My teenage years were mostly centered on my various infatuations with girls and my adventures with my friends on surfing safaris, or surfaris as we called them. I imagine this connection with the ocean, which I developed as a child, later had a strong impact upon the type of art I would end up creating.
Apart from having an early influence from my stepfather who used to like to take charcoal from our fire place and sketch whatever was in his mind, I think the only other real early influence was a wonderful woman by the name of Nola Lloyd, who saw in me from the age of 12 or 13 a certain sensitivity and talent, which she encouraged in me and also mentioned to my parents when she had the chance. She was a very sensitive person herself and unfortunately ended her own life when she was far too young.
From that early age I ended up going on to boarding school in Melbourne, where I took on various languages such as French and Latin. I also studied art all the way through until the second last year of my education there I had to choose between pursuing my language studies or take on more electives in art. I chose art and it was at this point that I feel something really significant happen for me about my direction. At the time I believed this direction was going to go towards my becoming a teacher. I prepared myself for studies at University and put my head down and worked hard, knowing the grades that I needed to get into the best institutions.
In the meantime a new lecturer joined the school where I was studying who ended up having a strong impact upon my work ethic in my art classes. His name was Tyra Hutchings, a great artist in his own right, who I keep in touch with to this day. We often send our various art exhibition invitations to each other. Tyra really encouraged me to develop a strong body of work so that I could present this to various art schools.
As it happened quite by accident, I developed my own distinctive style around the age of 17 or so, and it was at this point that I visited the National Gallery of Victoria to see an exhibition of modern masters from Europe which included Salvador Dali and many other artists who I had never seen before. I was intending to write about this exhibition in my end of year exam. While I was there I had a coffee and bumped into a very beautiful young woman who informed me that she was studying right there at the National Gallery Art School, also known as the new Victorian College of the arts. She also let me know that in a couple of weeks they were going to begin to accept applications from potential students for the next year.
I don’t know where I got the courage from, because the young lady who I met in the cafe at the Art Gallery told me that only 23 of the applicants would be accepted and about 1500 people would apply, but I went inside to the reception at that art school and asked for an application form. A couple weeks later, I was being interviewed by four of Australia’s most celebrated painters.
In the meantime, I was involved in my secondary school exam preparations and about a week before our final year exams began I was informed that I had been accepted into Australia’s most prestigious Art School. My exams ended up being a breeze, as I had no pressure. I ended up getting very good results and knew that I had a very bright future to look forward to.
