Zibah, Deborah

Born in Zimbabwe, Africa, my family and I immigrated to Australia in 1988.

 I discovered a talent for art in high school whilst in Africa, but the opportunities for any art education, at that time, in a war-torn country were minimal.

I received my first formal art training at the local TAFE, in 1992 here in Australia. Shortly after that, I started a mural business, AMAZING MURALS, decorating numerous cafes, restaurants, private homes and hotel lobbies, for several years.

My real desire was to attend university to study abstract painting, and I enrolled in ECU, Perth in 2000, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 2003. Since then, I’ve been exhibiting regularly in group and solo shows throughout the Perth and southwest regions, and my solo shows numbering 23 so far. My new solo show entitled, 'Letting Go' kicks off 22 November, 2024 at Lost Eden Creative Space, Dwellingup.

In 2009, I completed 116 original paintings for the Sebel Hotel rooms and apartments, Mandurah. My love of surface texture is the driving force of my art practice. Expressive, spontaneous mark-making and emotive gesture is the intuitive process of my work. Using wide metal scrapers and trowels, several layers of paint is applied, to create vibrant depths of colour fields.

This adventure of paint is always so exciting for me. There are never enough hours in the day to explore creativity's endless possibilities on a two-dimensional surface.