Words and Paint

When I was about fourteen, in Brazil, my mother decided I needed a special going out outfit. So she bought some beautiful white embossed piquet material with matching white lace for the purpose, hired a seamstress and a few days later I had a lovely white outfit. Why was it white, I don’t know. I never wear white and in fact if I have something white, I either paint it or dye it.

 

Anyway, this was the outfit that got me painting! Miraculously, I discovered an art supply shop not far from home, got some textile paints, came home, decorated my new white outfit with a few flowers and some words, probably ‘All You Need is Love’, and that was it!  It was the sixties after all… Teenagers wanted to be and dress differently from their parents. Suddenly, with the humble help of paint I started my own revolution and began painting, wearing and even selling one-off T-shirts! 

 

As one thing leads to another in life, not long after, I fell in love with the process of Batik and so became a serious textile artist eventually selling my work in Melbourne and Maleny.

 

Thinking that painting abstract paintings would be simpler than batik – big mistake! - I switched to painting with acrylics. And now, more than five decades later, I realise that I am still painting naïve flowers!