Gemma Louise Haworth, Airlie Beach, Australia
Member Since February 2008
Artist Statement My name is Gemma Louise Haworth, I grew up on the Isle of Wight, which is a small, very picturesque island off of the south coast of England. My mum is an incredible artist, so growing up I was always surrounded by her creativity. Framed paintings covered the down stairs walls of our house, and huge murals covered both mine and my sisters bedroom walls.
From a very young age I was always creating things, As a kid I used to sit on the top of the sofa for hours trying to draw my mums tropical fish as they whizzed around the tank, I started to read fantasy books and fell in love with dragons, spending weeks trying to draw them off of the covers of the books. My mum always supporting me in my creative exploits wanted to redo the mural on the wall of my bedroom, so to challenge me, she decided that I should do it. So of course there was only one choice for the subject… Dragons and lots of them, it took me weeks, and I was only 13 when I painted it. I was proud of it then and I still am even now, it is still to this day on my bedroom wall back in England.
At school I took art up to GCSE level. The mask I made as part of my examination is still on the art classroom wall even now. But unfortunately after that my art career took a long break. During my A levels and once my working career began I no longer had the time to relax and paint. At the age of 20 my mum bought me an art set for Christmas, and kick started me in the right direction again. From then on I painted on and off in watercolour and acrylic. Until I was 22, when I discovered oil paints and a talent which had remained dormant for years. I just loved them. But they still didn’t fit me quite right. The smells always gave me headaches and the only place I could use them was in the conservatory, which in England for most of the year is absolutely freezing. So I was still searching for my perfect medium, but starting to suspect that there wasn’t one for me.
I was always a landscape artist, until the day I crashed my motorbike, and being really shaken up afterwards, I decided to sit down and try a bit of painting to take my mind off what had happened, and in that moment I created my first abstract.
While I was still living in England, I was involved in several exhibitions, which lead to some very profitable commissions. I met a man who was developing property, in France and he loved my style of abstracts and bought 8 of my paintings and commissioned me to paint 5 more. I finished the commissions, and travelled over to Australia. Unable to take my oils with me I reverted back to my watercolour set. So armed with my paints, pad and brushes I began to explore this amazing country.
I must admit that I did have a few pre conceived opinions of Australia, derived mainly from movies like Jaws and Crocodile Dundee. So as you can imagine I thought I would be arriving in a barren country with rough bush and crocs, snakes and spiders waiting to attack at any moment. And I certainly had no intention of going anywhere near deep water…
But you can imagine my surprise when I found out how beautiful you country really is, as I travelled from Adelaide to where I now live up in the Whitsunday’s, I saw everything, wild bush, lush rolling hills, beaches with sand so white that it squeaked when I walked along, dramatic mountains, green valleys, water so clear and blue that I could hardly believe my eyes. And the plants and wildlife well, what can I say, I am still lost for words about how to describe them even now.
But I have did come to one decision I really missed my oils, being in such an inspirational country without them was terrible. So once I settled in Airlie Beach a year and a half ago. I decided to invest in a new set of oils. And so began my creative Australian adventure. My other half supported and encouraged me completely in all my work. Often buying me materials and taking me to amazingly beautiful and inspiring places. I joke and introduce him as my manager, when I am
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