Sandy Pottinger enjoys painting in her studio in Toowoomba.

Kevin Farmer

SANDY Pottinger has always been drawn back to Toowoomba as a place to call “home”.

Ms Pottinger was born in Toowoomba and went to Fairholme College.

After school, she went to art school in Brisbane and then moved to Sydney to do her post-graduate studies and worked as a photographer for several years.

“I got out of the industry and then opened a bric-a-brac store in Sydney,” she said.

“Then my mother sent me an ad for a job at the university in Toowoomba so then I came back and worked in photography for the media department.

“I was later invited to teach in the arts faculty which I did for 30 years before retiring three years ago.”

Ms Pottinger has written the “Around the Galleries” column for The Chronicle for the past 12 years.

“I love visiting all the galleries, especially since the amalgamation,” she said.

“It is wonderful to meet the artist and the people behind the gallery and it is rewarding to see what subject people wish to explore.”

Another feature Ms Pottinger likes about Toowoomba is the jacaranda trees and our tree-lined streets of plane trees and camphor laurels.

“I like winter in Toowoomba and the filtered light in gardens and the parks,” she said.

“I also like the relatively recent multi-cultural aspect of Toowoomba with its different customs and flavours and celebrations to share.”

Now enjoying retirement, Ms Pottinger likes to paint when she gets the chance and gives a regular lecture to the Toowoomba Art Gallery volunteers which she has been doing for the past 10 years.

She lives with her partner Susan and her dog Sackville and cat Tate.

“I have travelled to other places, but something has always drawn me back to Toowoomba,” Ms Pottinger said.

“It gets under the skin and pulls all the heart strings of home.”

Something has always drawn me back to Toowoomba. It gets under the skin and pulls all the heart strings of home.