Visitors to Marion Rosetzky's studio gallery in the Peninsula foothills often ask the lady seated behind the small pots of glaze if she is the 'artist', to which she replies…. “I paint the tiles”.

Even after 20 years of artistry, Marion Rosetzky still feels uncomfortable about being described as an artist, or even as being 'creative'.

Maybe it was her parents' early ambitions for her to be a doctor, or perhaps her first jobs as a public servant and nurse, but she grew up feeling that she “didn't have a creative bone in her body”.

“I probably have some innate sense of colour, but I don't consider myself naturally 'creative'; it's more tunnel vision and pursuing something to where it needs to go.

“I suppose it depends on how you define creativity, but when I compare myself with my two sons and with my daughter who could sew the most amazing things out of her head when she was young …well, I don't have that.”

Don't go to her gallery - nestled in remnant Peninsula bushland - with any notion of meeting a reclusive artist.

She is quietly spoken and very measured, but is persistently outspoken on political and environmental issues, although not in any “vague greenie sense”.

“I had no connection with the land before coming here. I was very much a city person of European parents and, while I now feel completely right in this environment, I don't use words like 'belonging' and 'connection'..” Nor can you label her as 'The Tile Lady', for while the intricately hand painted tiles have been her signature pieces for more than a decade, she was an established potter long before she stumbled into decorative tiles.

“I began potting at home when the children were young, gradually becoming seriously interested in making pots, which I sold to galleries including the original Noel's Gallery at Main Ridge, the Melbourne Meat Market Craft shop, the then Peninsula Galleries and a few interstate galleries.

“When we designed the house here I thought I'd be crazy as a potter not to try my hand at decorating our tiles and, through that, I received a commission from the National Gallery of Australia shop to create Renaissance-style tiles for their Rubens and Renaissance Exhibition.

“They sent me transparencies of Renaissance decoration as a guide to what they wanted. It was the very antithesis of my style; neat, organised, little curls and so on.

“I'm not naturally optimistic about trying new things - I have to try and then prove to myself that I can. So, I sat here struggling for 2 weeks determined to do it.

“I sent the work, the National Gallery seemed happy and out of that came what I do now.

Nothing has been planned at all, it just evolved.” The move from Camberwell to the Peninsula with Marion's second husband Bob Gunter in the late

1980s grew out of a love affair with Shoreham, where she holidayed with her young family and a group of close friends during the 60s and 70s.

“We just loved it and I remember saying that one day I was going to live down here.

“We set off one day with The Age real estate section. This place was the last on the list and we nearly didn't come because I thought it was too far from Shoreham. It was late in the day, we got lost finding it, but when we drove down the drive we immediately knew that this was it.” They 'camped' in the machinery shed on weekends and holidays for a few years, before moving down permanently and building a mud brick house.

Like most things in her life, the gallery was unplanned. An invitation to open their house for the annual Somers Primary School Mud Brick House Tour prompted Marion to place a few pots and tiles on a makeshift table.

Over the next few years the 'shed' was lined, power, windows, doors and verandah were added and an expresso machine installed. While her tiles are still the major drawcard, the superb craftsmanship of many makers is now on commercial display.

Do your tile designs draw anything from Australian indigenous art ?

So many people ask that question, but it has nothing to do with indigenous art - there's no story to it, it's purely decorative. The tile designs are fundamentally three repeating patterns, which came out of the Renaissance commission.

I grew up with Persian rugs, so I think at some level I may also be attracted to that style. When you put a number of the tiles together you could think 'Persian rug', but it's not a conscious thing.

How are they created ?

It's a technique that I have developed. I used to be paranoid about people asking how I did it, so I wouldn't tell them anything, but having tried to teach the technique to two other people, I know that no one else can do it any way.

Apart from the design, the technical process is quite difficult. I work on a wet surface and it's about surface tension and working fast before it dries, but I'm not about to give away my trade secrets.

Galleries have come and gone down here, do you think they have a finite life span ?

When we came, there was Noels, the Giddy Bullfrog, The Post Office, McCrae and Whitehill Galleries, but they really didn't have a profile among the tourism attractions.

We still don’t have a high profile and I think that tourism on the Peninsula is now more about bigger places, some of which combine wine, food and art. Maybe it's the end for little establishments like this.

I also think that there are not as many people who value true craftsmanship these days. It's partly to do with cheap imports and the way people are brought-up with the expectation of instant gratification. I think that's what makers are having to deal with now.

Do you see tourism as an intrusion at times ?

It's probably not tourism that's going to wreck the place, but the increasing suburbanization, such as the cutting up of the land they're now doing at Safety Beach.

What changes have you seen in tourism during your time here ?

When I started the number of visitors to the gallery was greater than it is now, there was also a more diverse mix of people … Now an increasing number of visitors seem to be specifically seeking out my gallery. It pleases me that young people like my work, ordering and buying tiles for their houses.

What's your favourite location around the Peninsula ?

My favourite place is still the beach between Shoreham and Flinders. Do that walk on a beautiful day when the tide is out.

If you were not here, where would you choose to live ?

The only reason we'll move is if we are not as fit as we need to be to live in this environment, but I'd stay on the Peninsula and, if I had enough money, I'd build a little house tucked in out of the wind on the cliffs between Shoreham and Flinders, with access to the beach.