Born and lives in Sydney, Australia.
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My favourite subject at school was Geography because I got to draw. Subject clashes meant that Art didnt figure in my high school timetable. Upon leaving school I studied Town Planning at Uni. In those days Planning sat within the Faculty of Architecture. This brought exposure, for at least one year, to freehand drawing and graphic techniques. In particular tutors such as Lorna Nimmo, John Santry and Brian Dunlop ignited my awareness of watercolour. My final year thesis focused on Visual Communication in Town Planning.
Between 1977 and 2017 I worked in the NSW public service, local government and the private sector as follows:
For 8 years I worked at the NSW Department of Planning where a key component of my work related to preparing and illustrating various technical and guideline documents. For a couple of years I worked as an urban design planner at Sydney City Council & then with a firm of architects. In 1990, together with an architect friend & a planning colleague we started a planning and design consultancy which we ran until 2017.
Throughout my working life, drawing, illustrating and rendering always came to my desk. But with family commitments, watercolour painting for pleasure was relegated to late nights and stolen moments on the dining room table. While output was limited, this is where lots of learning took place.
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​Since 2018 I have moved into painting as much as possible using a Studio above my garage at home. I've also had some involvement in my local Art Society, as Vice President & President in 2019-2022. In 2019 I was invited to become a member of the Australian Watercolour Institute (AWI).
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My 'journey' has included the following:
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In the last twenty years various paintings were entered in the Sydney Royal Easter Show. Awards include 2 x first place watercolour (2003, 2021), third place and 2 x highly commended.
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Selected as a finalist and exhibited in the Mosman Art prize 2003;
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Several awards in various Art Shows (Camberwell, Randwick, Art of Sydney).
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Watercolour prize in the Hunters Hill Art Exhibition 2019 & 2023;
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Selected as a finalist in the Gallipoli Art Prize 2021 & Lethbridge Landscape Prize 2021, 2022;
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Exhibited in Taiwan in 2020 as part of the AWI Tradition &Transformation 2 initiative;
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Exhibited in Italy 2022, Fabriano Biennial
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I prefer to work predominantly in watercolor using 300gsm rough paper. For those who look, you will find I have an aversion for clean, tidy, colourful, 'picture book' watercolours. In my mind, that approach is for an animator's studio or marketer's renderings. Rather I find myself grappling with the essence of things. For example, we walk past many buildings, walls, facades, details and places that are rich with design, texture, patterns and 'story'. And for the most part, they are all grubby. How did they get there, what are they for ? Add sunlight with resulting shadows and it all gets very interesting. Jump across to wider natural landscapes and they all have something to say........and in Australia are anything but tidy. I guess I'm happy to celebrate these experiences just as I find them rather than in some imaginary perfection.
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Perhaps you will also derive some enjoyment.
