We enjoy this collection – it has a certain care-free feeling to some of the pieces. How do you evoke certain feelings and emotions into your paintings?

There is a fine line between wanting the painting to have a sense of its own agency and also holding a certain feeling or memory that I was intending on capturing. To evoke certain feelings and emotions is to not overwork a painting and to find out what is at the heart of the story or the experience. For example my painting ‘Floating down the estuary’ in my recent exhibition at Saint Cloche, I began painting over an old work, blocking in spaces of blue and sketching figures with charcoal. I chose not to paint over certain areas of the old painting so that there was a sense of transparency and fluidity like water. I was always going to continue painting but I decided to stop and let it rest in my studio for a few weeks then looking at it after some time I knew it was finished as it captured the soft slow feeling of floating down an estuary.

What has been the most challenging part about being an artist today?

The challenge of balancing my time between paid work and my art practice. I feel like I am getting better at disciplining myself to be strict with my art days and turning down other plans and people in order for my painting to come first. For me one of the most challenging things has been learning to be selfish in order for the art practice to take precedence. 

When you put yourself into your “creative place”, what does that look like for you?  What’s your process, what is the space like, how long does it take? 

My studio is in my shed in the backyard. I share this space with my partner who builds my frames. As soon as I walk into the shed I have entered a creative space, where my attention is given to a different way of thinking. A type of thinking that is a combination of daydreaming and critical thinking. There is a lot of time spent sitting in my chair thinking, drawing quick sketches, writing down thoughts, creating mind maps and words that come to mind. My studio starts off organised and when I get stuck into a new body of work it often gets quite chaotic, with paintings, photographs, drawings and words all around me like a bower birds nest. Drawings are a vital part of my practice, they are created from my day to day or where my thoughts have taken me, often from a recent experience or feeling I’ve had. They can range from quick loose sketches or to longer detailed drawings. These drawings help to build the scaffolding behind my paintings and the essence of what my body of work will be about. Whilst the drawing process goes on, I will always have a few paintings on the go. I like to bounce around from painting to painting as I find I often get ideas from one work that may help me to see another in a different light. The duration of a painting of mine varies drastically from being painted in a few minutes to being painted over many times and can take a year or more to complete. 

What are your greatest sources of inspiration?

Other than my day to day experiences with people and the natural world the arts in general are a huge inspiration including other artists, literature, theatre and music. It amazes me how creatives can speak of challenging complex ideas, push boundaries, speak of the human condition time and time again in creative different ways. Art can be like magic, it can be irrational and can take you out of your comfort zone or fixed ways of thinking and I love that about art.

What are you most proud of thus far?

I am proud that I have continued to prioritise my painting practice in my life. I am proud to have been invited to present my first solo exhibition in Sydney at the beginning of this year. Its always great to get my art seen by the public and to share with a wider audience, seeing other people have a response to my art inspires me  and gives an additional motivation to my time in the studio. I like the fact that when my work is shown it is able to take on a new story as the viewers derive different meanings and interpretations.

Where do you like to travel most, and do you find that travel inspires your work?

I am a bit biased but I love to travel around parts of Australia. I find I am drawn and inspired by the diverse landscape that this country offers. This country has a long Indigenous history that stretches back over 65,000 years, long before white colonisation, their rich culture is very much present everywhere you go. So I definitely feel lucky to be able to be in this country and see places that were and are important for the traditional custodians of this land. I have done a lot of road tripping around Australia, the beauty is it allows for chance encounters with strangers, seeing the landscape change as you drive in different directions and be brought out of your usual day to day routine. Travel I believe allows for a heightened sense of awareness and you start to notice and observe minute aspects around you which can be very inspiring for creating art.