Back to it

This year I hopefully return, in a full and complete way, from a long hiatus in my creative practice with my first solo exhibition in 28 years.

My last solo show, in 1989, exhibited a collection of work based on time spent in my parents fish and chip shop in Hobart. I spent the next few years working as an art teacher in Hobart, a walking guide in Crete, travelling and living in foreign places. Then came the life changing experience of moving to Saudi Arabia with my partner and young child, where we lived on and off for 10 years. I was lucky enough to see a lot of the Middle-East in this time, and gain an intimate familiarity with

life there. These experiences shaped a lot of my work since.

All the while, over the many years since that first show, I sketched the stories of my travel and exploration of new cultures. I continued to develop my practice in multiple mediums, participated in group shows and returned to teaching. But living in between places for so long has certainly made it all the more difficult to maintain a permanent and consistent practice and allow me the time to work towards exhibiting solo. Which is why I'm excited to finally commit to full-time art-making, growing my practice, and maintaining inspiration. And exhibiting more! That's the plan.

Over the ten years living in Saudi I developed a collection of work that I've shown in bits and pieces. My solo show this year will be the first dedicated exhibition of this work and a retrospective of these years, my most influential decade of practice, alongside new work that grows on these themes and reflects in hindsight on my time there now that I'm living in Australia again and that chapter of our lives is closing with my partner's permanent return to Australia in a few weeks.

Now, back to the studio!