I have been a wanderer for as far back as I can remember. I finally put roots down eight years ago on beautiful Gammeragal land in Australia. This is where I work and create. 

As a painter and a writer, a huge chunk of my time is spent alone in my own head. The nature of what I do tends to isolate me. I struggled with this when I was younger. Is being alone the same as being lonely? Was it really important to be surrounded by people to feel complete, fulfilled? And most importantly, was I really an extrovert or was I just trying to be one? The lockdown period was a time of much needed introspection. I arrived at the answers I had been seeking.

My work is about my connection to nature. This is what sustains me. This is my anchor. This for me, feels permanent and nourishing.

I love the South Coast of New South Wales with its varied, breathtaking landscape, and I travel along the coast quite often with my family. I am inspired by its tableaux of native vegetation, mysterious eucalyptus forests, and the mesmerizing colors of the stones, sands, and cliffs. I have several notebooks filled with sketches of places that inspire me. In my studio, I develop these into mixed-media paintings and art-journal pieces.

I was a diehard impressionist for twenty years. During the lockdown period, I experienced a shift in my creativity. I started experimenting with collage: adding paper, cloth remnants, wool, lace, and assorted ephemera to my work. My art began to head in an abstract direction. Since I was studio-bound, with no chance to venture outdoors with my painting kit to create art en plein air, I started making what I call “remembered scenes”—sights, sounds, and locales from memory, inspired by all that I had seen, loved, and savored in the pre-COVID years. The result was a collection of over three hundred small format paintings of the ocean, deserts, plants, and flowers. 

I love bright, vibrant colors, especially reds, ochres, and blues—the colors of the austere outback. Windswept trees, lonely cliffs, stark desert expanses, and jewel-toned oceans are recurring motifs in my work. I often add ethnic Indian prints to my depictions of Australian scenes. I see this as a symbolic expression of my spiritual connection to this land, my new home, through the lens of my cultural identity.

I try to paint something small every single day. Creating art, for me, is therapy, and I am happiest when I am in my studio working on something. I love beautiful things, and I celebrate nature, which gives so freely, without any expectations.