biography

I was born in Australia, but grew up in many other countries like England, Brunei, Hong Kong and China. We moved nearly every two years because of my father's work. When I finished my secondary studies in Australia, I went to China and studied traditional Chinese painting for three years. Much of my experience of studying in China became the basis of my first novel Chenxi and The Foreigner.

The photo on the right was taken during my time at the Art Institute in Shanghai. The technique you see me using in the photo was for painting on silk. I had to hold two brushes in my hand at a time - a thin wolf hair brush and a soft sheep hair brush. After every stroke with the wolf hair brush, I would follow it with a brushstroke of water from the sheep hair brush so that the ink would blend into the silk and make the outside lines disappear. It was a very precise, detailed way of painting. Sometimes I would use a brush where the tip was only one hair thick.

This method of fine, detailed painting is called Gong Bi. However the Chinese style of painting that I have adapted for many of my illustrations today is the method called Xie Yi. It is a very loose spontaneous brushstroke and suits the liveliness and freshness I want to achieve in my illustrations.

On the right is a painting I did for my first picture book Speak Chinese Fang Fang! about a Chinese-Australian girl who is embarrassed about her family and their Chinese background. The character is based on a student I was tutoring in English, but there is also alot of myself in Fang Fang. Having moved around so often, I know what it feels like to be an outsider.

In the book Millie, I use the Chinese painting style Xie Yi to paint the pictures. The brushstokes are done in Chinese ink with a sheep hair brush and the scribbly red throughout is red pencil. I will often use different techniques to illustrate with, depending on what suits the words and the themes of the story. The last book I illustrated is a text by David Metzenthen and I have used many different materials; newspaper, gouache, pencil, inks and collage to create a contrast between the city scenes and the nature scenes. There is more on this book, which is called The Rainbirds under the News & Reviews link.

Currently I am illustrating another picture book, teaching Writing for Children at RMIT and raising three great boys as best as I can. When I get a spare moment or two I would love to finish one of the novels beside my bed, or even contemplate writing another novel myself. It would be great to hear from anyone who would like to know more about my writing or illustrating, or even send feedback on a book of mine you might have read. If you would like to contact me, my email address is under the Contact link, and I'm usually pretty good at quick replies. I am also occasionally available for mentoring. To find out more about mentors, go to the Australian Society of Authors website.

All the best,

Sally.