ABOUT THE ARTIST
I first became interested in art while living in Holland over 20 years ago where I started art classes simply as a way of meeting people.
Until recently, I was mainly self-taught, attending classes when I could. For the past few years, I made a bigger commitment and completed more formal education at The Learning Connexion, along with various stints at Massey & Victoria Uni. I can now also add facilitator of Art Workshops to my CV. My progress has been more rapid than expected and you can often find my work in galleries around New Zealand.
I work between Wellington and my studio in North Otago, amongst some of the most interesting landscapes of NZ, experimenting with a wide variety of mediums and genres. I hope to soon focus on developing my own style with landscape painting.
My abstract work focuses on contrasts. Contrast in shapes, line, size, value, texture, direction and colour, as much contrast as I can make work to keep the viewer entertained. The process is mainly about building layers in the work. I don’t plan ahead apart from selecting colours to start with. It’s more about working in stages and layers.
The ongoing challenges and learning with art keep me motivated. There are always things to improve on, something else to learn and master – and always will be. That’s why I love it.
As an artist, I’m a firm believer that it’s my job to create the work until I’m satisfied – it’s the viewers job to interpret it & decide if they like it or not.
