Although I spend much of my time painting these days, my training was in printmaking and I am constantly drawn back to the medium. I spent my early years of practice working on very large multiple layered, colour relief prints and screenprints; very labour intensive work, with dangerously toxic materials.
During the mid 80’s I worked in a community screenprint studio in Canberra making handprinted posters for various community, arts and environment groups. I think this experience taught me the art of distilling a multitude of ideas into one image (by learning to create an image that will please a whole committee).
In recent years I have explored more ways of working in non-toxic printmaking media. In 2008 I coordinated a project funded by Regional Arts NSW to introduce non-toxic solar printmaking to the Bega Shire, through a series of workshops and exhibitions with artists from Sprial Gallery Cooperative.
Currently I make occasional small handcoloured etchings because I have a small press in my studio. But any time I visit a print studio or an exhibition of prints I am filled with desire to make larger and more complex work again. I think it is in my blood.
1982 – 86 Diploma of Applied Art (Printmaking) Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga NSW
Solo Exhibitions:
2010 recent work, Ivy Hill Gallery, Wapengo NSW
2010 north country south country, Framed Gallery, Darwin NT
2009 102 reasons, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra ACT
2005 feast, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra ACT
2001 scenes from the palace gardens, Framed Gallery, Darwin NT
1998 inside outside, Framed Gallery, Darwin NT
1997 continuum, aGOG Gallery, Canberra ACT
1994 one western woman, aGOG Gallery, Canberra ACT
1990 a sense of place, aGOG Gallery, Canberra ACT
1990 stories, Punch Gallery, Sydney NSW
1989 prints and paintings, Shades of Ochre Gallery, Darwin NT
1988 ancient hues and alien forms, Canberra Contemporary Art Space
Group Exhibitions:
2011 Drift, Marks and Gardner Gallery, Mt Tamborine, QLD
2010 Gulaga, Bega Valley Regional Gallery, NSW
2009 Transcending Surface, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra
2009 COMpanis, Marks and Gardner Gallery, Mt Tamborine QLD
2008 sunprints, Megalo Print Gallery ACT & Spiral Gallery, Bega NSW
2007 Atmosphere of Hope, Legislative Assembly ACT, Parliament House Sydney, Spiral Gallery Bega
2006 The Sound of the Sky, Museum & Art Gallery of the NT
2006 Flock, Helen Maxwell gallery, Canberra ACT
2006 Wingspan, Spiral Gallery, Bega NSW
2004 Studio One Prints, the CMAG Collection, Canberra Museum and Gallery
2004 Contemporary Territory, Museum & Gallery of the NT
2003 In the Presence of Passion, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra
2003 Spoiled Earth, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra
2003 Reclaiming the Mainstream: Contemporary humanist ideals,Counihan Gallery, Melbourne VIC
2002 Waterworks, Helen Maxwell gallery, Canberra, ACT
2001 Art towards Reconciliation, Museo Gernika, Basque Country, travelling in Spain, France & Germany
2000 Triptych Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra ACT
2000 Painted Proof, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, ACT
1999 Propositions Australiennes, Galerie Luc Queyrel, Paris, FRANCE
1997 Morning song, Woods Street Gallery, Darwin NT
1995 Bias Binding, Womens Art Register 1975-1995, National Gallery of Victoria
1995 Changing Places, Cross Cultural Art from Australia, Asialink touring exhibition to Malaysia, Singapore,
Hong Kong
1994 Australian Naïve Art, Barry Stern Gallery, Sydney NSW
1992 Ngingingawula Murrakapunni, Ngingingawula Jilamarra, (with Tiwi artists from Melville Island NT)
Australian Embassy, Paris, FRANCE
1991 A Spirit of Place, Shanghai Hilton, CHINA