This was a painting I did while on holiday with another artist friend who’s beautiful little daughter was singing a song she’d learned that had all of these lovely messages about how to be a peaceful and loving person so I got her to write down all of the qualities that make a nice person so that the lady I was painting could bathe in them. The words were: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self Control.

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I painted this canopy with the sunshine pouring through for an exhibition down at a winery near Margaret River called Swings and Roundabouts. I wanted to capture the essence of the area which to  me is all about nature because my husband and I spend a lot of time camping down there and walking through the bush. I love the way the sunshine makes the leaves in the canopies glow and shine like gold. Sometimes I just lie in a hammock and watch the  birds flying through the trees and the breeze blowing the branches side to side.

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A quirky drawing using graphite pencil on cartridge paper.

This drawing is a part of my “Floating Head” series. I just really wanted to draw this saiga antelope  head because it looks so strange and  hilarious and made me laugh as soon as I saw it. That’s pretty much my criteria for heads to draw in my “Floating Head” series. If I spontaneously laugh when I see an animal’s face then I have to draw it’s kooky head straight away. I just really don’t like serious art. I think it should make you feel good and maybe even make you laugh.

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A quirky drawing using graphite pencil on cartridge paper.

This drawing is a part of my “Floating Head” series. I just really wanted to draw this goat  head because he looks hilarious and made me laugh as soon as I saw his weird hippy beard. That’s pretty much my criteria for heads to draw in my “Floating Head” series. If I spontaneously laugh when I see an animal’s face then I have to draw it’s kooky head straight away. I just really don’t like serious art. I think it should make you feel good and maybe even make you laugh.

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A quirky drawing using graphite pencil on cartridge paper.

This drawing is a part of my “Floating Head” series. I just really wanted to draw this vampire deer because he looks so strange and I’d never seen one before. Apparently they’re also known as Chinese water deer. I love drawing strange or funny animals and learning a little about them as I go.

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A quirky drawing using graphite pencil on cartridge paper.

This drawing is a part of my “Floating Head” series. I just really wanted to draw this little guy’s head because he looks hilarious and made me laugh as soon as I saw his grumpy little face. That’s pretty much my criteria for heads to draw in my “Floating Head” series. If I spontaneously laugh when I see an animal’s face then I have to draw it’s kooky head straight away. I just really don’t like serious art. I think it should make you feel good and maybe even make you laugh.

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A quirky drawing using graphite pencil on cartridge paper.

This drawing is a part of my “Floating Head” series. I just really wanted to draw this little guy’s head because he looks hilarious and made me laugh as soon as I saw his crazy boggly eyes looking in two different directions at the same time. That’s pretty much my criteria for heads to draw in my “Floating Head” series. If I spontaneously laugh when I see an animal’s face then I have to draw it’s kooky head straight away. I just really don’t like serious art. I think it should make you feel good and maybe even make you laugh.

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A beautiful, exotic painting using acrylic paint, graphite, ink and leaves on wood with a visible natural grain.

I’m really happy with the way my Indian Goddess painting/drawing turned out. It was great experimenting with wood and all the things you can do with it. I started off just printing a photo I had taken on to it of a beautiful beach in Thailand that my husband and I had visited on our honeymoon where someone had hung wind chimes on the trees made out of flowers and bits of coral and drift wood. It was such a magical spot with amazing snorkeling and soft white sand. Then I kept adding to it, drawing a peaceful looking woman onto it as I was reminded of how peaceful and relaxed we had been on that beach and then decorating her with painted leaves and an Indian style head dress, until this beautiful Indian Goddess appeared. I love all the natural grain of the wood running through it. It gives a really warm glow to the whole piece. Also I get to combine two of my favourite art techniques, painting and drawing.

I think you’ll all be seeing a lot more goddesses. I was thinking I might even combine my goddesses with my commissioned portraits and turn you all into goddesses if you’re interested. It would be so much fun. We could pick out your favourite colours and parts of nature that you really feel connected with and I could experiment and give you a few ideas until we discover your inner goddess and turn it into a piece of art for you to keep forever.

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This painting was inspired by all the beautiful street art that has been showing up all over our city over the past decade or so. I really like that stencilled look. I practiced stencilling onto canvas a few times but it never ends up quite crisp enough for me so I hand painted a stencil inspired Natasha Khan. Natasha Khan is one of my favourite musical artists. I find her music really inspiring to work to because not only has she got a beautiful voice and amazing unique musical ideas but she comes across as very creative in other aspects too. She has a very unique fashion sense, all her video clips are really different and beautiful and her album covers all beautiful works of art. I chose the colours because I really liked the contrast of the black “stencil” with the pastel colours. Also they seemed like the kind of colours that might be used on a wall (sticking with the street art theme).

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This is an edgy, cool, black and white drawing of a punk girl. There’s a lot of detail in this drawing. The denim took me a long time to perfect. I originally drew it to submit in to the “Dot on the Run” drawing competition/exhibition. I had really been concentrating on my painting for a while and then one of my artist friends at suggested that I enter this drawing competition which was great because it really reminded me how much I enjoy drawing after not doing it for quite some time. I still love playing with colour in my paintings but I like the precision of drawing.

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