Visual Art – Newcastle

Gaye Leanne was born in April 1971 and raised in Sydney’s Northern Beaches to a creative family where drawing, painting, craft, knitting and sewing, were daily activities along with raising budgies, fishing, nature walks and gardening which were all favourite past-times in her childhood. Gaye attended Freshwater High School and by the time she was a teenager was already showing maturity in her art. During her year 8 school year in 1984 one of her artworks was chosen to be displayed at Wollongong University’s “Young Artists of Promise” exhibition. She then carried on with visual art into the next 2 years. However she experienced daily bullying which caused a lot of emotional stress. Through this, art and poetry became even more important as a mode of expression and healing. Then due to discouraging advice from a careers advisor, Gaye left school and decided not to pursue further education in the arts, instead following a different career path , with art remaining a hobby enjoyed only in private. During her teen years and into her twenties, Gaye spent most of her creative time perfecting pencil portraits. Growing up she very much admired the impressionist painters, in particular Vincent Van Gogh. Studying everything about his life and work with great interest. However, her goal at that time was to achieve realism in her own finished work. Gaye moved to the USA in 1995 for a total of 18 months. During this time she spent a lot of time exploring photography, and using that medium to inspire her art. This is when she began to create more landscape artworks and began working with coloured pencils and pastels. Upon returning to Sydney in 1997, Gaye started her own business and successfully ran it until the birth of her first child in 2000, a daughter, who was later diagnosed with autism. She also relocated at this time to the Central Coast NSW. She didn’t create anything for many years while caring for her daughter, and two other children. Missing her art, in 2006 she decided to try painting and started producing works inspired by the garden at her home. Bright flowers and sculptural plants, but still only as a hobby and therapy to help ease the hard days of raising a special needs child. In 2014 Gaye’s father was diagnosed with terminal cancer and this was the most defining moment to date. Losing her father suddenly and seeing him not get to realise his own dreams, she decided to dedicate her attention full time to do what she has always wanted to do...be an artist. Over the years her art has evolved over many mediums and techniques, and across varying subject matter. In November 2014 she entered 5 artworks into a group exhibition for the first time with other local artists both emerging and established. 3 sold during the exhibition. Around this time she also became involved with a community art project helping to paint murals for Toukley Neighbourhood Centre.