A Sense Of Purpose

Painting is part of this talented man’s life. It gives him a sense of purpose and it is how he relates to the world … by producing outstanding art which is undeniably honest and believable.

- Ross Roorda

My full-time occupation is Principal for a behaviour school in Sydney’s western suburbs. My home is at Lawson in the Blue Mountains.

I completed an Art Certificate course at Meadowbank TAFE in 1987 and then went on to what was then known as City Art Institute to complete a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Fine Arts in 1989. I returned to university in 1994 to do a Diploma of Education at the University of Western Sydney.

I have continued to paint and draw since leaving University; and although I never did art at high school, I had always drawn as a kid. My Year Six art teacher withdrew me from the class to talk with me because I had shown potential in rendering form – a concept that was apparently supposed to happen much later. It was the only real highlight from my schooling that still stands out.

I have always been passionate about drawing people and animals – especially their faces.

As a kid, I used to live with my grandmother and we would always fight. It was after one of those fights that I put pencil to paper and did a portrait that pretty much summed up the way I saw her and felt about her. She found the portrait the following day, and was so angry that I received one of the biggest hidings I ever had. For some reason my drawings weren’t destroyed . . . and when I looked at them again I realised for the first time that art had the ability to make people feel.

The interest in portraiture and faces continued to grow from there – and faces have become an obsession for me; they represent all that makes us human.

David Hockney states: “Faces are the most interesting things we see; other people fascinate me and the most interesting aspect of other people – the point where we go inside them – is the face. It tells all.”