Imagine your life as a blank canvas. What would you do?

These were the words that changed my life as I knew it. I was working in a corporate job in Singapore, living a successful life by most definitions. But deep down inside, I knew I wasn’t living a life that made me feel alive and connected to me. There were many parts of my job I loved, but if I asked myself this question, I knew I had to make a change.

My answer came while sitting in a café attached to an art school in Singapore, talking to a close friend. I surprised myself when I heard myself say, “I could study painting in Italy”. Her next question was, “What would happen if you did?” While I had thought about studying art seriously for years (having studied art in high school in Cape Town, and finding art schools in New York, London and Singapore as my corporate jobs took me to these cities) I had never considered it as an actual possibility. Until this question.

From the time of that conversation, it took less than 6 months for me to leave my job in Singapore and move to Florence, Italy, to begin my full time professional painting studies at the Florence Academy of Art.

Truthfully, I didn’t quite know what I was getting myself into. I was guided to Italy by a friend who had studied in Florence 15 years previously. She recommended the Florence Academy of Art, and as I didn’t have any Plan B’s for changing my life, I applied.

I didn’t realise at the time just how prestigious this school is. Another truth – I didn’t really know what kind of art I was going to be studying there. Classical Realism? Figurative art? Both? More?

Definitely more. Much, much more. My training at the Florence Academy of Art challenged me more than anything else I had attempted before. I realised some way into my training that I was being taught to SEE. To see more, to see differently… What a challenge, both to teach, and to achieve.

After three years of strict academic training, I am now living my life as an artist. I feel more connected to myself, more inspired, and more invigorated than I have ever felt before.

I am currently focusing on painting landscapes en plein air in the city of my birth, Cape Town. I am also painting portraits from life, exploring the elements that make each of us beautiful.