AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

At the time of my birth our family was living in Kalgoorlie (Western Australia), but my mother travelled home to Adelaide for the event — thus I was born in Adelaide, South Australia on 10 August 1941. I am the middle child with a brother either side. We soon moved to Adelaide when my father, an engineer, changed jobs to work in an armament factory. He suffered from diabetes for most of his adult life and one of my earliest memories is of him sharpening the needle and injecting himself with insulin. When I was four we moved to Broken Hill in outback New South Wales, where Dad worked for the Central Power Station that provided electricity for the mines.

I couldn't wait to start school and loved it until I was slapped across the knuckles for writing back-to-front (mirror writing) with my left hand and was forced to write the right way round with my right hand.

Dry Creek Bed, 1958 oil on composition board

The family environment was congenial for a budding artist. Mum had studied at the South Australian School of Art and she taught me sewing and other crafts. She kept a set of watercolour paints in the meat-safe that hung over the kitchen table for us to use when we were sick. How I envied my brother's chronic earache! Dad was a hobby photographer and carved wood in his spare time, besides having a gift for drawing, invention, and industrial design. He gave me a set of Swiss carving tools for my tenth birthday. My grandfather, an amateur watercolourist, also encouraged me to paint and draw and kept me supplied with modelling clay. My Aunty Dot taught me to appreciate the visual world from an early age and took me on visits to the Art Gallery of South Australia during my annual visits to Adelaide. At age eleven I commenced piano lessons when my parents realised I was musical.

I began attending boarding school in Adelaide in 1954. Unable to adjust to the regimented environment, I was never really happy there — I preferred the freedom of home and missed my baby brother. I developed an obsession for knitting baby clothes and socks. I decided on a career as an artist while still at school, where I often wagged classes and skipped homework to paint, draw, and practise the piano. In senior school I often played piano accompaniment for singing in assembly. After deciding to knuckle down to schoolwork I completed the Leaving Certificate in 1958. The only subject I failed and had to repeat was Art — I rubbed a hole in my page during an examination in object drawing; erasers were forbidden! However I was awarded a medal for gaining first place in the state in Geography, which was met with disbelief by family members who were accustomed to commenting "she's not very bright but she's good with her hands". In vacations I painted the Broken Hill outback landscape that I had grown to love. My parents would drive me out to the desert wilderness with my equipment for the day. Later when I obtained my licence I borrowed a car and drove into the bush myself to paint the creeks, the rocky landscapes, and the aboriginal children.

I commenced full-time art studies in 1959 at the South Australian School of Art (SASA) in Adelaide, where I received a thorough grounding in fine art subjects (sculpture, painting, printmaking, drawing, perspective) from teachers such as Dora Chapman, James Cant, and Jacqueline Hick. I attended additional evening classes in sculpture and life drawing. I was awarded both the Fine Art and Drawing Prizes in 1959. My passion for lithography was ignited at SASA's newly established Printmaking Department under Udo Sellbach. During the vacations when I returned home to Broken Hill, I painted landscapes and took on portrait commissions.

Paddington by Night, 1963 oil on composition board

At the beginning of 1960 the new craze for abstract art transformed the curriculum at the SASA. Traditional drawing and painting subjects were swept aside and plaster casts of Greek and Renaissance sculptures were destroyed to make way for Abstract introspection, which was foreign to my sensibility and expression. I was drawn to nature and the everyday world and valued drawing skills. This led me to transfer to Sydney in the middle of the year to study fulltime at the Julian Ashton Art School under Henry Gibbons. I also attended The National Art School in the evenings to study sculpture under Lyndon Dadswell, to take additional drawing classes, and to access the extensive collection of art books in its library.

My first solo exhibition in 1962 in Broken Hill was a sell-out. I exhibited 60 works (paintings, drawings, lithographs and etchings). I then settled permanently in Sydney and, despite the apparent success of my exhibition, I had to work fulltime as a shop assistant in a department store to survive. I married the same year and we rented squalid lodgings in Paddington. I took on various jobs to make ends meet, always finding time to paint and draw — the mattress was stacked upright against the wall to make space for painting large pictures. I took on various jobs that included selling newspapers at Wynyard railway station in Sydney's hub and working as a sales assistant in a city bargain store. My three children arrived on the scene in rapid succession: Michaela and Paul were born in Paddington. We moved to Glebe in 1967 and Stephen was born the following year. Rearing children did not prevent me from creating — rather the children, the joy of my life, provided inspiration and subject matter (they still do, with the addition of grandchildren!). To supplement our meagre income, I worked from home dressmaking, making paper flowers that I sold from the pram in the street, and sewing theatre curtains. Much of my artwork was vandalised and destroyed around this time. Works that survived are those that were sold or happened to be with relatives. The writer and collector Joan Kinmont encouraged me during this period by purchasing and caring for a number of my works.

Cul-de-sac, 1972 acrylic on composition board

When I became a single parent in 1971, I was at last able to exhibit again. I worked as a waitress in the evenings and painted during the day for my solo exhibition at the Adelaide Festival of Arts in 1972. My bedroom was my studio.

I recommenced lithography in 1972 at the Workshop Arts Centre. When we moved to Annandale in 1973, I began establishing a lithographic workshop in my studio, which is under our house. I modified a washing wringer until I could afford a hand printing press in 1975. I took up piano lessons again and obtained the Associate of the Trinity College London in Practical Pianoforte in 1975. I met my current partner in 1972 and we married in 1978. From 1977 to 1980 I exhibited in a continuous changing solo show at the University of Sydney Seymour Centre and held a solo exhibition of lithographs in Sydney in 1978.

Autobiography, 1980 acrylic on panel

My first opportunity to travel overseas came in 1979 when our family lived in Germany for six months — I engrossed myself in the art collections of Europe. The following year I returned to Europe to hold a solo exhibition of paintings, prints, and drawings in Munich. From 1980, my lithographs and blockprints were accepted to represent Australia in numerous international exhibitions and biennales; more recently my sculptures.

I continued to exhibit in Australia and held a solo show in Sydney in 1986. During the 1980's I took up sculpture again, developing techniques in carving wood and sandstone and working in bronze. A trip to Europe in 1989 led to solo exhibitions of paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings in Amsterdam (1990) and Cologne (1991); I lived in The Netherlands during this period and also exhibited in group shows in Europe. My painting The First Supper, controversial in Australia, was acclaimed by critics in Europe and was purchased by a collector in Germany.

I visited New York in 1994 and exhibited there later that year. Brain surgery in 1996 to remove a deep tumour (acoustic neuroma) resulted in the destruction and complete removal of my right ear organ, which left me with permanent hearing impairment and balance difficulties. The traumatic experience and slow recovery inspired several self-portraits. To improve my balance I have taken up Tai Chi and cycling.

In 1998 I held a solo exhibition in New York (SoHo) of paintings, sculpture, drawings and prints. The Hechinger Collection (Washington, DC) purchased my mixed media assemblage It Cuts Both Ways, which was displayed in a long-term exhibition in the National Building Museum (Washington). I exhibited bronzes in Nice in 2000 and mixed media assemblages in Florence in 2001.

The Buhl Collection (New York) commissioned me to produce a large bronze sculpture of Stretching the Imagination, which I completed in 2005. The same year I was contracted to produce Draw Like Da Vinci for Cassell, London (published 2006). I put aside my usual art practice for seven months to write and illustrate this book with over 100 of my artworks.

Lost for Words, 2002-3 assemblage

I enjoy teaching from time to time. In 1982 I set up weekly art classes in the community and continued teaching at evening colleges until 1989. In 2000 I co-established anatomy drawing workshops (Step into Leonardo's Shoes) at The University of New South Wales (School of Medical Sciences); I also lecture occasionally in Anatomy Art and have made numerous studies from actual specimens.

I work on many projects at the same time. Among the works presently on the go are carvings in sandstone, wood, and marble, mixed media sculpture assemblages, acrylic paintings, and works on paper. I develop my ideas through drawing — my sketchbook is always at hand to capture what I see and jot down ideas.