LIFE ART: Pamela Moore loves nothing better than painting people.

Artist Pamela’s life has been filled with color, tone and texture

Written by By Peter Hunt.

PAMELA Moore is well known throughout the Mansfield district as a realistic painter of more than 30 years.

However, before her artistic endeavors she had a career in another creative area, fashion design.

Born in Melbourne in 1944 her forebears gave her a love of art.

"My grandmother was a painter, so I probably got my artistic genes from her," Pamela said.

Pamela was schooled in Mentone and always had a love of drawing.

"I would draw with chalk on the sidewalk just for fun," she said.

"I was going to go on and study art, but ended up leaving school by accident in year 10."

A job as a buyer of fabrics was too good to pass up and at the age of 16, Pamela began working for Cole of California, a US maker of swimwear and surf fashion.

"I did some modelling, administration and sales," Pamela said.

After they left the scene, Pamela ended up moving on to Geoff Bade, a designer and manufacturer of fashion wear, where she sold in the showroom and packed parcels in the backroom.

"One day Geoff caught me doodling and asked if I wanted to try my hand at designing," Pamela said.

"I was sent to RMIT to do a fashion design course - it was here that I first had contact with life drawing."

Now 22, Pamela began travelling overseas to get new fashion ideas and check out the new trends.

"I had never been in an airplane before and now I was travelling the world," Pamela remembered.

"It was a pretty good life – four, six week trips a year - Hawaii, Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Geneva, Turin, Florence and Rome."

Pamela would look in the stores, seeing what colors and designs were coming in.

"I would sketch or photograph clothes and purchase the odd piece to bring home," Pamela said.

"Sometimes I would stand outside the shop and sketch, but on other occasions I would take some clothes into the change room and sketch them there."

Pamela would then return to Australia and adapt them for the Australian fashion scene.

"This was the time of Carnaby Street and see-through clothes - a bit too advanced for our market," she said.

"In Mexico I came across a Mexican wedding dress, with pin tucks and lace, did some sketches, bought a scarf and came home and did a whole range."

When she wasn’t travelling, Pamela would draw the designs and pass them to a pattern maker.

"After drawing the ideas, I would liaise with the factory to make sure they were being made correctly," she said.

"The factory would then produce a sample range for the salespeople to take to the various stores."

After some eight years of this life, Pamela got married and became a stay at home mum.

"I knew I wanted to get back to art so I bought some paints, the first set of oils I ever had," Pamela said.

"I had no idea what to do, so I went to art supply shops to look for a good teacher."

She came upon Ron Crawford and for the next 10 years she went to him one day a week to learn.

"Ron had learnt from Max Meldrum, who I later found out had taught my grandmother," she said.

Over her extensive artistic career she has studied with some of the best Australian painters.

Following Ron Crawford were Alan Marin, Max Wilks and Lee Machelak in oils, and watercolor with Margaret Cowling and David Taylor.

Pamela and her husband bought a farm at Bonnie Doon as a weekender in 1980, so their kids could experience a country lifestyle.

"In 2005 we erected a purpose built studio, with superb light and plenty of room," she said.

"I now paint, run some classes and enjoy the rural life."

Pamela works in oil, watercolor and pastels and still has a love for life drawing.

"I guess I will continue to be a realist painter," she said.

"Even at my age I am still learning - I’ll always be learning.