I didn’t come to painting in a straight line. It took a few detours, some doubt, and a long stretch of quietly wanting something I wasn’t sure I was allowed to be good at.

I studied art in high school, but like many students, I was steered towards the discipline I showed the most technical promise in at the time: ceramics. While I loved working with clay, that early encouragement came with an unintended cost. I slowly lost confidence in drawing and painting, even though they were the mediums I was most drawn to. For years, they sat in the background as something I admired rather than practised.

In 2022, I finally gave myself permission to test that old belief. I enrolled in a drawing course simply to see if I could draw. What I discovered was not a lack of ability, but a lack of confidence, support, and practice. In the right environment, things opened up quickly. That single course became a turning point.

In 2023, I enrolled part-time in a Certificate IV in Visual Arts at CIT, progressing to a Diploma in 2025. Alongside my formal study, I began to explore watercolour largely on my own. It became the medium that felt most honest to where I was creatively. I was drawn to wet-on-wet techniques, where control is never absolute and the outcome is always a collaboration between pigment, water, and time.

Outside the studio, I run a marketing agency. My days are structured, strategic, and deliberate. Watercolour became a counterbalance to that. Working wet-on-wet forced me to slow down, to relinquish control, and to respond rather than direct. The paint does its own thing, and I’ve learned to listen to it. That tension between control and surrender continues to shape my practice.

While watercolour remains central to my work, drawing has never left. Increasingly, I’m combining the two through mixed media—layering graphite with washes, building texture, and exploring granulation techniques that add depth and unpredictability. I’m interested in surfaces that feel worked and weathered, and in marks that suggest time, erosion, and quiet persistence.

My practice is still evolving. What drives it is a curiosity about process, a respect for materials, and a belief that confidence grows through doing. Art, for me, is not about mastery—it’s about attention, patience, and allowing space for things to unfold.