I started when i was 17 and doing my highschool Certificate. I copied famous artists styles but made them about me, like Frida Kahlos portraits but then with my face, Klimt was also one of my favourites as was Dali. For years I practiced painting with acrylic and totally using fantasy and what I actually experienced to created very colourful and personal paintings.
In Art school I ventured out and did some murals and also a lot of art performances alone and with a group. I had two friends and we formed a little group doing performances about living in the Netherlands as a foreigner.
For some years I painted about the sublime, the beauty and horrors of religion.
Nowadays I create fantasy drawings of whatever comes into my head, usually as I work a theme develops. Or I draw my environment, starting with the centre object and working out. Or if I get a commission I plan a drawing from before I start, depending on what images I have been given. I get into a mesmerised state where all I do is draw little pen lines over and over again for hours. So while the subject matter is important the technique which I developed myself is more important.
As I draw about my complicated mental state being schizophrenic and my technique is self taught I identify with Art Brut or Outsider Art.
#painting #australianartist #sydneyartist #Mentalhealthart#artbrut#outsiderart
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