Javea Grapevine 185 2016 Four | Page 54

How has living as an “exPat” impacted your work? I left England in 1984 so have now lived more than half my life as an expat (or exile depending how you look at it!). As I grow older I think I have become more sentimentally attached to my birthplace. While I don’t wish to return, there is always a sense of nostalgia. Perhaps memories become more important as we age. I believe my work explores, albeit subconsciously, the dichotomy of feeling an emotional connection to two ‘homes’. Often what begins as an Australian landscape takes on English characteristics. Memories of bare trees against a winter sky seem to encroach on everything I draw.