My work has been Highly Commended for the NG Art Creative Residency Prize 2019 and I am off to Provence In November. The residency is at Mas des Pelerins www.ngart.com.au and is run by Nicky Ginsberg. It is a few kilometres from the historical village of Eygalières in Provence, Mas des Pelerins means ‘house of pilgrims’, It was once a pilgrims’ inn; a dwelling of rest for ‘wanderers with purpose’ on the pilgrim route of St Jacques de Compostelle through France to Spain

Exhibition of 18 works with Sydney gallery M Contemporary at the art fair, which hosted about 90 galleries and more than 450 artists.

Finalist in the Portia Geach Memorial Portrait Prize with a self portrait, The Scratching Post 2019, 40x20cm, oil on board. In The Scratching Post, I have painted myself as an ornament on a small pedestal, beside a cat on a scratching post. It is part of a series of ornament-portraits, where the subject is transformed into a shelf ornament and frozen in a mundane pose in an ambiguous space. While the painting aims to portray a likeness of myself, the blank expression, pink dressing gown and oversized slippers render an anonymity to the figure, while also hinting at humdrum domestic routines that take place quietly in private. 
The Scratching Post is both a still life and a portrait. It is small to reflect the lack of grandeur of such objects, and the nostalgic 1950s colour palette hints at Australian cultural norms and kitsch associated with a bygone era. The impasto brushwork adds texture not usually associated with an ornament, reminding the viewer it is a painting.

Finalist in the Archibald Prize 2019 Salon des Refuses with a self portrait The Dog Walker 2019, 40x20cm, oil on board. This little work is both a self portrait and a still life. I have painted myself as an ornament, performing a routine task that is one of the many rituals of domestic life. I am drawn to ornaments and how they symbolise and celebrate the everyday usually in a domestic setting.