She was delighted to be bombarded by colour on her recent trips to Turkey and India, so much so, her exhibition Encounters with Colour and Culture reflects the vibrancy and the people she met.

“I thought I should narrow the exhibition down to one or two experiences, but I was so excited about so many images I let the paintings evolve,” she said.

It will be the first solo exhibition for Passalaqua, who has been painting for 30 years.

“Since selling up and moving to Albury, I have the freedom to paint almost full-time and I love it,” she said.

“I like to incorporate a ‘painterly’ appearance with an aspect of drawing and I often use acrylics, pastel and ink to build layers of an image,” she said.

“I love how different mediums move across the surface of the paper or canvas.”

Passalaqua said her time in India’s Gujarat, the birthplace of Ghandi, had inspired her.

Visits to village communities provided “a beautifully balanced mixture of sketchbook observations and workshops on the unique textiles of the Banni area involving exquisite handcrafts, embroidery, mirror and unusual stitch work, painting on cloth and pottery”.

“It was a feast for the senses, soaking up the lives of colourful, beautiful friendly people.”

She said the poorer people were the more intense the colours they wore, “hence colour lifts your spirits”.

“I don’t have a message, I just like people to enjoy the visual experience,” she said.

Passalaqua’s exhibition opens on Friday night at Gigs Gallery Wod- onga and will stay until February 22, and she will be there on Saturday and on February 14 at 10am.