”  I was born in Melbourne in 1946 and grew up with my 3 sisters in Coburg, Victoria.

My parents were either ill or absent in my teenage years, so I found refuge in nature, art and books.

After finishing high school I worked in numerous jobs for three years and then studied art at Prahran Technical School under such luminaries as Lenton Parr, Alun Leach-Jones, Pam Hallandal and Winston Thomas.

In 1969 I was invited by Lenton Parr and Leach-Jones to join them at the National Gallery School where I majored in painting and printmaking.

After graduating and the birth of my daughter, I taught art in Victorian Secondary Schools while continuing my passion for drawing.

I resigned from teaching to concentrate on my art and a friend suggested I earn a little extra by illustrating for the Thomas Nelson reading scheme.

This was very valuable training in accurate detail. In 1983 Robert Sessions encouraged me to illustrate my first picture book…a text by new author Margaret Wild called
“There’s a Sea in my Bedroom.”

The book won critical acclaim. I really enjoyed drawing for a young audience and developed a life long interest in visual storytelling.

This is something I still love.  ”