Who the hell am I?

Well, I'm a mature person that has discovered she has some sort of talent for art.  Quite strange really because I have always admired artists and wished I could be one.  Thinking that I was pathetically useless at drawing and painting I took to photography to fill the void.  That all changed when I joined my kids painting on a wet school holiday at home.  I loved the feel of the paint, the colours, basically everthing about it.  So I bought more paint and more cheap canvasses.

Sometime later, I became frustrated because I couldn't make it look like the image I had in my head.  So I bit the bullet and signed up for some classes at the local TAFE (where I also work in the library).  I was extremely lucky to find an art teacher who knew how to cajole me into learning and not running screaming from the room as I was completely out of my comfort zone.

The biggest learning curve was when we all had to draw some fruit and vege on our first week.  I was terrified, all these people could see what I was doing and I didn't want them to discover how bad I was.  At the end of the lesson we had to put our drawings towards the middle so the teacher could see who was looking with artists eyes...and guess what, mine was ok.

At the end of the first year I painted my husband just for fun.   My art teacher saw a photo of it and talked me into submitting it to the Archibald Prize in Sydney. I wasn't successful, but if you are rejected from the Archibald, you can submit for the Victorian Salon des Refuses (Hidden Faces of the Archibald).  On my first try I was invited to exhibit.  This was me who thought the best I could probably be was to put a piece into the local Rotary Art Show. 

That was four years ago, and I've just been invited to exhibit in my fourth Salon here in Victoria with my portrait of Morris Gleitzman (Children's Author).   I'm still incredibly amazed at where I am in art and am loving it.  Two years ago I started up a Contemporary Art Group that meets once a week and I can indulge in my passion with other amazing people.

So that's me.