First Saturday Open Studios

I always struggle to write these. But since you are curious, I should probably seize the opportunity and introduce myself. So what is there to tell?

Art, and more specifically painting, has always slipped in and out of my life. Growing up I was lucky to attend schools that made the arts a big part of their curriculum. As we tried ourselves at things like theatre, singing, pottery, metal work, joinery, basket weaving and book binding, I found myself drawn to the world of colour and painting. I would stay after class and spend my evenings in the studio.

While my career was not concerned with art, I would create all the time, painting pictures to accompany letters to my friends abroad, redesigning most of my clothes in some way and sketching the same tree every day as it changed through the seasons. Then I finally quit ‘real life’ and set off on a round the world journey by motorcycle, opening the floodgates to sensory overload. The world is full of colours and curiosities to be explored.

Now settled in Vancouver, my work draws on all those fascinating travel experiences and is further inspired by both the surrounding nature and the city itself. I spend a lot of time walking the city’s streets and alleys and might include whatever I find in a piece. The magic of the tentative rays of sunshine after a hail storm illuminating the puddles by the train tracks may make their way onto an off-cut piece of wood I tripped over on the way home. Wildflowers by the wayside might spark a combination of colours in playful conversation on canvas. It is the unassuming wired and wonderful things that make this world so precious.