Some of my earliest and happiest memories began in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, where my parents moved when I was very young.
For a child, it was an extraordinary place to grow up. We lived in a small community, I learnt to speak the local language, and life felt raw, colourful and exciting. I saw remote areas of jungle, unusual birds, tribal dancing, and was surrounded by a world that was very different from anything I had known before. My childhood was wild and free.
I went to boarding school in my teens. I drew constantly and wrote letters home filled with hand-drawn cartoons about school life, recording the people, characters and funny little moments around me. My mother kept every one of them.
Looking back, I think those drawings were an early glimpse of my future.
My career path, however, took me somewhere completely different.
I followed a demanding corporate career, raised children and spent many years being busy with everything except drawing and painting.
Art slipped quietly out of my life.
