About the Artist

My name is Stacey Haseldine and I was born in Western Australia. I spent my younger years in the wide-open spaces of a small country town where the clear, light free sky allowed such stunning unobstructed views that my love of the stars and cloud watching led to dreams of being an astronomer or meteorologist.

I was always creative, dabbling in acting and writing horror, fantasy and science fiction stories but, it was not until halfway through high school that I discovered my love for art. On the first day of year ten I found myself uncomfortable attending my accounting class, I had never been good at math, and it had resulted in the understanding that I did not have the academic aptitude to be an astronomer or a meteorologist. I knew, even then, that my strengths were in creativity and the arts. I therefore, spoke to my school's office and asked to change classes. As if by fate, the only class available in the same time slot was Art.

There begun my art story…

I wasn’t the best artist when I began. I had no end of inspiration and ideas, but I did not have the skill that years of practice afforded my other classmates. However, I enjoyed it, and I was attracted to bright colours and patterns, so I persisted. Naturally, having lived in the gorgeous outback of Australia with its blood red earth and bright blue sky, I was first drawn to painting the land and skyscapes that I adored.  

Three years later, I was the only applicant in my graduating class to be accepted into a Graduation exhibition at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. I displayed a set of cloudscape paintings called, ‘Kaleidoscope’.

For the next three years I continued painting Australian landscapes. During this period I travelled to the town of Broome in Australia’s north west and spent three months painting on site.

From my mid to late 20’s, life got in the way. I travelled the world, I fell in love and had my heart broken, I worked various jobs including photography and retail. I drifted back to writing to fill the creative space. I have written four novels, with many others incomplete and none published, as I have never edited them.

Over time, once I had become financially stable, built a home in the beautiful Swan Valley region and welcomed Charlie Rose, my exuberant Jack Russell into that home; I rekindled my artistic desire to create again.

I began with mandalas. These were perfect outlet for my interest in colour and pattern, and I could also create them digitally on the go. Making it possible to create anywhere, anytime, as the inspiration struck. I continued on to flow painting, selling at markets. I experimented with many other mediums including clay, selling a series of space monsters callied (the name a mix of Hubble and Monster). These creatures reminded me of my love of space.

Then, it was time…I needed to paint again, with oils. Beginning with a few simple nebulas and a cloud painting for my father. It was then I realised I had come home, to where I should have been all along. Oil paints are my magic and the sky, my canvas.