My passion for drawing goes back to childhood. Art, and in particular portraiture was my favorite subject throughout my school years. In the early seventies I met a portrait artist on the St. Kilda Esplanade who saw my work and offered tuition. He travelled the East Coast doing portraits, so my lessons were cut short.

 

I was absolutely enthralled with portraiture and during the 70's I attended art classes with John Balmain, a well known portrait painter, and a past student of Max Meldrum. John Balmain introduced me to oils and nurtured my love of drawing. I developed new skills and also took up pastels after gaining a good understanding of oils. I had a thirst for knowledge; I wanted to learn etching, printmaking, and life drawing and decided to complete a Fine Arts Diploma.

 

In the early eighties I was invited to teach drawing for children and later drawing and painting for adults with the McClelland Guild of Artists. This was a fantastic opportunity to develop my art to a new level. For the past 14 years I have been operating art classes from my home based studio in Narre Warren South, and teach adults and children in all mediums. I am also conducting pastel and drawing classes in portraiture at Artistcare in Berwick.

 

I have won numerous awards, mainly for my portraits, the more recent being the 2005 PSV Award and the John Seeber Portrait Prize at the McClelland Guild of Artists Annual Exhibition.

Phone: (03) 9704 6208
Email: e_abrat@bigpond.net.au