Sarah Kanowski

I mean, as you're describing it, there's this dynamic of very close intimacy between you and your mum, but then there's this sort of ghostly presence of this other part of that triangle of your father who is there in spirit, in reference, but not physically with you.

You say that you had photos and there were conversations and he sent you gifts.

You had this rich family life, life with your mum in Manila, and you know about this man, your dad, and you've got these kind of ideas in your head, connection with him.

When did you actually meet your dad for the first time?

And he was a white man, so he's a white person.

So that must have been weird too, that you feel so intimately, physically connected with someone who looks so different from everybody else that you know.

A few years later, once your dad had permanent residency in Australia, he was able to bring you and your mum here.

Where was home for you once you made it to Australia?

What did life look like here?

How did it compare to that bustling matriarchal compound in Manila?

And so you'd gone from having this dad that you spoke to now and again and got presents from to this real human man living in the house with you and your mum.

What was that like?

How did your relationship develop as you were spending this amount of time together?

What role did art come to have then as you were here now in Australia and becoming a teenager?

You said you didn't have resources back in Manila, but you'd been really struck by the drawings you'd seen by your cousin and then by your uncle.

When did you start making your own creations?

After school, you toyed with the idea of becoming an art teacher, but ended up devoting yourself to your own artistic practice and studied at the College of Fine Arts in Sydney, but really worked on your own wave of painting and became particularly known, are particularly known for portraiture.

And one of the subjects that you often paint again and again is the concert pianist, Simon Tedeschi, who's also your husband.

So that makes it convenient, I guess, to paint someone.

Tell me about your proposal or his proposal to you, Laura Bell.