The Early Years​

1973 - 2000

By way of a brief history, I started painting seriously in the early 1970`s. I began my studies at the Victorian College of the Arts in 1973 under Lenton Parr then Bill Kelly, graduating in 1978.

After art school I established a studio in Green St Prahran and worked there with Tony Mighell, David Larwill, Peter Ferguson, Wayne Eagger and Mark Howson.

This studio was to become a springboard leading to the foundation of Roar Studios in July of 1982 when we had the first show in the Fitzroy premises.

 

The early days at Roar were formative and challenging and now recognized by art historians and writers as an important period in the development of Australian painting. Since that time I’ve continued exhibiting my paintings and currently work and teach from my studio and home in Balwyn.

 

Australian painting has had a long-standing preoccupation with the landscape and figures in that landscape. Think of the Heidelberg School, then more recently Sydney Nolan and his Ned Kelly paintings and also the emotionally charged figures of Joy Hester.

I share that preoccupation and in a general sense my work is about an imagined Australian landscape and how people occupy that space both in a physical and metaphorical way.

Various Influences: Oils