Amongst the very few artists to have won the Portia Geach Memorial Award for portraiture twice, she was also awarded the Bulgari Art Award last year with her painting ‘SL 359’, a meditative still life.

She has exhibited in over 45 solo shows across Australia, New Zealand, Germany and the US, has been involved in many more group shows and her work is held in major public and private collections across Australia and internationally.

We talk about growing up in an artistic home (her father, David Rae, was a painter whose work is held by the Art Gallery of NSW), the challenges of portrait commissions and illusion and materiality in painting.  She also talks about her interest in the viewer looking beyond the narrative a painting might suggest and tells of how she came about painting those gas bottles!

You can see a short video taken on the day of the interview on the Talking with Painters YouTube channel (and below)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ORE9JQfJgs

‘SL359’ 2016, oil on linen, 1530 x 1220mm, winner Bulgari Art Award 2016

‘Self Portrait (the year my husband left )’ 2008, acrylic and oil on linen, 153 x 198cm, 2008 Portia Geach Memorial Award winner

‘SL 341’ 2014, oil on linen, 500 x 540mm

‘Sarah Peirse’, 2014, oil on linen, 710 x 660mm, Archibald finalist 2014

‘Dr Ian Chubb’ 2011, oil on linen, 900 x 1200mm

‘SL 315’ 2013, oil on linen, 1220 x 1370mm

‘Interior 371 (Foyer II)’, 2017, oil on linen, 1500mm x 2600mm (left);  ‘Interior 370 (Foyer I)’, oil on linen, 2600 x 1980mm (right)

‘T5 (Heathrow #247)’, 2010, oil on linen, 180 x 240cm

‘Interior 278 (Munich I), 2011, oil on linen, 1550 x 1980mm