About Me

My name is Vivienne Crawford and I’m 61 years old.  I enrolled in a ‘learn to draw’ class in 1999.  This was not because I wanted to learn to paint or get into art in any way but, because there were things that I wanted to embroider but could not find any patterns or designs for projects I had in mind.  My husband Dennis (we married 15^th August 1970) suggested I go along to the Adult Ed. Class and learn to draw.  Once I got started drawing took over and I now rarely do any embroidery.

Watercolour was the next step.  I really love the movement of the colour in the water, and although watercolour is not the easiest medium, I was determined to master it.  I sold my first painting a couple of years later.  It was a large bunch of daffodils.  I called it “Daffodils for Grandpa”.  My Grandparents were a huge part of my childhood, Grandpa had acres of daffodils he grew to sell at the Market., and my sister and I would help with the picking, that is where I learned to count from one to twenty five.  And so it was very appropriate that this new exciting and fulfilling path should start with childhood memories.

I was very fortunate to have classes with various good artists but the one who  had the most influence on my art was Richard Bacon. He truly is a magician with a puddle of paint.  

In May 2007 I was invited to join Quoll Artists Gallery Salamanca. I enjoyed being part of a co-operative. The best part was meeting the people who bought my artwork, doing commissions of their home, boat, or even a church to be given as a wedding present, was a great joy.  I resigned from the co-op after 5 years  and joined the Arts Society of Tasmania where I could devote more time to painting and exhibiting my works.

The subjects I usually paint are cottages and street scenes of the older parts of Hobart. A view of a chimney, an attic window, a row of dormer windows, these are the things that capture my imagination.  More recently I have developed a passion for painting boats with their magical reflections, and the romance of the docks’ area. In 2010 I was invited to join the Australian Society of Marine Artists and subsequently became a member.

In all of my paintings I try to include an element of good drawing because for me that is the basis of a good painting.  Living in beautiful Tasmania I am surrounded with so many views of boats, lovely old buildings, cottage gardens, and the docks, with a wonderful array of ever changing fishing boats,  I don’t think I will ever run out of subjects that I want to paint.