‘Crafted’ is the essence of a Shustin home. Can you describe your craft and how it came to be?

I started with a love of studying contemporary and traditional landscape watercolour artists. I loved the immediacy and spontaneity that comes with water based pigment. Watercolour in its traditional format is an outdoor medium. It wasn’t considered a studio practice, as its strengths lay in capturing a passing moment in the day. This meant the artist had to work with a sense of economy and speed, and did this by using as few brushstrokes as possible. I try to imbue this craft of spontaneity and speed in my own work. The challenge for me is to maintain the spirit of observation (the movement of a person riding a bike or a silhouette of a gum tree) without overworking the finished piece.

Are there any particular materials or processes that define you / your work? And what was your approach to the Shustin body of work?

Sketching is always a key process to my work. It allows me to emphasise balance, movement and form; three key components for every image I make. Once I’ve got this feeling developed, I’ll move onto colour and tone—this is where the watercolour begins. All of the architecture in the Shustin series contained very soft and gentle colours, and always interacted with open spaces, including panoramic skylines, foliage and greenery. My aim for the series was to celebrate the architecture being a part of its environment. I think great architecture becomes a part of its surroundings, and I aimed to create that impression in this series. I wanted the casual sip of coffee on the balcony to be as important as the awning. This is a feeling of everything having a natural sense of place, of everything belonging in the picture.

Is place important to your output as an artist? If so, where is your favourite place to paint, and do you have a favourite subject of late?

I grew up at Somers on the Mornington Peninsula, so spending time on the coast was a frequent passtime for me. This gave me an appreciation of the weather; namely how light would hit the water at different times of the day. When I moved to Melbourne, my love affair with horizons and skies quickly made way for observing the street. Chapel St and Sydney Rd have both been a staple in my formative years of working outside. Now that I spend half of my time in Glasgow (U.K) I’m very inspired to spend more time in the Mediterranean over summer. Palermo (Sicily,) Corfu (Greece) and the Provence (France) are all places that naturally make for great painting conditions in the Summertime.

For Shustin, research and reference is essential to harnessing a central idea for a project. When you need inspiration, where do you go?

I love to study the watercolours from recent masters. Painters from the mid Century California Watercolour scene are a frequent inspiration, alongside some of the New Yorker illustrators from the same generation, such as Arthur Getz. I’m really fortunate to own some annual reviews of American Illustrators Society from the early 60’s which is a frequent guide of reference for me. Artists with a strong use of line are always captivating (such as the work of Celestino Patti and Franklin McMahon) whereas book cover artists who used lithograph continually teach me that when it comes to colour, sometimes less is more (artists such as John Minton use this to excellent effect.)

You've been collaborating with Shustin for many years now. What is it that makes the alignment so special?

Shustin has a love of craft, which is demonstrated in the buildings they make and through the relationships they’ve forged with the craftspeople who have worked alongside them. Their attention to detail and passion for excellence makes them a wonderful client to work alongside. We both just want it to be good!