I have been painting for 30 years and focused first on watercolours as they were easy to travel with while I was backpacking in my early 20’s. In my 30’s I started to move away from representational art, and nearly a decade ago developed a love of abstraction, which holds me in its thrall still.

Now I work almost entirely in the abstract. However I am always inspired by the world around me and within me. Painting is a deeply visceral experience for me. I try to convey the sensations and feelings that the natural world evokes in me. The feeling of water: being totally immersed in water, slowly succumbing to it and gently deepening into its embrace. Or the tumultuous abandonment and wild, chaotic fear of losing yourself in the power of water. The feeling of space – of air, of ether. The feeling of dissipating into and joining with the very essence of space at a quantum level. The feeling of earth, a deep, ancient, grounded presence … being of the earth. And fire – the feeling of constant change and transformative power of fire. My works speak of a life force embodied through the elements.

I am intrigued by the slippage where science and spirituality touch: those points of similarity and difference where theories rub up against each other and cause a bit of friction. And I always seem to play with colour and light - this almost always comes out in my work.

In my most recent work I was able to extend my practice in new directions. On the one hand I used hand stitching in my work for the first time. In another work I worked in oils on 15 sheets of paper to create one work much larger than I had before. These works are on exhibition at the Gippsland Art Gallery until 9 May 2010.

My husband and I also create sculptures, furniture and other gorgeous things. Check out the website: www.littlemilligan.com.au

And many of my paintings, plus contemporary photography, can be bought in cards, prints, calendars and t-shirts at red bubble: http://www.redbubble.com/people/neonarmadillo