Painting

The lost tooth

My paintings often record family events. In this painting my youngest daughter Ella had lost a tooth. She was so proud. Losing teeth is such a rite of passage.

Breakfast with Millie

Breakfast time on Saturday mornings were special when the children were small. After a busy week working it was sheer pleasure to take time to read, draw and talk in an unrushed way.

Blowing out the candles

My oldest daughter Emelia went through a stage when she was 5 of having as many hair clips and little plaits in her hair as she could. This painting is of her blowing out the candles on her birthday cake.

Artist in Residence

This painting was made at Woodleigh school when I was the artist-in -residence for 10 weeks. Students would work alongside me in the library doing their own artwork about the schools ‘outside classroom.’ I drew a number of the students and put them is this painting as I worked in the library.

School Certificates

School certificates designed for Highlands Intermediate School technology department.

The red shoes

There is an old story about a girl who wished hard for red shoes. In the story she ends up getting the shoes, but they dance her feet so hard and just won’t stop…and eventually she cuts her feet off to stop the shoes. This macabre story has stayed with me since I first heard it as a child. I take the story two ways. One is ‘be careful what you wish for.’ The other way is that creativity can make us driven. The artistic mind is a full one and like the red shoes it can be hard to make that full mind slow down. Sometimes the ideas in my head make me want to hyperventilate!

The walkway

Millie and the Hula hoop

When my daughter Emelia was five she had a million little plaits in her hair with beads on the end that swished and twirled as she played with her Hula hoop.