Hi, I’m Kirsty. I’m a self-taught, self-represented artist living and working on our farm in Yallingup Siding, Western Australia.

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I began painting seriously nearly 20 years ago, after my first son was born. I couldn’t get to the beach as often as I wanted, and I couldn’t afford the ocean paintings I loved by artists like Larry Mitchell and Lee Houson Bower. So, I started teaching myself how to paint the water. What began as a way to bring the beach home, grew into my life’s work.

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I’ve always been a water person: swimming, diving and watching the sea change with the light. A three-month residency on Rottnest Island in 2018 deepened that connection. Since then, I’ve had the privilege of painting the beaches, boats, and holiday places that hold special memories for other families, too. I never tire of trying to capture what happens above the water, beneath it and at the point where the two meet.

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These days, my inspiration reaches well beyond the coast. Living down south has brought me back to the farmland and countryside where I grew up as a child. I’m drawn to open skies, trees, and the changing light across the landscape. As a mum of a clan of boys, and someone who spends a great deal of time gardening and helping care for our farm, I feel closely connected to the places I paint.

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I work in acrylics and oils; from photographs I’ve taken myself. My camera is always close by, because there’s so much beauty in an ordinary day that I want to take back to the studio. My hope is that each painting lets someone else live with a little of that beauty, and perhaps a place they love, every day.