ARTISTS STATEMENT

I was born in the Netherlands, moving to Melbourne as a small child. After training as a Secondary Art teacher in Melbourne, I moved to South, and later East Gippsland. I have resided here for the past 28 years. For almost all of this time I taught Art in the Tertiary, Secondary or Disability sectors. Currently I am teaching drawing to Diploma of Art, Furniture Design students.

Although I dabble with various media, I relate very strongly to Drawing. As well as developing my own pastel work, I enjoy Life Drawing sessions on a weekly basis. The immediacy and 'directness' of working with charcoal, pastel and pencil etc. is both refreshing and stimulating. Generally my work is on pre-painted paper and I use mainly dry pastel.

My drawings show readily recognisable figures and events taken from my memories and life experiences. However, I consider line, tone, shape, form and colour to be of equal importance to the subject matter of my work.