Vivien Walter (centre) with her brother, Mark, and sister-in-law, Maureen, at their Quidhampton home. Vivien was visiting from Australia as part of a long holiday to catch up with the family.Artist Vivien Walter paints a picture of life Down Under, reports Lesley Bates

A PHOTOGRAPH published in a Salisbury newspaper last October brought back happy memories for a woman on the other side of the world.

Vivien Walter (61) was sent the cutting by her brother Mark, who lives in Quidhampton, after he spotted the black and white photograph of his sister chatting to artist, photographer and designer Sir Cecil Beaton at an exhibition.

The photograph was 30 years old but Vivien, who now lives in Australia, can remember the occasion clearly.

"I was a member of the Salisbury Progressive Artists and I was showing work at the Michael Herbert Hall in Wilton" she said.

"Sir Cecil was a very flamboyant character in a black velvet suit.

"We chatted a long time and he said I can see you are going a long way."

Sir Cecil's words turned out to be doubly prophetic for Vivien has indeed carved a career for herself in the art world, but she did so thousands of miles away.

A year after the exhibition, she, her husband and three young sons emigrated to Australia, settling on the coast north of Sydney.

Sadly that marriage and a subsequent one ended in divorce.

Instead, art has proved to be the constant in her life.

Her inspiration, she says, came from her father, Fred Walter, who was an architect employed by Salisbury city council but was also well known for his artistic talent.

"He was a wonderful artist who was my main tutor and mentor," she says fondly.

At 25, already married with a young family, Vivien - then Mrs Northover - went to Salisbury College of Art briefly.

Her paintings, she said, sold from her first exhibition.

Despite the failure of her marriages, Vivien has had no cause to regret her move to Australia.

"I have had opportunities out there which I would never have had in Salisbury," she says.

When her second marriage ended, she opened an art shop and gallery.

Over the years, she has won numerous awards.

Her painting output is prolific and covers a wide variety of subject matter, reflecting her Australian home.

She is happy working in a variety of media including oils, pastels, gouache and mixed media.

She fell into teaching art for the last 14 years, almost falling into it without realising her ability.

"I was showing people how to paint when I ran the art shop and then someone asked me to teach a pastel class," she says.

"I didn't know I had a teacher in me - it's amazing how you don't know what skills you've got."

She also ran painting holidays based at her current home at Stuarts Point in New South Wales.

We are chatting at her brother Mark's home in Quidhampton, where she is visiting as part of long holiday to catch up with all the family here.

The trip was paid for by another brother who lives in France, as part of a year off she decided to take following a brush with a rare form of cancer in her appendix last year.

"I'm a very robust person," she says, explaining the shock when she fell ill while on holiday in Tasmania 15 months ago and underwent a life-saving operation.

By chance, one of the people who had stayed with her on a painting holiday was Dr Ruth Cilento, sister of actress Diane, who runs a cancer clinic in Brisbane specialising in alternative therapies.

Vivien contacted her rather than follow the conventional course of chemotherapy.

So far, she says, the prescribed doses of vitamins coupled with dietary and lifestyle changes, acupuncture, meditation and traditional Chinese medicines appear to be working and all her recent tests have been clear.

Her trip to England gave the opportunity to renew her acquaintance with Cecil Beaton.

"It's coincided with that marvellous exhibition of his photographs at the National Portrait Gallery in London so, of course, I had to go," she says.