I remember as a child of about the age of 10 moving to Tasmania with my mother. We moved into a house in a small town called Carrick. It was here that I found my need to create. I’m sure it was inside of me before this point but something or someone just had to find the key and unlock it.

It all has to do with Nicole, the 16 year old girl who lived directly across from us. She could draw the most amazing, lifelike, emotion rich horses I had ever seen. All with one pencil….(she could also throw herself onto the ground doing the splits. An impressive move and one thing I never did master!!)

I told myself, if I was ever going to be able to draw as well as her, I’d better start practicing NOW! So I did…….and I’m still ‘practicing’!

Some people call me obsessive, fastidious or a perfectionist, words I cringe at when I hear them used in reference to me. But reluctantly I have had to admit there is some truth in there……if not more than ‘some’!

I have found as an artist, these traits can be hazardous to your practice. Yes, you need to be mindful and particular to a degree, but being a perfectionist, in my opinion, destroys the process and more often than not, the art itself. This is something I struggle with every day. I feel that art should come from a place deep beneath our ego, down to the depths of where our psyche lies. True and pure.

All the years as a child trying to perfect that drawing. Determined not only to make it look real, but better, superior somehow. Although, I must add for the record…….there’s no denying, a good solid foundation in drawing and composition are imperative, but after accomplishing this, how do we then ‘get back to our bones’?

I watch my children losing this innocence more and more every day. I see their drawings become more controlled and generic. It saddens me to see how quickly we as people lose this ability to express ourselves freely. How quickly we are conditioned, moulded and packaged as one!

My son in particular has taken to drawing with a pencil in one hand and an eraser in the other. I think he uses the eraser more than the pencil. His expression is not of joy or tranquillity but of apprehension and anxiety. God forbid he make a mistake!

My children and my art teach me a lot about myself. They are not dissimilar. They have taught me to let go. I have learnt that emotions rise and fall and there is no need to travel with them. I have come to realise that control is overrated and mayhem is much, much more fun!

I love my art! It keeps my insides well oiled. These days I paint full time in my studio in The Gap, Brisbane and sell most of my work via my web site and through exhibitions.