As a migrant from the UK to Australia, I feel an incredible sense of gratitude to live here in Sydney.

 

Over the last 25 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 Australian landscape 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 art. I went on to study Natural Sciences for undergrad, and afterwards a PhD in Chemistry. I then worked for 15 years in strategy and change management.

 

In the early 2010s I had the opportunity to explore my lifelong interest in art, learning from inspiring and talented artists. I started painting full-time in 2016.

 

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, then 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 has since been acuqired by the University Technology Sydney and hangs in the main foyer of the University.

 

My landscape works focus very strongly on light in the natural world. Working primarily in acrylics, I explore the quiet, transformative moments that occur in familiar environments, those instances where light and atmosphere briefly shift, inviting stillness, reflection, or renewal.

 

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. I quickly followed with a second solo exhibtion in 2021, entitled 'Close to Home'.

 

My work is held in private collections in Australia, North America, Europe and Asia. I have three works hanging in the UTS permanent Collection, one work in the Sydney University Collection, a work just hung in the permanent collection at MacQuarie University and had a work hanging in Admiralty House, Kirribilli, the Sydney residence of the Govenor General and his wife, their Excellencies David and Linda Hurley, until he retired in June 2024.​

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Recognition:

2025 Little Things Art Prize finalist​

2024 Tumut Art Prize

2024 NBG Art Prize Finalist
2024 Bluethumb Art Prize Finalist

2023 Winner Bluethumb Art Prize People's Choice

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:   

      

2025 Portrait of Dr Cathy Foley AO (2023) as part of the permanent collection of Macquarie University, hanging in the New Engineering and Science Building

2022 Portrait of Their Excellencies David and Linda Hurley, Governor General and wife, in their personal collection

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 permanent exhibted collection of University of Technology Sydney

2019 Archibald finalist painting of Professor Michael McDaniel, aquired by and part of the permanent exhibited collection of UTS

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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