Carole has always loved art. As a child she would sit and draw other people sitting around the room without their knowledge. She did not have any encouragement from her family but one of her teachers in year 8 said her paintings of birds were wonderful and she should make art her life. Of course she didn’t listen and never went on to have any formal training. Earning a living, family and children were her priorities. Life just got in the way and there was no time for art apart from sketching people (unbeknown to them) on drink coasters and serviettes when out dining.
After her children left home, while living in Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast she had a little foray into art by painting wildflowers on cream cans. These were sold in a shop at Montville on the Blackall Range near Caloundra. As she aged, she began to find the cans too heavy to lift and after a back injury discontinued painting them.
In 2009 after retirement, her and her husband moved to Hervey Bay where she became a member of Hervey Bay Art Society, at Gallery 5. She mainly painted landscapes and seascapes in acrylics at this stage and after winning a few awards, she had enough encouragement to continue with her art. Carole has also been inspired by the Gallery’s competitions which are of a different subject each month. She enjoys the social interaction with so many friendly, like minded artists.
She was introduced to pastels after seeing Lyn Diefenbach’s work and thought she would quite enjoy painting with pastels. She attended a couple of courses with Lyn as her tutor and found she preferred painting in pastels to acrylics.
She then travelled to Canberra and enrolled in a Janet Thatcher course in painting wildlife on velour with pastel pencils. She became completely hooked as she is an animal lover and Janet paints the big cats. Although she still enjoys landscape painting, she now concentrates more on portraits stemming from her early days of drawing people. Her main interests at the moment are portraits, Australian wildlife and birds, domestic pets, flowers and gardens.
Carole has travelled around Australia twice in a caravan and has thousands of beautiful photos that will take a lifetime to paint. She tends to see beauty in everyday objects such as derelict buildings, the shapes and colors of trees and flowers, rocks, shells and various other shapes in nature.
Carole is also a member of the Pastel Society of Australia and finds this Society very informative. She enjoyed immensely the Pastel Exposition held on the Sunshine Coast in 2018 and hopes there will be many more to follow.
She has learnt so much since joining the art societys and looks forward to many art filled years ahead.
