My teenage years were no different than the usual, mostly centered on my various infatuations with girls and also 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 dad who liked to take charcoal from our fire place and sketch whatever was in his mind, the only other early influence was an early art teacher of mine, a wonderful woman by the name of Nola, who saw in me from the age of twelve or thirteen a certain sensitivity and talent, which she encouraged in me and also mentioned this to my parents when she had the chance. She was a 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, when I had to choose between pursuing my language studies or take on more electives in art. I chose art and it was then that I felt something significant happened for me about my direction. At the time I believed this direction was gravitating 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.
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, a great artist in his own right, with whom I keep in touch with to this day. We often send our various art exhibition invitations to each other. Tyra encouraged me to develop a strong body of work so that I could present this to various art schools. It happened quite by accident that I developed my own distinctive style during the time I was his student. I was seventeen.
This stylistic approach is best described as an offshoot of Surrealism. 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 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 visiting this exhibition, and having a coffee I bumped into a young woman who informed me that she was studying right there at the National Gallery Art School, also known as the Victorian College of the Arts. She also informed me 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 this young woman told me that only twenty-three of the applicants would be accepted and about fifteen hundred people would apply. Unperturbed, 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.
