My Flamenco Dancing Past

A BIT ABOUT ME

I’ve always loved to doodle, sketch, paint, create but, like many, my confidence was shattered at some point and I didn’t have the courage to develop my love of art more seriously. Instead I became a flamenco dancer… WOT?

I was a very easily influenced young person. I never wanted to admit it out loud, but I had always felt very uncomfortable in that role of a flamenco dancer, however I carried on being swept away. Finally after a few years abroad, dancing my heart out, I returned home.

Back in Adelaide I continued performing. I even set up a dance company and we toured the festival circuits. Life continued and strangely I found myself drawn to the visual aspects of my productions more than the physical. I would design the sets, the posters, the whole production - and at some point I realised that I was frustrated as a dancer and that I was doing what I was doing for all the wrong reasons. So I stopped doing it.

I enrolled as a full time student in Art School.

I felt fulfilled. I thought I had found my people. Yet, I was nervous, embarrassed, unsure and deeply insecure. However, apart from all the ups and downs I did graduate, with High Distinctions… WOT?

Time in Art School was great but really the best part of this visual art journey has been allowing myself time and space to develop my skills at my own pace.

What gives me that luxury is the income I earn as an instructor, and to top it off, I really enjoy teaching and sharing the techniques and skills that I have discovered with my students. My students teach me a great deal. Our relationships are ones I treasure.

I have held a few solo exhibitions, some even where I sold most of what I had created. Mostly I sell my paintings to private collectors. The pressure of preparing multiple paintings for an exhibition is a huge deal and I often take a while to recover. So I try to pace myself.

A BIT ABOUT MY PROCESS

There’s nothing quite like oil paint. I adore it. Lately I have noticed that my work is becoming increasingly textured. There’s something incredibly appealing about being able to see something that you know can be touched, even if you shouldn’t.

My recent paintings have been a celebration of Venetian Gothic Architecture. Within these paintings I have developed sculptural elements full of ridges and lines, piles of paint applied and removed, then re applied in opposition. (I have to say they do not photograph well.)

These lone buildings I see as Architectural Portraits that simply float in their watery wasteland. Yes, it’s a little commentary on Global warming and disappearing cities. But mostly it is devotional. I will always adore Venice. An incredible delicate place in our beautifully fragile world

An aside:

While working on the Venice collection I have begun playing with AI image making. Very different to the labour intensive paintings of my Venetian buildings.

It’s an amazing tool wonderful for workshopping ideas… it is very addictive tho! If you think it’s cheating, well maybe, but ideas do not come out of nothing…

My intention with my AI works is to create a series of, I guess you could say, Eco paintings concerning the state of our planet and the ‘Weight’ of our responsibility.

Don’t want to say too much about that yet. Very early days.

Visual Art Training
2019 Renaissance Portrait Painting with Professor Timothy Allen, Rome

2014 Residency Award Scuola Internationale di Grafica, January-March, Venice

2012  Graduated with a Bachelor Visual Art, Adelaide Central School of Art, South Australia

EXHIBITIONS

2023

2022 Duthy Street Matador as Metaphor

2021 Life is An Art, A group exhibition for my students at Pepper Street Art Gallery

2022 Shut me up, Shut me down, SALA and beyond, Atelier Crafers Gallery

2019 SALA Duthy Street SALA Artists Exhibition

2018 SALA Duthy Street SALA Artists Exhibition

2017 Flow of Consciousness, SALA Solo Exhibition, Kensington Gallery

2015 The Barn Artists Collection, Group Exhibition, The Barn Gallery, Aldgate

2015 Line of Enquiry, SALA Solo Exhibition, Hahndorf Academy

2014 The Venetians, SALA Group Exhibition, Red Opus Art Space, Kensington

2014 VENICE - Elegant Decay, SALA Solo Exhibition, Rising Sun, Kensington

2014 Artists Voice Group Exhibition, , Adelaide Fringe, Hahndorf Academy

2013 Loreto Spring Art Fair, Group Exhibition 

2013 Artists Voice SALA Group Exhibition, Hahndorf Academy

2012 In Good Company, Graduate Exhibition Adelaide Central School of Art

2011 Art After SALA, Group Exhibition, Red Cross Gallery, Rundle St

2011 Espiritu 2, Solo Exhibition, Rising Sun, Kensington

2011 Espiritu, Solo Exhibition, Adelaide Fringe, Bakehouse Theatre

MENTORING / TEACHING

2012 - Now       Liana Vargas Art Tution, Littlehampton

2019  - Now Duthy Street Art Studio

2019 - 2022 Atelier Crafers

2019 - 2020 The Paint Box, Hahndorf

2016 - 2018 Starving Artist Studio, Hahndorf, Director, Instructor

2014 - 2015 The Barn Gallery and Studios, Aldgate, 2013 - 2015 Youth Art Program, Hahndorf Academy

2012 - 2013 Stirling Art on the Green, Youth Art Tuition,

ART ADVENTURES / RETREATS DESIGNED FOR MY STUDENTS

2023 Barcelona, Paris, Rome, Florence and Venice Art Adventure September and October

2022 Queenstown Art Escape, November

2022 Hobart Art Escape, April

2021 Sacred Sites, Wilpena Pound, October

2021 Road Trip Art Adventure, Limestone Coast May

2020 Painting Under The Stars, Clare Valley, Plein Air Painting and Glamping, October

2019 Renaissance Retreat, Italy ‘October’ workshop in collaboration with Art Studio Rome

2019 Art of Balance, Japan ‘April’, workshops in collaboration with The Pigment Store Tokyo