Joy has started work on a three metre canvas for an exhibition at Estense Castle in Ferrara in Italy in November and has chosen the Australian desert at midnight as her inspiration.

Joy said she's delighted and has thrown herself headlong into completing the art work.

“I just received the invitation from out of the blue from one of the judges who judged my work when I exhibited in Italy when winning the Medici Medal last year,” Joy said.

Joy said from a young age she didn't fit the mould of traditional art taught at school.

“I remember I would always turn an inkblot or a mark on my book at school into a picture - a vase or a spider crawling across the page.

“Sometimes a couple of teachers even gave me marks for my picture as well,” she said.

“And at high school I didn't see eye-to-eye with my art teacher - in fact we didn't get on at all,” she said.

But that's all behind her as she says she continues to discover more about herself every time she creates a work of art.

Joy said she sometimes gets a little nervous when shipping off her art work overseas.

“But I take it from the frame and roll the canvass - it will take about four weeks for it to reach Italy.

Joy is also planning to exhibit in Mexico after receiving another recent invitation to submit work for a public exhibition.