User:Janicemillsfineartist

When I was about five years of age I played with the children next door a lot. Their father was a commercial artist and much of the time I would stop playing to sit on a stool to watch him design signs and other advertising material with his acrylic paints, as this was many years before computer generated commercial art. I was sometimes given a brush and paper to paint which I feel was the beginnings of my love of art and painting. At the same time my mother and I would play in the yard creating things in the clouds, play games using the imagination and whistling to the local birds. I also began to avidly read. I never really looked back from this grounding in creativity and imagination. During my years at school I excelled at art and sold my first painting at the age of twelve to another student. It was a horse. I had been obsessed with them since I got up to watch the milkie go by with his horse and cart at about five or six years of age.

During my teens my father built me a studio in the back room of our home so my training in art was very much supported. I attended CIT (Caulfield Institute of Technology) in 1978 and then drifted into graphic art and design as a career. It seemed a good compromise between art and and over the years, through several companies I was promoted to second in charge of art departments, an application specialist and tutor to colleagues and clients. Unfortunately the fine art was put aside due to lack of space and time as I started renting a tiny unit to be near work and to start to run my own life away from an often violent home environment. I had no idea I would be away from my art for over twenty years.

In 2009 the universe did me a favour and I was made redundant from my graphic design position. The pressures of my work environment had become increasingly bad for my health and I was very near a nervous breakdown. It was time to move on (or back). I had started to paint a little on weekends thanks to my husband making a creative space for me in the farm building he was renovating, I had also joined an art guild to start mixing with and learning from other artists at his suggestion. My job loss was a crucial life changing event as far as my art was concerned. With backing from my husband (and doctors & friends) I decided to devote my time to building an arts practice and learning to be the best artist I can be. The last thing I want to do is get to the end of my life and have regrets or wonder how good I could have been if only I had tried.

The last four years have been a fantastic journey of expanding my materials, my subjects and my understanding, not to mention networking with the amount of quality art societies of which I am now a member. My journey back to studies began part time with a Diploma of Management over twelve weeks one day a week in 2010. I started a nervous wreck wondering who would want to listen to me and finished up getting engaged in nearly every discussion. The next course was a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, part time in 2011, where I met amazing people including another artist with whom I studied and who has been a wonderful supporter ever since. I also started winning awards and making sales which is very encouraging. During 2012 I started my two year Visual Arts Course. I have improved a lot and enjoyed the journey very much. I hope to go on to complete a degree in fine art after graduating.

My love of my country, of the flora and fauna, the bush and the sea, of all the incredible beauty we have around us as well as my love of so many other animals, of the heritage of our past artists and of what amazing things can be done with colour and texture in oil paint and now also pastel is a main driving force behind my art. (and I still love reading!) I paint things that are recognisable but not photo realistic as I love the texture of my materials too much. I also want to have my heart and soul in the work as well as that of any animals or people I may place in it. I want people to find their own joy and stories in the viewing.

I love the solitude of the research, photography, painting on site and in the studio - time disappears as I relish “the zone” I enter to create, but I also have learnt to love the interaction with other creatives, the collaboration with clients and the joy and sharing the creative journey with them. It is now 2013, I am doing well ... the horizon is now open to me and I intend to make the most of it.