Naomi Howard was born in Sydney, Australia in 1945 and has been an artist for most of her life. She has lived and worked all over Australia. More than two decades ago, when she was still a cabinetmaker and innovator in recycled wood and bush furniture, Naomi was lured south by Tasmania's chill southern forests and their rich timbers. She has made her home base in the bush beside the sea but she still journeys to Central Australia to revisit places where she has made friends with indigenous Australians in years past.
Her drawings and paintings bring to life the people and places where extraordinary individuals (famous or otherwise) have made Tasmania's history: west-coast fisher people, boat builders, black cockatoos, prospectors, and navigators. We joyfully experience their narratives coming to life, "even when there are no people in them."
"These paintings are all one. I belong to them all", she says.