INSIGHTRobyn Hughes
Homage to Beauty
This lady’s art pays homage to the beauty of wildlife, plants and our natural
environment – in a realistic fashion. Yet humble buildings somehow live in
harmony with their surroundings, and display a true beauty all of their own.
By Robyn HughesI
was born in Sydney, and moved to
the New South Wales Central Coast
where I spent my childhood as
part of a large family on a small hobby
farm surrounded by grassy paddocks
and bushland. For as long as I can
remember, I loved drawing. I spent lots
of time drawing pictures for my friends- copied from cute greeting card
illustrations or photographs of horses.
My favourite place to be was sitting
up in a tree, or walking through the
bush looking for echidnas and lyrebirds
in the hills behind our farmhouse. I
think I was born with a love of Nature
and the animal world.
I studied science subjects at
school rather than art, because it was
considered difficult to achieve high
marks in art at the time. I studied
to become a physiotherapist; and
after spending some time working in
Sydney, I returned to the Central Coast.
A defining moment for my art
occurred while visiting Mogo on
the south coast 15 years ago, when I
walked into a small gallery featuring
pastels by Lee Miller. I had been keen
to embark on developing my drawing
as a serious hobby, and to see beautiful
and bright paintings created with sticks
of pure colour was thrilling. As soon
as I returned home, I found a set of
pastels on sale at a local store ... and
I knew it was meant to be. Since then,