Campaspe Artists Studio Trail

I have been painting and drawing from a young age and my initial inspiration came from watching my grandmother paint. Each time we would visit her house she would have a half-finished painting sitting on the dining room table. The constant questions from me to her eventually turned into lessons. The passion developed and continued over my teenage years eventually turning into a hobby and then job. I opened and ran a gallery and studio during Covid before returning to teaching.

I now share my passion with my two daughters, often sitting and drawing or dabbling in jewellery and resin. My main medium is colour pencil and graphite art with the odd watercolour piece here and there. I draw inspiration from the natural world, often creating lifelike pieces based off flora and fauna. The natural beauty of the world always inspires and excites me.

The process of creating pieces is quite straightforward, I research the intended subject to gain multiple reference pieces. These reference photos are then combined to create a sketched image. Once the base image is complete I use pencils to add detail and depth to the artwork. I generally use Faber Castell Polychromos pencils for all my colour pencil pieces with images drawn onto good quality smooth watercolour paper to gain a smooth clean finish.

I am a big believer that the eyes can make or break a piece of work. When creating a piece based on an animal study I will almost always begin with the eyes and will often start fresh if I don’t feel I’ve captured the emotion of the animal the first time around. I also often have more than one piece in progress at any given time so that I can take breaks from certain pieces. Due to the nature of the pieces I create which often involve individual feathers, hair, fur or leaves, it is beneficial to be able to swap between pieces to give my brain a break from one consistent process which can take many hours.

Art brings me so much joy and being able to continue my art journey with my daughters is an incredible experience. I’m sure they will both be poking around the studio when you come to visit.