Most of my childhood was spent with a pencil in my hand, but like most young people of my generation I had to get a proper job when I left school and life got in the way of my artistic side.
Thankfully that has changed and with the encouragement of the important people in my life I am now able to paint to my hearts content.
I enjoy pastel, water colour, acrylic and photography and love to paint anything warm hearted – including my grandchildren, birds, animals – even the occasional bowl of fruit.
Art education is also a priority for me. I love my water colour lessons with Ray Wood and the camaraderie of the girls in my class. Perhaps rubbing shoulders with these wonderful like-minded people will help me to reach my potential. If not the journey will certainly be enjoyable and interesting.
Largely self taught, my only tuition was a hobby course one evening a week over two years at East Geelong Technical School back in the early 70’s.
However I have had a passion for art all my life.
At school I excelled at art and was often caught drawing when I should have been paying attention.
Over the years from the 70’s to the early 90’s I painted on and off and sketched frequently. When I was asked by Sandra Jones to join the Winchelsea Arts Group I had not painted for 16 years and was a reluctant starter.
Since I have been painting at “Riverlee”, both on a Tuesday where I mainly work in oils, and the Wednesday watercolour classes, I have rediscovered my passion and creativity. I like to paint landscapes and have done several in the local Mt Moriac area, and I also enjoy painting birds.
I have recently discovered to my surprise how much I enjoy painting in watercolours…this mainly thanks to our tutor Ray Woods.
I exhibited in the inaugural Arts and Crafts market in the Globe Theatre last March, and also have works hanging in the “Larder” - A Taste of the Region café in Winchelsea, and the recently launched Barwon Park exhibition.
I am very proud to have won first prize in the novice section of the Uniting Church Art Show at Winchelsea this year for my oil “Moving to the Light”.
I am also a keen photographer and have some of my pieces on display in the gallery.
It is extremely exciting to be part of “Riverlee Art Studio” in Winchelsea. The gallery is a part of a vibrant and growing art movement in Winchelsea.
My aim is to continue with my creative learning and hopefully produce many paintings of which I can be proud.
I have been painting with Riverlee Art Studio since 2007.
My interest in art has always been with me, but it is only recently that I have been able to approach it with my full attention, and with the encouragement of other artists been able to learn and actually produce a finished work on canvas.
My initial works were done for the purpose of decorating a stark white wall in my new home.
Gradually I am learning about the colour in colour, and take pleasure in painting the simple things in life i.e. the sky, fruit, water and birds.
Mainly my work is done with my original aim in mind, to brighten up a stark white wall, or to give new zest to a dark place in a room.
FOOTNOTE FROM SANDRA JONES:
Since Cindy wrote this she has been prolific in her work and attended the water colour classes with Ray Wood at “Riverlee” as well as painting at home. She has sold many of her paintings and has improved in leaps and bounds. Well done Cindy!
My adventure with art had been put on hold for many years until I and my husband Ian moved to Winchelsea to start a wildflower farm.
I had always promised myself I would start painting when I retired from hairdressing, so when we came to Winchelsea I started an art course at Winchouse. Over the years I have met many like minded ‘arty-farty’ people (as one friend calls us) and have thoroughly enjoyed classes, outings and the friendship.
I started with pastels and watercolour and have progressed to oils. Subjects are often the flowers we grow and I also enjoy landscape, portrait and life drawing.
I now work at Riverlee Studio, run by Sandra Jones, who has a passion for fostering art and creative people in Winchelsea.
Born in 1974 in Warrnambool, where I lived until 2007, then moved to Geelong.
I am a self-taught, intuitive, abstract artist.
I have entered many local art shows and exhibitions in the Geelong/Surfcoast area.
I have been encouraged to put my paintings out there more and am now focusing on my art more since joining the Riverlee Art Studio.
I have recently undertaken a drawing, etching and painting course at the Geelong Fine Art School and completed art business courses in Melbourne in 2010.
'I have been encouraged to put my paintings out there more and am now focusing on my art more since joining the Riverlee Art Studio
I was born in Michigan, USA and migrated to Australia in 1967 with my family.
During my life here I worked as a Secondary School art and Art history teacher in two Geelong schools.
However my last employment took me from Geelong to Melbourne, to Tennant Creek in the N.T. and down to Fremantle in WA and back home again seventeen years later.
My travels allowed me to visit interesting cultural areas and to collect many pieces and paintings of indigenous art.
Birds, flora and fauna, sunsets and sunrises all over Australia are the most interesting and beautiful in the world and I love to try and paint them all.
I was born in Melbourne and moved to Yuulong in the depths of the Otways at the age of three. It was during these early years that my love of the ocean and the bush was conceived. This love has stayed with me all my life.
When time came to choose a career, nursing won out over studying art. The reality of life back in the sixties did not lend itself to such frivolous pursuits!
I have worked as a midwife for many years and after rearing a family of four sons, I finally was able to realize my desire to paint.
At the age of forty I took up the brush, and with the influence of many outstanding artists along the coast, my enthusiasm to achieve continued to grow.
If I complete a painting that people enjoy, I wonder to myself “where on earth did that come from”?
My first exhibition of work, a series of the pregnant figure, was presented for Midwives Day in the post natal ward at GeelongHospital.
The following year I was commissioned to paint for the Birthing Unit. This body of work represented the process of birth, using water and the ocean to depict a meditative journey.
In 2009 I exhibited at the Lorne Country Club, once again using my love of the ocean as the predominant theme.
Moving from Anglesea to Winchelsea, I was fearful that my art interests would be unfulfilled. I was pleasantly surprised to find a wonderful group of women with whom to paint and an amazing patron, namely Sandra Jones, at “Riverlee Arts”.
Opening the “Riverlee Art Studio” in the main street of Winchelsea, has given our group of seven the opportunity to display our work to the public and to foster the interest of art in our small country town.
Bev Baker is a mosaic artist - profile coming soon!
My adventure with art had been put on hold for many years until I and my husband Ian moved to 
If I complete a painting that people enjoy, I wonder to myself “where on earth did that come from”?