Frances Henke

After 45 years of journalism I seized the opportunity to undertake a Visual Arts Diploma and a graduate year last year (2010). It was the best thing I ever did. Over the past decade I studied portrait, largely using pastel, which set the scene for the bolder step. Broadening that experience into painting in oils, acrylics, printmaking and sculpture has been truly exciting for a polio survivor in her 60s. While I have written a dozen books on gardening, local history and have three novels half written, my ‘unrequited passion’ was art. As a journalist the passion was maintained through interviewing and writing about leading Australian artists, dancers, sculptors, gallery directors – even an art forger during a stint in London. Now my focus is printmaking – mostly relief as I am not comfortable using chemicals. I’ll still enjoy sculpting and mixed media however. I have friends using RedBubble to connect with other artists/photographers, so now that ‘school’ is complete, I am enjoying that fraternity in cyberspace.