ASK Sudhir Chhetri how architecture helps his art, and you get a response born of experience.

“In architecture you see the details and that might have an influence on me seeing the depths in the objects that I paint,” he said.

And that influence is starting to become better known around Portland as Mr Chhetri gets to feel more at home here.

The Portland Artists’ Society member has a background different from most in the painters group.

Born in Nepal, he moved to Syndey in 2005 to study hospitality.

A qualified chef, he moved to Canberra two years later and spent a decade in the nation’s capital working in hospitality management and commercial cookery.

While there he began to retrain by studying architecture – something he also went to Finland to do, using the opportunity to travel around Europe visiting many famous art galleries.

“I changes to architecture because art was something I always wanted to do and it’s a creative profession,” Mr Chhetri said.

“In the back of my mind I wanted to pick some creative profession you can make a living out of.”

After a stint in Adelaide – he finished a master’s degree in architecture – Mr Chhetri moved to Portland earlier this year when his partner Georgia Larkin was appointed a Teach for Australia teacher at Heywood and District Secondary College.

While that meant Ms Larkin had a change of career (she was previously a dietitian), it meant a return to the hospitality industry for Mr Chhetri.

After a stint at a local café, he found work as a chef at Bupa.

“I came to support (Ms Larkin), and I work part-time and paint,” Mr Chhetri said.

“With Teach for Australia we were ready to go wherever she was (posted) and I knew in the back of my mind I wouldn’t get work as an architect here.”

But he’s pleased with the ability to spend time on his painting – he can do up to 12 hours a day.

“Art has always been in the back of my mind,” he said.

“I remember painting since I was a child, I could copy really well without even training but I never did it seriously.

“After I finished studying in 2019 I started seriously painting and putting effort into it.”

Mr Chhetri focuses on landscapes, flowers, portraits and objects.

Inspired by the Renaissance his favourite painters include Mexican surrealist Frida Kahlo.

“My style is more realist and modernist paintings,” he said.

“After moving to Portland I’ve had a lot of ideas of Portland-inspired landscapes, and I’ll be doing a lot of bigger ones.”

The Great South West Walk gives him plenty of ideas.

“It’s a beautiful place and there’s a lot to like and get inspired by,” he said of the region.

Mr Chhetri was working on a large painting of the Petrified Forest when the Observer interviewed him, but it was a smaller version of that highlight of the landscape at the Cape Bridgewater Blowholes that provided him with a highlight earlier in the day.

“I just made my first sale,” he said.

“It went up on the wall (at Julia Street Creative Space) and I didn’t even put a label on it and it was already sold.

“For a first sale, it was quite nice.”

He works in acrylic and said his architectural background was an influence.

“It helps me to see the same things in different scales,” Mr Chhetri said.

“You have macro and micro scales, and you see the details.

“That’s why my art is more realist too.”

 But he’s also inspired by his fellow Portland Artists’ Society members when he comes in to Julia Street Creative Space on Thursdays to paint.

“As a new artist it’s like having a family here too to talk to,” he said.