Image: Greta Laundy, ‘Do you remember?’ (2009), acrylic & oil on canvas, private collection. I remember when the photo which inspired this painting was taken, I was about 6 or 7 years old and dancing in our kitchen. Probably to Creedence Clearwater Revival or Fleetwood Mac.

I grew up in the 1970s and 80s on country farms with alternative parents, I think my three siblings and I would have been the only kids with lentil burgers in their lunchboxes! The freedom to escape the house, ride our bikes up and down our long driveway and walk in our paddocks was taken for granted. We had lots of pets including Peggy, our orphaned wallaby who used to hang out with one of our sheep dogs, and from a young age, we were expected to help out in my Mum’s massive vegetable garden and on the farm, tending to our sheep. Nature was in abundance  everywhere, and simply part of our lives. This early connection to nature has informed my love and respect for all living things, which I carry through into my artwork and my lifestyle: I proudly thrive on a whole food plant based diet and also try to reduce my impact on our earth in a myriad of ways.

I’m compulsive and forever curious in my creativity: I love working with colour, line and shape in my drawings and paintings, finding ways to explore my profound connection to plants and animals, and places I have visited that continue to resonate with me. A strong Modernist design aesthetic underpins my most recent work in which I use more organic, simplified and fluid forms to suggest natural elements. Birds are a constant motif I return to in my work, symbolising the spiritual and magical in life, but aesthetically, also a wonderful way to explore colour and line. I find joy, peace and strength in my artistic practice, a refuge from the crazy world we live in.

I work across most drawing and painting media as I like to mix it up and keep my vision fresh by trying out new or different ways to express my ideas. Spontaneity and ‘happy accidents’ coincide with mindful intention with the way my artworks are created, ‘failures’ are often cut up or reworked at a later date to see what happens. There is a delicate balance between intuition, skill and conceptual thinking in my artworks.

I live in Mitcham, South Australia with my family, a menagerie of pets, including Frida and Lois, my Plymouth Rock chickens, and of course, a massive veggie patch. If you would like to visit my studio to view my work, please let me know here.

 

 

 

Bachelor of Visual Arts, (Painting), UniSA, 2005

Bachelor of Visual Arts, Honours (1st class), UniSA, 2010

Master of Teaching (Visual Arts), Flinders University, 2015