Art is who I am, and my inspiration is everywhere I look.
As a young teenager, I painted with a group of ladies much older than myself. This was where I learned a lot about painting techniques and the basics of oil painting and working with colour.
Upon completion of year 12 at North Rockhampton State High school, I decided it would be awesome to have a career where I could use my artistic abilities as a career so completed a Diploma of Commercial art. I passed with honours and worked within the printing industry for about a year before deciding a more active job would be interesting.
With that thought, I acquired an apprenticeship training as a Signwriter at Centre State Signs. Within the 4 years of training, I gained a name as the local mural artist in Rockhampton. The four years of training gave me a lot of knowledge in paints and substrates. I was awarded top apprentice in 1997 by the Sign Association of Australia.
I found a passion for airbrush painting on weekends and still created the occasional Oil painting for family, friends and leisure. Once completing my trade certificate, I moved to Brisbane where I started a family.
This became a very busy time in my life and painting wasn’t something I had time for. I would squeeze the occasional painting in on request, but being a parent dominated my life. We moved to the Gold Coast in 2003 and once the children demanded less of my time, I started giving art lessons from home on weekends. This was very rewarding, but my students quickly became friends, so I struggled to take money from them.
In 2004 started my own business as a Graphic Artist and Sign writer. In this time, I painted several murals around the Gold Coast. Some of the more popular murals were the Blue Train in Tuesley Park, Southport where the old toilet block used to stand (this has since been demolished) and murals under and around the Sundale Bridge Southport. This mural is still standing after 12 years.
The heavy work of signwriting and murals took its toll on my body, so I decided to give tattooing a go. I worked in a tattoo studio for a couple of years where I would design tattoos and just started to tattoo when I realized it wasn’t really my scene.
In 2013 I started a new business making children’s artwork into personalized gifts. ToucanDoo is still in operation, however with Coronavirus pandemic work pretty much stopped as most of the orders were through kindies and schools. We were forced into isolation, so I decided to use this quality spare time and start doing what I have always loved and painting again.
I have now embraced water colour paintings and have been doing some commission works as well as personal paintings of our beautiful horses. I am ready to paint full time and do commission works as well as my own inspired paintings with quality limited edition reproductions. This was my retirement dream, but if I can gain enough support, I will continue painting till I can no longer hold the brush. I am excited for this journey and sharing my artworks with the world.
Artist Biography
Art is who I am, and my inspiration is everywhere I look.
As a young teenager, I painted with a group of ladies much older than myself. This was where I learned a lot about painting techniques and the basics of oil painting and working with colour.
Upon completion of year 12 at North Rockhampton State High school, I decided it would be awesome to have a career where I could use my artistic abilities as a career so completed a Diploma of Commercial art. I passed with honours and worked within the printing industry for about a year before deciding a more active job would be interesting.
With that thought, I acquired an apprenticeship training as a Signwriter at Centre State Signs. Within the 4 years of training, I gained a name as the local mural artist in Rockhampton. The four years of training gave me a lot of knowledge in paints and substrates. I was awarded top apprentice in 1997 by the Sign Association of Australia.
I found a passion for airbrush painting on weekends and still created the occasional Oil painting for family, friends and leisure. Once completing my trade certificate, I moved to Brisbane where I started a family.
This became a very busy time in my life and painting wasn’t something I had time for. I would squeeze the occasional painting in on request, but being a parent dominated my life. We moved to the Gold Coast in 2003 and once the children demanded less of my time, I started giving art lessons from home on weekends. This was very rewarding, but my students quickly became friends, so I struggled to take money from them.
In 2004 started my own business as a Graphic Artist and Sign writer. In this time, I painted several murals around the Gold Coast. Some of the more popular murals were the Blue Train in Tuesley Park, Southport where the old toilet block used to stand (this has since been demolished) and murals under and around the Sundale Bridge Southport. This mural is still standing after 12 years.
The heavy work of signwriting and murals took its toll on my body, so I decided to give tattooing a go. I worked in a tattoo studio for a couple of years where I would design tattoos and just started to tattoo when I realized it wasn’t really my scene.
In 2013 I started a new business making children’s artwork into personalized gifts. ToucanDoo is still in operation, however with Coronavirus pandemic work pretty much stopped as most of the orders were through kindies and schools. We were forced into isolation, so I decided to use this quality spare time and start doing what I have always loved and painting again.
I have now embraced water colour paintings and have been doing some commission works as well as personal paintings of our beautiful horses. I am ready to paint full time and do commission works as well as my own inspired paintings with quality limited edition reproductions. This was my retirement dream, but if I can gain enough support, I will continue painting till I can no longer hold the brush. I am excited for this journey and sharing my artworks with the world.