inspiring subjects, such as the commission to paint Sydney University’s first female head of Chemistry, Associate Professor Ruth Gall.  In 2016 I was selected for the Portia Geach Memorial Award for Portraiture with a portrait of Professor Attila Brungs, FTSE, Vice Chancellor of UTS, and in 2019 I was selected as a finalist in the Archibald prize with my portrait of Professor Michael McDaniel. This portrait is now on loan to University Technology Sydney.

 

I have undertaken many commissions, have had artworks hung in group exhibitions and art prizes and support charitable and community organisations. In 2020 I held my first solo exhibition 'A Brief Moment in Time' hosted by Brenda Colahan Fine Art in Putney, Sydney. My work is held in private collections in Australia, North America, Europe and China. I currently have 3 works hanging in the UTS Collection, one work in the Sydney University Collection and a work hanging in Admiralty House, Kirribilli, the Sydney residence of the Govenor General and his wife, their Excellencies David and Linda Hurley.

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I am currently represented by Brenda Colahan Fine Art in Putney and also sell directly and through www.Bluethumb.com.au

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Recognition:

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2023 Heart of the Bush finalist

2022 Bluethumb Art Prize finalist

2022 Group Exhibition 'Grounded', Weswal Gallery Tamworth

2022 Group Exhibition 'In The Frame' Sydney Road Gallery, Sydney

2022 Affordable Art Fair, Sydney

2021 Bluethumb Art Prize finalist

2021 Solo Exhibition ''Close To Home'' Brenda Colahan Fine Art

2020 Solo Exhibition ''A Brief Moment in Time'' Brenda Colahan Fine Art

2020 Bluethumb Art Prize finalist

2020 Moonee Valley Art Prize finalist

2019 Archibald Prize finalist

2019 North Beaches Art Prize finalist

2019 Northbridge Art Prize finalist and winner of Excellence in Acrylics

2017 Northern Beaches Art Prize finalist

2016 Portia Geach Memorial Portrait Award finalist

2016 Warringah Art Prize finalist

2016 Hunters Hill Art Exhibition finalist

2016 Kirribilli Art Prize finalist

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Notable Collections:   

      

2022 'Not Forgotten', A painting portraying the 2019/20 bushfires at Lake Conjola was acquired by the Honourable Hugh McDermott, MP and will hang in his official office

2020-21 Portraits of the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor of UTS as part of the University of Technology Collection

2019 Archibald finalist painting of Professor Michael McDaniel, currently on load to University of Technology Sydney

2018 Commission from University of Sydney to paint a portrait of Associate Professor Ruth Gall – now hanging in main lecture theatre in the School of Chemistry

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