My first solo exhibition ” Just Women”, was held in 2004, and represented a return to painting– my passion, put on hold whilst raising my five children.  This exhibition, was a true celebration of women’s emotions and the resilience of the female spirit.  Many of the themes explored are particular to women, such as maternal pain, children, romantic love and women’s ability to be above “the pain of life”, through humour.

All these works were painted in India, a country I had fallen in love with in the early 1970’s.  There in the city of Pune, I found a beautiful studio space to paint my heart out.

Over a couple of months, 39 paintings poured out of me, it was like giving “birth”. “I often sat there with tears pouring down my face– I had wanted to do this for so long.

For the ease of transporting these paintings back to Perth,  I used hand-made cotton paper, that I had personally selected from a cottage industry factory in Pune.  As is so simple to do in India, I had 2 large tubular zip up bags made to fit the rolled up paintings for my trip.

On return to Perth, each painting was framed and a very successful exhibition was held at the Accent Gallery.

At the end of my stay,  I had a small show of my paintings, which were hung around my studio. This is a photo of myself relaxing after this showing in my studio, and another of the beautiful windows there.