Serious Addiction

Here is a self-taught artist who has enjoyed dabbling and daubing since childhood. She took up ‘serious’ painting in 1985 and dared to start entering work in shows … and now she is totally hooked!

- Lynda Robinson

I was born in Cambridgeshire, in the United Kingdom. I met my Australian husband when he was on a working holiday in the UK, and he ‘kidnapped’ me and brought me to Australia in the mid-’70s.

Seymour in Victoria is my home now. I work for Victoria Police as an Administrative Officer part-time; and the other part of my time, I paint!

I have received no formal art training. I am passionate about depicting the Australian bush and the rural way of life. The light in this country is so clear, compared to the soft atmosphere of Europe; and the colors are strong. It really is the Lucky Country and I am very glad I live here.

I have had a lifelong interest in art. I think the main thing it has given me is the fact that it opened my eyes to my surroundings. Once I started painting in earnest, I felt as though I had spent most of my life walking around with my eyes shut.

Since childhood, I have always drawn and painted. At school, I did well at art. I was one of those nerdy goody two shoe kids who used to get their work hung in the school corridor. I didn’t do much artistically when I left school, apart from some weird abstract stuff during my teens; but I did maintain a strong interest in art. Then I guess my ‘career’ began after I had my second child, and decided I needed to have an interest other than nappy changing and domestic duties.

I started by sitting outside and drawing with charcoal; then I made a habit of drawing something every day using pencils. The cat, the dog, the children, farm buildings – anything that would stay still long enough! I got some watercolors and began splashing around with them, then moved on to oils. I plucked up the courage to enter a few shows in our local area. I started winning awards and people began to buy my work.