I am very honoured to share my painting of Katherine Bennell-Pegg the first female Astronaut to graduate under the Australian Flag and Australian of the Year 2026.

This portrait emerges from a shared childhood landscape on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, where two neighbouring girls grew up under the same night sky, each imagining a different future. One dreamt of painting the moon; the other of travelling to and beyond it.

Fast forward a few years I reunited with Katherine as she completed her astronaut training, so in awe of her achievements, I wanted to paint a portrait also capturing her character- a quiet confidence, intelligence and humility, shaped by perseverance, sacrifice and belief.

The composition reflects this meeting of worlds. The astronaut’s suit situates her firmly in the present, while the moon represents a shared point of origin, aspiration, memory, and the vastness that both art and science seek to understand. The Patches/Badges across her suit trace her journey forming a visual biography- from Australia to the European Astronaut Centre, into the international Astronaut corps and home again. Her upward gaze represents a sense of aspiration and forward vision.

I was well into painting the portrait of Katherine, when she was so deservedly named Australian of The Year. I was literally over the moon with excitement to hear the announcement. She is an amazing person, someone to be celebrated not just for her contributions to Australia but for the future of our planet and all mankind.

‘ Katherine Bennell- Pegg Australian of The Year 2026 ‘

150cm x 120cm
Oil on linen
2026.

Portrait of Mrs Edith (Tilly) Whitaker (1890- 1971)

I was honoured to be commissioned to paint this portrait for the Newington College Art Collection.

Edith Whitaker was Newington College’s first female subject head (and reportedly the first in the GPS). Appointed Head of English in 1942 as part of an effort to replace male teachers who had enlisted during WWII, she was known as a strong disciplinarian who earned deep respect from students and staff.

When she retired in 1949, eighty former and current students attended her farewell dinner, presenting her with a silver teapot and tray, referenced here alongside the Shakespeare volumes in tribute to her life in English education. Edith returned to England where she passed away aged 81 in 1971.