Salon des Refusés

Artist Name: HEB PETERS

Artwork Title: DUALITY OF WOMAN

Medium: oil on canvas

Size: 60 x 60cm

Artist Name: ORKAYDIA

Artwork Title: OVERCOMING

Medium: Acrylic on Wood

Size: 45 x 45cm

Artist Name: MINA AFRA

Artwork Title: THE OTWAY'S PULSE V DIPTICH

Medium: Oil on Wooden Panel-Framed in Tasmanian oak

Size: 40 x 60cm

Artist Name: LUCY KNOX

Artwork Title: SIREN SONG

Medium: Photograph, Silver Gelatin Print

Size: 30 x 60cm

Artist Name: PATRICK HROMAS

Artwork Title: LENNY VON DOHLEN

Medium: Pastel pencil, watercolour pencil and traces of pencil on Arches watercolour paper

Size: 30 x 42cm

Artist Name: KEVAN RIGBY

Artwork Title: 'JUG ON THE PIANO 2

Medium: oil

Size: 28 x 23cm

Artist Name: CARLA PETRIE

Artwork Title: DAINA RED WITH ENVY

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

Size: 30 x 30cm

Artist Name: STEPHEN BURDETT

Artwork Title: MENAGERIE

Medium: acrylic gel, aerosol

Size: 20 x 20cm

Artist Name: SHENG YI LEE

Artwork Title: SELF-PORTRAIT, 7 YEARS OLD

Medium: Watercolour on paper

Size: 21 x 30cm

Artist Name: AMANDA BRIERLEY

Artwork Title: SELF PORTRAIT IN GRIEF

Medium: Oil

Size: 40 x 30cm

Artist Name: KATRINA O'SHANNESSY

Artwork Title: THE DIGITAL DEBATE PIXELS VS PALLET

Medium: Acyrlic

Size: 51 x 41cm

Artist Name: SUE SMITH

Artwork Title: THE BLACK COCKATOO MUSICIAN LED THE NEWLYWEDS INTO A MERRY DANCE AT THE COUNTRY WEDDING

Medium: Acrylic on canvas

Size: 51 x 51cm

Artist Name: DEMI MARINO

Artwork Title: COCOONED

Medium: acrylic and oil

Size: 49 x 40cm

Artist Name: CHRISTINE HALL

Artwork Title: STREET ART SYDNEY

Medium: Photography

Size: 53 x 43cm

Artist Name: LIBBY DERHAM

Artwork Title: IN LOVE AGAIN

Medium: watercolour on cotton paper

Size: 42 x 30cm

Artist Name: JULIAN CLAVIJO

Artwork Title: RISING

Medium: Spray paint and oil on wood blocks

Size: 32 x 32cm

Artist Name: MICHELLE SLATER

Artwork Title: 'TWIGHLIGHT'

Medium: Acrylic and Oil Pastel on Linen

Size: 30 x 30cm

Artist Name: JELLENA DEMARTINI

Artwork Title: WATTAMOLLA BEACH

Medium: gouache on paper

Size: 11 x 28cm

Artist Name: LUCY MILBANK

Artwork Title: CHAO AB ORDO

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 35 x 45cm

About the Artist:

Working primarily in oil paint, I explore my subconscious through intuitive processes. Channelling a playful sense of childlike wonder, I aim to create dark fantastical scenes that offer a narrative, but deny a resolution. I am inspired by mediaeval religion, witchcraft and demonology, expressionism and morbid curiosity.

Artist Statement:

Within the underpainting of “chao ab ordo,” I started by wiping away paint at random. From these abstract shapes, I saw figures and faces, to which I added detail and colour. A pure expression of my internal psyche, it invites the viewer to contemplate an unsettling, unsolvable narrative.

Artist Name: TIM FITZPATRICK

Artwork Title: GODFATHER HORSE HEAD DREAM

Medium: Acrylic on canvas

Size: 41 x 41cm

About the Artist:

I’m interested in the freedom of abstraction and the accuracy and precision of figurative painting.
Generally, my work aims to create surreal scenes or collages with a sense of the organic.

Artist Statement:

This piece was inspired by the scene in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather II, where a severed horse’s head is placed in someone’s bed to get their attention.
In this painting, the Godfather horse head is included beside my own, both of us with blank expressions under a solid yellow moon, wondering how we ended up where we are.

Artist Name: DEB PARKER

Artwork Title: WHITE WARATAH DREAMING

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 50 x 50cm

About the Artist:

Seeing simple light interactions on familiar forms makes the viewer take a second to understand the subject the direction of light and the surrounds. My objective is not to describe explicitly but incongruously, by man-made marks & tools, only suggesting the shape and movement of natural things.

Artist Statement:

This work follows my Australian flower series inspired by my visit to the East Coast of Southern Australia. I had no idea these amazing flowers came in White. Enlarging Australian Flowers allows us to see all these tiny forms that make a beautiful flower as abstractions of light on form. Sealed with Matt Varnish.

Artist Name: RENATE WENZL

Artwork Title: EQUINOX IN KORWEINGUBOORA

Medium: Embroidery

Size: 39 x 31cm

About the Artist:

Since the covid times I put painting behind me and by pure chance I discovered embroidery. I think it is the closest I can get to my character and doing artwork. My OCD gets fully satisfied and I can express myself better than ever with painting

Artist Statement:

I love Korweinguboora where I live for twenty years. I actually incorporate it in every artwork I am creating. The stars, the moon and the sun play an important roll if you live in the countryside. And if the day and night are the same length is highly facinating.

Artist Name: JASMINE VERONIQUE

Artwork Title: THINKING OF A PLACE

Medium: oil on canvas

Size: 61 x 51cm

About the Artist:

Jasmine Veronique, an emerging Sunshine Coast artist, captures the raw beauty of florals through a distinctive colour subtraction technique to create form within the composition. Recognised in several prestigious art awards and publications, Jasmine’s work explores the seamless blend of beauty and imperfection.

Artist Statement:

‘Thinking of a Place’ captures the resilient beauty of the yellow pincushion protea set against a dreamlike Australian landscape. This oil painting transcends the traditional portrayal of landscape and flora; a liminal space that is at once nowhere and everywhere - where nature is exactly where it needs to be.

Artist Name: PHILIP FRANKEL

Artwork Title: GET OUT OF THE WATER, YOU'RE SLOWING ME DOWN

Medium: oil on canvas (poem attached)

Size: 51 x 40cm

Artist Statement:

As a young man I sailed the Cairns to Green Island yacht race. The attached poem explains the experience I had during the race.
In those days I was not interested in art as during my first (and only) art class at high school, I was told I was wasting her time and mine. I allowed this comment to control me until I was in my 40's.
Sometime after the birth of my daughter I had an epiphany and have been "learning" about art ever since.
The narrative displayed here shows my recall of being in the water, feeling like shark bait on a line and having the "skipper" swearing at me because I was slowing him down.

Attached Poem

Beating upwind, hit a log
Trapese and inertia combine.
Traced an arc, bent the spar
Causing drag, I'm in the brine.

Artist Name: KATE CIVIL

Artwork Title:

Medium: oil

Size: 46 x 61cm

About the Artist:

Graduating with distinction from the University of NSW in fine arts and education. Since then regularly entering art shows and selling as well as exhibiting in both city and regional galleries. Being selected
in the Regional Art Award and running workshops at the Queensland Art Gallery and Mayes Cottage.
Passion being the creating of art works for an audience to appreciate and the goal to be recognised
on a large scale.

Artist Statement:

With colour blocks creating a summer seascape of the coast in the UK. Typical fishing boats lay strewn on the beach with the gulls calling overhead. People are partially obscured in the scene behind the boats and a person sits perched in the wheelchair by the land rover. High on the cliff buildings act as sentinels to the opening of the bay. A fishing net pops out at the bottom left of the work. In labour that has gone on the same for ages, with the modern mode of transport juxtaposing against the boats.
Done in oils on canvas the palette is muted blues and greens with the primary red and yellows as
contrast. Spatially the eye moves around the scene to encompass all elements in this idyll.

Artist Name: MOREEN WELLINHTON LYONS

Artwork Title: BUTTERFLY

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 59 x 40cm

About the Artist:

I enjoyed the bright spring time blossoms surrounding the flight of butterfly. On the wings is the imprint of journey from lavae to flight.

Artist Statement:

Celebration of Butterfly spritual physical Journey through spring time emerging from the confines of lavae into blossoms and flight truly a miracle of life. A reminder to believe in ourselves.

Artist Name: KATRINA

Artwork Title: HOLIDAYS BY THE SEA

Medium: Acyrlic

Size: 33 x 33cm

Artist Statement:

Living in regional qld going to the beach only ever happens very rarely. Family memories are made. The senses go in overdrive. That distict smell of the ocean & the sound and movement it creates when the waves crash. The feeling of sand between your toes. The unforgettable sight of the sky changing colour at sunset. Memories bought together in this piece. Where the clean lines of the horizon meet the ever changing movement of the sea. The colours of the land and flora, the opposite contrast the crystal blue waters.

Artist Name: MARIA RADUN

Artwork Title: WONDER

Medium: oil on wood panle

Size: 41 x 31cm

About the Artist:

As an artist, I find solace and inspiration in the beauty that surrounds me, translating observations from life into artworks that speak of balance and a sense of belonging.

Artist Statement:

"Wonder" captures the timeless beauty of a woman with silver hair sitting inside a stick hut, gazing down at some leaves and branches which she hold in her hands. Through her serene contemplation, the painting invites viewers to reflect on how the natural world provides healing and solace, and a home for an aching soul. With delicate brushstrokes and subtle colour play, the painting evokes a sense of celebration and owe towards life and speaks of wisdom and understanding that comes with age.

Artist Name: NAOMI GRANT

Artwork Title: STONE OF UNITY

Medium: Acrylic and Collage

Size: 51 x 61cm

About the Artist:

Naomi, a renowned Indigenous Australian Artist from the Wiradjuri lineage, boasts a 45-year career blending acrylics and collage. Over the last 24 years, she mastered layering coloured tissue paper, granting her pieces a unique three-dimensional texture. Her art, abstract yet suggestive, evokes multiple perceptions, emphasizing surface and layering's depth.

Artist Statement:

In NSW, Australia, stands the "Stone of Unity," steeped in Kabbalistic wisdom. Its name, "AHBEN," Hebrew for "stone," symbolizes unity—'Ab' (father) and 'Ben' (son). With a numerical value of 53, echoing its 53° convergence angle, it embodies profound teachings, framed by 13 emblems, resonating unity, and spiritual victory.

Artist Name: HILTON OWEN

Artwork Title: PORTRAIT STUDY (GREY)

Medium: oil and acrylic on linen

Size: 50 x 40cm

About the Artist:

My painting 'Portrait Study (Grey)' combines realist and abstract elements to present a personalised version of the subject. I trust that if I follow my instincts by combining my aesthetic and conceptual interests, I can hopefully create artworks that others will experience as unique and compelling contemporary images.

Artist Statement:

My painting 'Portrait Study (Grey)' combines realist and abstract elements to present a personalised version of the subject. I trust that if I follow my instincts by combining my aesthetic and conceptual interests, I can hopefully create artworks that others will experience as unique and compelling contemporary images.

Artist Name: HEIDI KAUFMANN

Artwork Title: LAYERS OF FLAVOR - ONION AND GARLIC STILL LIFE

Medium: Oil

Size: 30 x 30cm

About the Artist:

I work primarily in oil on canvas, I normally start with an opaque layer and then add layers of glazes to create depth and luminosity in my work. My paintings are often landscapes, but I also love to delve into other areas such as Still Lifes. I am very much drawn to the beauty of the world and subjects around and always feel a strong emotional and spiritual connection to my paintings.

Artist Statement:

"Layers of Flavor": Onion and Garlic Study" delves into the profound simplicity and vital presence of everyday kitchen ingredients, elevating the humble onion and garlic to subjects of contemplation and aesthetic appreciation. I explored the intriguing textures, layers with underlaying colors, the variation in light sources and shadows to make this a stand out art piece in any kitchen.

Artist Name: KARA WELCH

Artwork Title: STILL LIFE IN SUNSETS

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 41 x 49cm

About the Artist:

Kara Welch is a local Brisbane artist. She is primarily inspired by the local landscape and by the play of colour and light in her paintings.

Artist Statement:

This intricate painting was inpired by the golden evening light reflecting off a multitulde of glass objects. The painting centres around the light from a candle refracting through the delicatly-sculpted container around it, with additional ambient light highlighting the other objects againts the balck background.

Artist Name: MARK DEAN

Artwork Title: ARCHITECTURE IN A PLEASENT MOOD 1

Medium: acrylic on canvas

Size: 40 x 40cm

Artist Statement:

motivated by the archived memories within buildings

Artist Name: LYNNE SUNG

Artwork Title: HEAT STRESS

Medium: archival tissue & paperclay

Size: 30 x 30cm

About the Artist:

I am interested in our relationship with places we inhabit. On one hand we want to enjoy beautiful natural spaces while at the same time exploiting these places for our own ends. This dilemma is constantly on my mind when I am making art.

Artist Statement:

Reefs around the world are under stress from warming oceans and industrial pollution. As our reefs bleach we are faced with the real possibility that they will disappear forever. This artwork draws attention to this issue. It is made from delicate archival paper pointing to the vulnerability and fragility of these amazing living worlds.

Artist Name: PAM FLETCHER

Artwork Title: OAST HOUSE AND GARDEN

Medium: Digital Art

Size: 36 x 49cm

About the Artist:

I am a digital and acrylic paints artist based in Tanawha, Sunshine Coast and have for many years competed and exhibited my diverse works (architectural, portraiture human and canine and landscapes) in varied forms of digital art and traditional acrylics in the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Sydney and London.

Artist Statement:

An oast house or hop kiln set with a simple garden pond. For kilning/drying hops in the brewing process, examples from 1574 were adapted barns, but by the 17th century the distinctive circular 2-3 storey buildings, conical roofs and 1-8 circular kilns were developed for the increased demand for beer.

Artist Name: JACK ARDILL

Artwork Title: FRACTURE

Medium: Acrylic on stretched canvas

Size: 45 x 45cm

About the Artist:

Jack Ardill is a contemporary artist living on the South Coast of New South Wales.

His work is inspired by the mythology of the Australian bush, “her beauty and her terror”, a mythos deeply ingrained in our national psyche.

Abstract and gestural, informed by shapes and patterns etched in nature, he creates paintings imbued with a sense of mystery and allure.

Artist Statement:

AUSTRALIAN GOTHIC
Her Beauty and Her Terror

beneath an endless suffocating sky
lies a vast mysterious land
harsh and unforgiving
ancient
majestic
hostile
a land of beauty
a land of terror

Artist Name: LIZ JORDAN

Artwork Title: THE DAWN WILL COME

Medium: Acrylic/pastel/ink

Size: 45 x 35cm

About the Artist:

I was involved in retail illustration and advertising but now I have a small home studio and I enjoy using wood as a sub structure. To me there are many images which appear in woodwork and I enjoy using these as inspiration. Meaning in my paintings is always important.

Artist Statement:

Those few minutes before dawn when dark still enfolds you but then the light arrives.

Artist Name: GRANT MOYLE

Artwork Title: SCOOTER

Medium: Foam air drying clay plaster

Size: 26 x 52cm

About the Artist:

I used Leadlights to convince myself that the puppet is alive .my artwork has evolved since a child…i made things my whole life…Through some traumatic events a lot of it was lost.

Artist Statement:

It’s a puppet that is operated by a bone, that tilts the dog and you can actually look down it’s mouth to see it tonsils…a loving mascot or friend…

Artist Name: GAY EMMERSON

Artwork Title: AERIAL OVER PURNULULU

Medium: Oil

Size: 50 x 50cm

About the Artist:

I graduated from Canberra School of Art in 1979. I loved the landscape of Canberra, old like so much of Australia, so that hills are worn down to appear as bellies or spines - a land with human characteristics.
In Canberra, the summer sun turns the hills golden and brown like the pelt of an animal.
The Kimberley, including Purnululu, is also ancient and scoured down by time. But the earth, with its colours .is what grabs attention here. As if we could see beneath the skin of the land itself

Artist Statement:

Flying above Purnululu, approaching the domes of the Bungle Bungles, the colours of the landscape are compelling in their intensity. Tracks and dry river beds are delineated by the darker land mass and plants grow along cleavage lines in the rocks. This place is ancient and unique, worn down over centuries of weathering and time

Artist Name: LEONIE MCINTOSH

Artwork Title: FRECKLE BOWLS

Medium: Oil

Size: 54 x 44cm

About the Artist:

I want to allow the viewer to reflect on their own personal connection to the subject. I love when you ask someone their favourite treat from childhood and the conversation leads to other people reminiscing about theirs, usually evoking a feeling of fondness, and occasionally disgust. With the bold colours, lettering and eye-catching marketing techniques used in packaging, I find a fountain of memories and inspiration. By employing little characters at times, it helps me to tell a story and create interest by making small objects the centre of attention.

Artist Statement:

'Freckle bowls' is a fun play on a family favourite, making it larger than life. I love the colour pops of the freckles, and there's always things we can do with the bits that have fallen off to keep it interesting. I could imagine this as a sculpture in a gallery as some type of interactive art, I find that concept so joyful and inspiring.

Artist Name: SHANON BRADBURN

Artwork Title: LINGERING LIGHT

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 30 x 40cm

About the Artist:

Shanon Bradburn is a Sydney-based artist, focussing on the areas of Sculpture and Portraiture, practising professionally from 2006.

Throughout her work the most important element is by far is documenting everyday moments, whether it's an object or an event. From children picking flowers, to the way the sun sets after a long day, it's in noticing these moments of purity that we begin to appreciate life and the ordinary truly becomes extraordinary.

Artist Statement:

Lingering light explores the glowing reflections a sunset brings to the shore line, differing dramatically from minute to minute.
The interplay of light and contrast fascinates me and using oils to push and pull the image is almost heavenly to me.

Artist Name: NEIL ARTHUR MILEY

Artwork Title: PETIT PALAIS #1

Medium: Oil on Wood Panel

Size: 20 x 20cm

About the Artist:

Neil Miley

For many years I was restricted to working in pastels but returned to oil paint in 2008. The scope of my work has been part of a progress of self-discovery in my evolving interest.

My interest in European art of the 19th Century has seen me travel extensively and in part explains my subject matter. Melding the past and the present has been a focus of my work since 2010 and continues to provide me with inspiration to develop new pathways to compositions.

Artist Statement:

This work is one of a series of thirty 20 x 20 paintings. All the works are concerned with the importance of past and present. Each of the backgrounds is a place that I have traveled to in search of history. The female figures in the paintings are a counterpoint to history, projecting future and present into the image. The works attempt to balance the background and foreground to reflect the equal importance of past and present. Of the thirty paintings, six have been exhibited in Spain and two will shortly be on exhibition in New York.

Artist Name: LEANNE HORROCKS

Artwork Title: COCO'S BEACH 1

Medium: Oils on canvas

Size: 40 x 50cm

About the Artist:

Leanne Horrocks Visual artist and retired teacher.
I am inspired by scenic travels to cities, seascapes and places of creative importance:histories, artists, poets and writers.I feel drawn to a timeless collective urge to visually capture the ephemeral; a treasured memory,the beauty of the light in connection with the location. It's a desire to record a felt eternal spark between humanity and environment.

Artist Statement:

Gabrielle Chanel first sighted the ocean at Deauville Beach in 1913.Local mariners in blue striped t shirts, hauling in their catch inspired her to design leisure wear for swimming.So began the House of Chanel, which would streamline women's couture and influence fashion to this day.This beach is still a crustacean carpet.Well fed birds swoop and soar across its blue on blue waters.

Artist Name: JULIE GILROY

Artwork Title: SNAPSHOTS

Medium: Archival colour pencil on premium wood board, framed in oak

Size: 30 x 30cm

About the Artist:

I see the world in the outline and shapes that make a first impression on me. My abstract art creates an immediate visual response, only after that impact do you take time to look closer at the depth and detail, discovering an intricate image.
I find the medium of colour pencil clean and decisive, the repetitive nature of sharpening and drawing is methodically comforting. My technique honed over the years to elevate the the sharp lines and saturation achievable with colour pencil. Working on wood board is central to the experience.

Artist Statement:

Snapshots arranges fragments of my work, simulating a journal. Zooming into fine detail, digging deeper into my process. Exploring the balance between the opposing emotions invites a deeper sense of knowing oneself. Repeating various sections from a different perspective provided validation and meaning to previous works, like unpicking my mind.

Artist Name: JANELLE HATHERLY

Artwork Title: MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL

Medium: Oil over old painting

Size: 46 x 46cm

About the Artist:

Janelle Hatherly took up painting more than a decade ago after a professional life in science education and interpretation in museums and botanic gardens. She is a member of the Royal Society of NSW and the Portrait Society of America's Ambassador for Australia and New Zealand. Her artistic achievements include painting the 12 principals of Sancta Sophia College at University of Sydney and being selected as a finalist in more than ten Australia-wide exhibitions.

Artist Statement:

This artwork is named after John Berendt's bestselling novel. As Minerva said in the Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah GA: To understand the living, you have to commune with the dead'.

I have been communing with poet, painter, botanist, scientist and my dear friend and colleague Edwin Wilson OAM since his passing on 27th July 2022. I spent time sketching Edwin when he had died and spoke at his funeral. As kindred souls, we have both painted, taught high school science, published books, worked in public programs in natural history museums and botanic gardens and loved growing orchids.
Ed always saw his mortal existence as but a phase in his journey through the stardust cosmos. While alive he worked tirelessly to create evidence of his existence in 27 published books, innumerable paintings of variable quality, a comprehensive personal website and memorial plaques. For some reason - maybe to come to terms with my own ageing - I feel compelled to continue Ed's quest for immortality. This is my second posthumous painting of him made using and preserving one of his own artworks.

Artist Name: RUTH BOSVELD

Artwork Title: HEADING FOR THE LIGHT

Medium: Oil

Size: 25 x 20cm

Artist Statement:

Table Cape is an iconic landmark on the north-west coast of Tasmania. It's minutes from the home where my husband grew up and special to our family. Each year, the area hosts a Tulip Festival, with a property owner growing bulbs for the local and international market. The farm is opened up to visitors during the flowering season and many of us enjoy the display.

My daughter, Eloise, took a photo between a row of tulips, looking towards the Table Cape Lighthouse, which sits on the edge of a steep drop down to the sea. The title suggested itself to me as I painted from this reference, as the gap between the row of bulbs angled towards the lighthouse, the light from which ensures safety for mariners in the hours of darkness.


I gridded up the image and, correspondingly the canvas, in order to transfer the picture, enabling me to paint the complex scene with accuracy. It is executed in oils

Artist Name: CORNELIA SELOVER

Artwork Title: SELFIE WITH BURQUA: SECOND SERIES #7

Medium: Oil on stretched canvas

Size: 61 x 61cm

About the Artist:

I approach my work from two opposite directions: from a studied figurative practice, to abstraction. They are two the sides of the one coin and from one I learn about the other. From life drawing I learn to practice accurate observation, then to translate what my eye sees to the canvas in order to represent what I see with as few marks as possible. I apply the same principle to my abstract work where I look at every shape as a thing in itself, with edges, boundaries, inviting negative and positive pressure for the eye. The elements in the abstract work are symbolic and tell a story, and when I am painting the details in a face, for instance, the shapes often tell the same story, or become tiny symbols in themselves: representing the other, rather than me. But sometimes me as well, because they are my observations and how can one separate the artist from the subject and vice versa?

Artist Statement:

First I painted a portrait of myself in the nude, taken in the mirror with my mobile phone. I am wearing the burqa to conceal what is known and expose what is taboo. To bring myself into the present I write 37-1 on a designated path finishing with the word THERE. THERE has special significance to me - it is always somewhere else, it's always the place we want to get to and when we do it is somewhere else. Writing the countdown forces my concentration into the present - you may notice that there are mistakes in the countdown when my mind drifted from the rhythm, I colour the mistakes black and orient myself back to the countdown. A reminder to stay on track, to focus on what is in front of me. Occasionally the numbers line up perfectly and those places are noted in a special way by colouring in the square around the number. By default I would do this in bright, shiny, red. Signifying blood, the source, passion, life.
I merge my self and environment with the countdown. There is no division between me and the world around me. I am concealed behind the burqa but my essence is one with all things. The atoms in my body, so precious to me in this life, are more broadly part of the natural world. I am fascinated by astro physics: how stars were born and die; how each and every one of us (on Earth and everywhere else) is built from elements born in the death of starts. And all this occurring on an eternal cycle.

Artist Name: ULLA KUTTER

Artwork Title: UNTER AM FLUSS

Medium: Oil on wood

Size: 30 x 40cm

About the Artist:

« The process of color-sensitive, soft, slow painting contrasts with the speed and indifference of everyday life. I take part of my surroundings and make art out of it. »

Through her images, Ulla Kutter creates possibilities for different levels of perception. Kutter paints using the traditional techniques of old Dutch masters, using oils on canvas or wood.

Artist Statement:

I love walking along the Elbe, everyone in my city Hamburg loves to do that - whatever the weather. In this case, the sun is shining beautifully across the river. A man takes a photo with his smartphone. The light is extremly strong and creates a siluette-like, dramatic look. Although the painting is in neutral colors, there are smal dots of color in the waves. The strukture of the ground is another theme of the painting. Each stone of the pavement is painted differently. This painting is painted on a colored primer on wood, the structure of the wood and the traces of the primer are visible. The primer is vanilla colored and determines the sunny atmosphere of the painting.

Artist Name: PETER FITZPATRICK

Artwork Title: SELFIE IN A COVID GAME.

Medium: Acrylic on canvas

Size: 61 x 52cm

About the Artist:

Considering myself a naive colourist without a set genre focus other than creating viewer conversation. My aim: One, to enjoy creating. Two, to conceive art pieces that interact with my viewing public as items intended as entertaining, but envisioned to create, provoke, and stimulate deliberation.

Artist Statement:

COVID lockdowns found people were drawn to simple board games to fill idle hours away from TV screens. My portrait is reflected within the glass balls of the pawn figurines with game pieces of identifiable historical objects to ratify history repeats itself. Chess demands prudent, and astute moves for a victorious outcome.

Artist Name: NATALIE ANNE O'CONNOR

Artwork Title: REDNESS #4

Medium: Watercolour on Paper

Size: 53 x 41cm

About the Artist:

Natalie O’Connor is an artist, researcher, and educator. Her experience in the international colour manufacturing industry has heavily influenced her practice. She holds a Bachelor of Education and a Master's degree. Most recently, she was awarded a PhD at UNSW for her thesis, The Nature of Redness- A Practice-Based Research into Red Pigments to Offer a New Understanding of Material Colour.
Her practice and thesis are concerned with the permanency and fragility of colour and the technical innovations of the artist’s palette that result from a collaborative dialogue between artists and scientists since the early nineteenth century. She engages deeply with the colour red, investigating its materiality and revealing its inherent qualities of colour.
By understanding and experiencing the delicacies of each red pigment, scientists explore the potential for colour-making in the future. This allows the new potential for contemporary artists to make informed choices with their palettes to interpret the world around them.
O’Connor’s current artwork, The Gol Gol Layer Colour Observations, has developed over the last ten years and consists of a series of experimental observations of a unique landscape in remote Australia. Each installation examines the inherent qualities of each red-coloured artist's pigment in response to the oldest red layer at Mungo, Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area, and the changes over time. These installations have been exhibited in numerous public and private galleries, including Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf, Articulate Project Space, Hazelhurst Regional Art Gallery, Charles Sturt University Gallery, Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery, Concordia Gallery and Griffin Gallery, London UK.

Artist Statement:

Redness #4 by Natalie O’Connor is an artistic interrogation of red-coloured pigments, inextricably linked to place. It has layers, testifying to the evolution of time, and the intervention and interactions, at times intrusive, of those who inhabit the earth and plumb its depths. Having made several expeditions to the remote and ancient plains of Mungo, a place where the earth is literally immersive, O’Connor has experienced at once the durability and transience of the earth’s redness; the concealing and revealing with the wind and shifting light of its deep strata.
Colour is in the earth, layered to its core. Here, the geological tides speak of the birth of life itself, fleetingly revealing the most ancient of reds in the deepest layer of the earth. For O’Connor, the privilege of sitting on the Gol Gol ground and touching and tracing the transient, all-time trajectory of the landform may have brought her closer to glimpsing the elusive spirit and nature of the pigment that fascinates her so much.
In her latest series, The Nature of Redness, Natalie O’Connor sets up glass vessels lined with paper and filled with a solution of red pigments and water. The gallery space becomes a laboratory in which O’Connor seeks to interrogate and distil the very essence of colour. Over time, the pigments leach onto the paper, leaving a trace, like an ebbing tide, or an errant and sometimes elusive signature.
For O’Connor, red is the most propelling of colours; an ancient pigment, sacred across time and culture, associated with ritual, power, life and death. Her practice, therefore, is at once clinical and passionate, calibrated and energetic, as she tries to capture and chronicle the depth and breadth and indeed the very nature of the red pigments.
Statement adapted from essay by Jo Morrow

Artist Name: DIAN NATA

Artwork Title: ODIN AND FREYA

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas Bag

Size: 50 x 70cm

About the Artist:

Created in Dec 2023 by Dian Nata with truthful sight and dream viking GOD as looks like my painting.

Artist Statement:

An artwork was made by my belive in German God Oldways which it ODIN and he's wife FREYA. Made in Canvas bag with textile acrylic with lots of power spell and pray also energy that been put as protective for owner of this bag when purchased from me. With believe or not just with TRUST on ME.

Artist Name: MARLIZE MYBURGH

Artwork Title: HARMONIC METAMORPHOSIS

Medium: ceramics

Size: 24 x 18cm

About the Artist:

Marlize Myburgh, a nature enthusiast, draws inspiration from its interplay with memory. Her artistry focuses on clay and glaze, exploring texture, pattern, and form for a captivating sensory journey. Through disciplined experiments, she uncovers creative pathways and surprises. Her latest work, intricate vessels crafted with hand building and carving techniques, showcases her boundless artistic evolution.

Artist Statement:

"Harmonic Metamorphosis" melds fantasy, nature, and science fiction, sculpted from mid-fire red-earth clay using slab building. Every intricately carved detail embodies organic transformation. Myburgh's craftsmanship invites an imaginative odyssey, transcending norms to harmonize fantasy with reality, igniting exploration of their entwined realms.

Artist Name: DEBBIE SALMON-BROWN

Artwork Title: PANDORA

Medium: Clay

Size: 40 x 57cm

About the Artist:

At the youthful age of 56, I am an emerging artist who postponed my professional artistic pursuits to raise and support my family. I delight in exploring various art mediums, frequently returning to the tactile joy of clay and the tranquil state it provides.

Artist Statement:

Birth of Pandora

In the primal echoes of creation, where earth and tumultuous waters entwine, emerges the enigma of womanhood: Pandora. Wild, untamed, and bearing the weight of destiny, her head, defiantly breaking the surface, embodies the paradox of existence. She is both vessel and catalyst—a bearer of gifts and curses. From this chaos we are reminded that within vulnerability lies resilience, strength, innocence and wisdom and within myth lies our shared humanity.

Debbie Salmon-Brown

Artist Name: SARAH

Artwork Title: SUMMERTIME SERENITY

Medium: Oil on Linen Board

Size: 50 x 40cm

About the Artist:

Sarah Park is an accomplished contemporary Australian painter, specialising in realist paintings that capture evocative moments and a corporeal aesthetic defined by deep contrasts mixed with soft transitional tones. Through her technical prowess with both brush and lens, Sarah's genre of contemporary realism reveals a transformative story behind her subjects using carefully composed scenes, soft velvety colour blends, and meticulous attention to the shifts in light and shadow play.

Artist Statement:

As a continuation of my fascination with light and shadow,"Summertime Serenity" is an exploration of illumination, and corporeal observation, seamlessly uniting figurative elements with the graceful presence of a handheld fan. This work beckons viewers into a realm where curiosity is awakened by the intricate interplay of light and shadow, inviting them to peer deeper into the artful composition. Central to my artistic vision is a celebration of unfiltered femininity. In "Summertime Serenity," I extend an invitation to revel in the sheer joy of existence without the constraints of societal agendas or preconceived notions. It's an invitation to embrace the often-overlooked details and fleeting moments that hold a profound beauty of their own. This painting also serves as a jubilant ode to the comforts of summer's warmth and the pure contentment it brings, fostering an atmosphere of serenity that transports viewers to a place of tranquil delight.

Artist Name: JENNY VINEY

Artwork Title: THE KISS

Medium: Oil & Gold Leaf

Size: 36 x 36cm

About the Artist:

As a visual person I like to express myself through the medium of painting. I hope to illustrate some
fleeting moments that appear in front of me and share these with the viewer.

Artist Statement:

Capturing a special moment in time...happiness everywhere.

Artist Name: EVIE ADASAL

Artwork Title: GAZE

Medium: acrylic on wood

Size: 20 x 20cm

About the Artist:

A graduate in BA Fine Arts COFA NSW , majoring in photography, Evie has a natural eye for light and composition. With this background, Evie has transferred her skills to painting, connecting the same elements of light and composition. Her work has a playful and intense duality, the relationship between her use of colours, textures , moods and layers in her work invite the viewer evoking their own curiosity.
Evie's current body of work explores the notions behind the science of colour, how we perceive the colour of an object through the reflection of light, some of the light is absorbed and some is reflected. Also incorporating movement, physical obstruction, light or sound in the landscape, Evie dissects the interruption of view into her work. Her use of sharp lines superimposed in contrast to luscious green landscapes beneath are a literal distraction and yet a study of palette extracted from the environment.
Understanding how this affects our emotional connection and disconnection with landscape is part of her practice.

Artist Statement:

Gaze, is part of a series of works that explores the notion of white light and the science behind how we see colours and how this affects the way we see colours in the landscape. In turn how we translate that into emotion and our connection /disconnection with landscape. Movement, lines, shapes ,light ,colour draws our eye away from seeing landscape as a whole compared to that of a still photo. Our eye flickers from one point to another until it finally rests its gaze upon the whole scape. Gaze explores our colour perception of object through the reflection of light.

Artist Name: JOHN GRAEME PEARSON

Artwork Title: ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Medium: Oil

Size: 30 x 40cm

About the Artist:

I am an established Australian artist and have exhibited extensively in Australia and also previously in South Africa. I have won multiple awards and art prizes.
I aim to capture and explore the essence and subtleties of light; the way light defines both the way we see and respond to the world around us.
I interpret the Australian landscape, capturing its subtleties of colour and light using a spontaneous technique in oils. My waterscapes and figurative works capture intense qualities of light contrasted with rich dark shadows. I also explore urban scenes and the place of the human figure. Other works capture the nostalgia of old VW Beetles and Kombis in a series depicting times passed and elements of surf culture.
My works capture a soft mood and feeling of contemplation.
I completed a BA Fine Arts degree in 1974 and an MBA in 1988. I worked as an art teacher, advertising illustrator and marketing manager before opening two galleries and a framing business in Perth. Today I am a full time artist based on the Sunshine Coast.
Website: www.johnpearsonart.com

Artist Statement:

Driving from the Sunshine Coast to Sydney we observed many rural properties with sheds and farm buildings. I stopped and did some sketches to remind myself of the rural country feel of the places we saw. From these and some photographic references I took, I developed this view of some of the sheds and out-buildings that to me epitomised rural Australia.

Artist Name: PAUL LEDINGTON

Artwork Title: SEBASTIAN

Medium: Digital/Giclee

Size: 42 x 31cm

About the Artist:

Born UK 1950, Australian citizen. Live and work in the Redlands [Brisbane] (Quandamooka country). First career as a management systems academic. MVA from Queensland College of Art (QCA)
Practice incorporates chance and focus on areas where complexity generates order/meaning/response. Crowds, seascapes, social life. Artistic roots in Surrealism, and Expressionism. Fav artists Klee, Kandinsky, Louise Bourgeois, and Julie Mehetru.

Artist Statement:

Sebastian is my sister-in-law's dog, and he is gorgeous. This work is one of his favourite poses, on a chair surrounded by abstract artworks. I love those rather flat, informal artworks of people and interiors of the 1930's onwards, something of a 'reluctant modernism'. I create with digital technology, but I am a rather 'reluctant digitalist'.

The work has an austere background, populated by other digital (abstract) artworks, the foreground is a cluttered coffee table, with coffee table art books, but within all this Sebastian, being a Labrador, is thinking about food and looking for his next 'food-provider' totally oblivious to the artistic constructs around him. It also hauls me out of my comfort zone of abstraction and the digital and faces me towards representation and the digital.

Artist Name: JULES BULLEID

Artwork Title: TRUTH SEEKER

Medium: acrylic and charcoal

Size: 30 x 60cm

About the Artist:

Jules is an emerging landscape painter living in Western Australia. Drawing inspiration from her previous farming life, journeys through the outback and overseas, Jules works predominantly in acrylics and enjoys the process of mark making in many forms. While strongly inspired by nature, Jules' work often will develop into an otherworldly interpretation, as she leans away from purely representational painting.

Artist Statement:

This work is inspired from a month-long journey I took through central Australia in 2023.
As a visitor/witness I noticed the amazing colours of sunrise, the deep purples of the shadows, the intense colours of the soil and vegetation. But I also wondered how these incredible sights might mask the history of the country, and what has happened at these places in the past. Were elders dispossessed of their country here? Were children stolen here? Were there massacres here?
I feel we need to view these incredible landscapes with context. It is natural to notice and witness the beauty around us. But the enquiring eye should be matched by the enquiring mind. To be a witness to the truth.

Artist Name: CHRISTOPHER MCLEOD

Artwork Title: SWING THE BILLY

Medium: OIL

Size: 60 x 60cm

About the Artist:

Christopher MCLEOD was born in Brisbane and has been part of the local painting scene for many years.He is at present working on a Series called BIG IDEAS. His paintings have been sold around the world.

Artist Statement:

When i was a child i went with my father and some locals from Forest to a Picnic spot on the Nullabor Plain and watched him SWING THE BILLY. The bush tradition for making Tea is a long time Australian tradition and seems to have faded into the past so I painted this to remind everyone about it. The Picnic spot was the only tree within 80 Kilometres from where we were.

Artist Name: EVY MOSCHAKIS

Artwork Title: EXEGEEZICLE JR.

Medium: Found wooden box, artificial grass, acrylic paint, yarn, polyfill, rubber bands, eyelets

Size: 33 x 23cm

About the Artist:

Evy Moschakis is a South Australian multidisciplinary artist working primarily across sculpture, textiles, installation and painting. Her primary artistic concerns are in creating immersive and playful experiences by applying a play-based methodology and strategy to her artmaking. Evy draws on her childhood experiences, guided by her father, where play and resourcefulness with everyday materials contributed to shaping her identity. Having practiced as a Psychologist prior to completing her arts degree, Evy has an enduring interest in the transformative potential of art and its impact on consciousness. In all media, Evy aims to employ varying texture, bold colour and humour to activate the inner child. In installation decisions, shifts in scale, colour and spatial awareness are employed to create a sense of wonder.

Artist Statement:

The sculpture incorporates materials from the worlds of work and domesticity, such as office supplies, and materials commonly associated with toys, sport and games. These items are used together in unexpected ways, borrowing conventions and properties from the world of games, sport and toys, to create playful sculpture. The box connects the artists own childhood memories of playing chess and backgammon with her father and offers a reimagining of analog games as contemporary art. Strategies of affordance and haptic materiality are used to engage the viewer in an experience of imagined play. The sculpture represents a moment of playfulness as a counterbalance to the more serious and mundane responsibilities of adulthood.

Artist Name: MICHAEL AUGUATINE

Artwork Title: DUSK PASSAGE

Medium: Oils

Size: 45 x 60cm

About the Artist:

Painting exclusively in oils, Michael Augustine produces fine art land and seascapes that celebrate Australia`s rich and vibrant backdrop. Depicting his works in a predominately impressionistic style, while integrating traditional artist values, his scapes convey the unique formations and atmospheric qualities of the Australian outback and shoreline.

Artist Statement:

A dusk setting with a warm tone quietly reflecting on the day. Awash of Cadmium Yellow Med to start with then Cerulean Blue and Red Violet with Raw Sienna to make the lands, shore, and bush. With all the colours to use in the sky and reflected in the water.

Artist Name: JULIE MCCURRY

Artwork Title: SUMMER GARDENT

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

Size: 30 x 40cm

About the Artist:

Ill health can confine an artist. Instead of venturing to complete plein air artworks, the backyard and the garden became my landscape during recovery. A gouache painting was first completed, then in the studio I used acrylics to create this painting.

Artist Statement:

The acrylic on canvas painting was loosely and quickly painted using a previous plein air gouache painting as a reference, The painting depicts a section of my garden as a landscape.

Artist Name: MESS NOISE

Artwork Title: CACTUS

Medium: Synthetic Polymer (Acrylic), Oil Stick and Marker on Birch Panel

Size: 60 x 60cm

About the Artist:

When I paint there is a degree of pre planning long in my mind but not on paper, the entire drawing and painting exercise delivered to the canvas is also spontaneous based on deep thoughts at the very moment and developing the abstract composition whilst later placing the figurative elements. It could be considered a personal state of mind utopia I’m looking to reach in each piece.

I also think of things that have influenced my life in the past from an early age to those that that may be of influence now. The painting process is a continual process of deep thought creating an ongoing biographical narrative through my work. There is great consideration to art history and how the painting process can be interpreted to the modern age. No one needs to feel obliged to understand my work or to think anything. Its open to interpretation of the viewer.

My recent body of work captures a polyrhythmic style of figures with Nilotic masks, a reference back to family in Kenya/Africa and early modern art. My other composition and artistic intent is based on characters of clouds, large heads, potted plants with large eyes, which reference classical portraiture and still life’s but in review of the modern world youth, addiction mindset of the social media era, commercial advertising and modern contemporary street culture.

Artist Statement:

This artwork is based on the notion of deep thoughts represented by a cloud looking brain and engaging with things that harm us with the out reached and and a cactus looking object un green. For example we reach and and touch things like a cactus in which we hurt our hand and it is the same for other things we may engage with in life that may do us harm.

Artist Name: BARBARA JELBART

Artwork Title: HEALING. A SELF PORTRAIT

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 50 x 36cm

About the Artist:

Painting is one of the things I distract myself with.😬

Artist Statement:

I’m trying to recover from ptsd.
Constantly distracting myself helps.

Artist Name: LINDA HUNTER

Artwork Title: ONE DAY

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 54 x 54cm

About the Artist:

The Australian landscape is a beautiful thing that I have always loved. I have been painting since I was a child and use a range of mediums from graphite ,ink and acrylic paint. I’m always happiest when surrounded by nature listening to the birds and thinking about my next painting.

Artist Statement:

I’m a huge fan of Australian artist Nicholas Harding's work. In this piece I’ve applied the paint thickly with a palette knife directly inspired by him.

I see my artwork as a way of engaging people with the natural world, bringing a sense of peace and tranquility to the viewer.

Artist Name: FRILLY BUMSTEAD

Artwork Title: CASSOWARY STANDOFF

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 45 x 36.5cm

About the Artist:

I chose the Cassowary to paint as I find their whole dinosaur appearance just so appealing and would be a great challenge
Their colours just drew me in before I drew them in.

Artist Statement:

There are three species of Cassowary, but only the Southern Cassowary is found in Australia.
Cassowaries help spread seeds, which are returned to the forest undigested in the birds droppings.
They can run at speeds of up to 50km/h, can jump up to 1.5 metres and can be dangerous if approached.
The most interesting fact though is that the female is bigger and more brightly coloured than the male, which is so unusual in the bird world.

Artist Name: ROBERT DAVIS

Artwork Title: TEARS FROM HEAVEN

Medium: oil on canvas

Size: 49 x 49cm

About the Artist:

Rob Davis ( ma rca) 50 years practicing painter
1969-72 Royal College of Art London
1973 Designer British Week Tokyo Japan
1987 winner Claremont Foundation
2000 finalist Doug Moran Portrait
2010 winner Cossack
2018 winner Margaret River Spring
Many Solo Exhibitions of painting India 25 years
Collections: New Norcia Art Gallery
Profiles: Artsource , Bluethumb

Artist Statement:

The All Seeing Eye of Providence can be seen as a metaphor of God's omnipresence.
The Tear is for the present world, and her war torn children !
Why do the Nations so furiously rage together imagining a vain thing ,
when one's life is but a blink of an Eye.

Artist Name: BARBARA GRAHAM

Artwork Title: ANTHROPOMORPHIC

Medium: PHOTOGRAPH

Size: 42 x 30cm

Artist Name: KAT HAMILTON

Artwork Title: ENCHANTED SONG

Medium: Watercolour and ink on Arches paper

Size: 51 x 51cm

About the Artist:

In my painting, "Enchanted Song," I explore the profound connection between music and the human spirit. Depicting a woman playing the violin, I delve into the transformative power of music as a vehicle for emotional expression and inner exploration. The figure's impassioned performance serves as a symbol of resilience and transcendence, as she channels her emotions into the haunting melodies emanating from her instrument. Through the interplay of light and shadow, I evoke a sense of intimacy and introspection, inviting viewers to contemplate the universal language of music and its ability to transport us beyond the confines of everyday life.

Artist Statement:

She played her enchanted song on her violin gifted to her by her grandmother, using it as a powerful means of escape and transcendence. As her fingers caress the strings, her music becomes a sanctuary, shielding her from the chaos and noise of the external world. Through her music, she transcends earthly worries and transports herself to a place of serenity and inner peace, where only the harmonious strains of her violin exist.

Artist Name: CAROL FORBES CROAD

Artwork Title: EMMETT

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 30 x 25cm

About the Artist:

I am a realist painter first and foremost but my background training at St Martin's School Of Art in London created a solid foundation of drawing followed by light - always the light. In portraiture my aim is to capture a moment in time in the subjects life. A moment that reveals the character behind the portrait right at that time. I work from life and photographs in my studio.

Artist Statement:

This is 2 year old Emmett who is not at all sure about getting in the water. He's been dressed up in special clothes and a big hat, slathered with suncream but he's just a little bit anxious about the next bit. I have tried to capture that uncertainty, it's not fear it's just what comes next? Emmett is a family member and a gentle little soul. I wanted to catch the light on that bright sunny day. He did enjoy the swim once he'd braved that first bit!

Artist Name: MICHELLE HENRY

Artwork Title: FINDING TRUTHS IN SHADOWS CAST

Medium: Scratchboard

Size: 13 x 18cm

About the Artist:

As an artist and teacher, I hold drawing as the foundation of any artistic practice. I most often paint the flower as a metaphor, exploring themes of love, lust and longing as intrinsic to the human condition. Never needing to look far for visual inspiration, I photograph and draw flowers wherever I can. These become reference points for further investigations. My images can come from my own yard, my mother’s garden, local walks, overseas and interstate trips, or bouquets given for special occasions. Whether working in thin layers of oil paint built up through scumbling and glazing or, more recently, drawing in Scratchbord, I construct the surface to suggest the subtle play of light on and through the petals, leaves and structure of each plant.

Artist Statement:

This work continues my practice of portraying flowers as metaphors. The discipline of scratchboard drawing involves carefully scraping away the black surface to reveal the white layer underneath. The flower is a white chrysanthemum, a symbol of loyalty and honesty. Chrysanthemums are also the flower associated with Mother's Day and nurturing. The light falling on and through the petals casts shadows (which often suggest uncertainty or dark times). The combination results in an artwork about the struggle of being loyal, honest and nurturing through difficult times, a struggle known by any parent.

Artist Name: DAMIAN BISOGNI

Artwork Title: EVERYONE I'VE KNOWN

Medium: Acrylic and Pastel on Board

Size: 60 x 60cm

About the Artist:

Damian Bisogni is an Australian artist whose creative journey spans over three decades, showcasing his vibrant works both nationally and internationally. Originally from Melbourne, Damian has found his artistic sanctuary in the serene landscapes of Byron Bay, New South Wales, nestled upon Bundjalung Land. With deep reverence, he acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the lands he calls home, recognizing the enduring connection to country and honouring its Indigenous heritage.

Drawing from the rich tapestry of his cultural lineage—Italian on his paternal side and Hungarian on his maternal side—Damian infuses his art with a kaleidoscope of influences. His work serves as a mosaic of history, personal anecdotes, melodies, cinematic narratives, contemporary culture, and the mundane beauty of everyday life. Through a delicate dance between abstraction and semi-representation, Damian weaves whimsical narratives upon solid fields of colour and off-whites.

With each stroke of his brush, Damian expresses a kaleidoscope of observations, building layers of mediums to unearth lyrical abstract and semi-representational imagery. His signature style exudes exuberance, employing both bold and subtle hues to craft simplified figures and forms that dance across the surface. Influenced by the ebb and flow of his mood and the surrounding environment, Damian's paintings serve as visual symphonies, capturing the essence of fleeting moments with playful spontaneity.

Artist Statement:

"Everyone I've Known" captures a profound exploration of personal connections across our lifespan. The painting combines a mixture of nostalgia and introspection, with a multitude of smaller portraits, each representing a person significant in one's life. Some faces are vibrant and full of life, while others are faded and blurred, hinting at the passage of time and the inevitable changes that occur along our journey. Each face, whether familiar or unfamiliar, contributes to the tapestry of one's life, weaving together a story of love, loss, growth, and resilience.
"Everyone I've Known" is a visual poem that celebrates the beauty and complexity of human connection, inviting viewers to reflect on their own relationships and the impact they have had on their lives.

Artist Name: CATRIONA/SUZANNE GALBRAITH/SWANN

Artwork Title: CONNECTIONS

Medium: Recycled mixed media (tea bags, jewellery, clothing, chain, copper, string), rust and thread in hand-painted recycled frame.

Size: 27 x 34cm

About the Artist:

This work is part of a new collaborative series of experimental works exploring environmental issues by renewing the energy in found objects and discarded waste.

Artist Statement:

Everything is connected; but the chains are chaotic: environmental, biological, social, temporal… and in all the betweens. But what is found in the here, there, and tomorrow?

Artist Name: ROSLYN ELMS

Artwork Title: WINE, REFLECTIONS AND GRAPES

Medium: Oil on Board

Size: 42 x 52cm

About the Artist:

Roslyn is an artist now based on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

Previously owner and curator of the Little Wombat Gallery in the Blue Mountains NSW, Roslyn exhibited and sold her own art and photography, and also represented other local artists before closing the gallery and relocating. Since moving to Queensland Ros has pursued learning and painting and drawing as a creative outlet.

Someone once said we should pay attention to our persistent aspirations, and Ros believes we should all do that.

A big believer in not sticking to one genre, Ros enjoys painting in oils, acrylics and water colours and also drawing and sketching in different styles.

Artist Statement:

Wine, Reflections and Grapes is a celebration of light on a few of my favorite things; A lovely gift from a dear friend of the flask and glasses, and fruit. And of course red wine. I wanted the glass and reflections to be the hero of the painting. I wanted this painting to say "Cheers!"

This artwork was a labour of love, from the setting up and execution of the reference photo (you can see my kitchen reflected in the flask), to the selection of the frame for presentation.

Artist Name: CHRIS ANTICO

Artwork Title: WHAT WE CARRY

Medium: Oil stick on paper

Size: 40 x 50cm

Artist Name: LORRAINE DEAN

Artwork Title: HUSH

Medium: Porcelain (Set of 3)

Size: 25 x 20cm

About the Artist:

My artistic journey is one of self-discovery and introspection, guided by the tactile essence of clay. I relentlessly challenge its properties, pushing boundaries to sculpt vessels from within. Developing a process, that explores vulnerability and strength, reflecting the layers that define us, and the world we live in.

Artist Statement:

My artistic practice centers around the creation of vessels that reflect the delicate dynamics of our world marked by fragility. Through the mediums of porcelain and fabric, I fashion vessels that embody the resilience and adaptability required to navigate life and the way in which we contribute to the delicate complexities that are involved in our environment.
The deliberate construction, characterized by folding and layering, serves to accentuate the nuanced relationship between the contrasting elements. With a single firing, a visual tale with a textural surface reminiscent of charred bark emerges, mirroring the fragility inherent in our world and of the transient nature of existence. Yet from this fragility emerges the enduring strength of the porcelain, symbolic of the resilience that thrives amidst adversity.
Ultimately, my vessels serve as a visual and tactile exploration of the nuanced connections between fragility and resilience, offering a poignant meditation on the beauty and complexity of our existence within this fragile world.

Measurements are for each individual vessel.

Artist Name: MARIJKE LAMBREGTSE

Artwork Title: WAY HOME

Medium: mixed media on paper on wooden panel

Size: 42 x 58cm

About the Artist:

‘An abstract language that reveals references to an aesthetic figuration with a surreal flavour. This is the art of Marijke Lambregtse, an Australian based contemporary artist of Dutch origin, who focuses her artistic research on the relationship between man and the world, in its most hidden aspects.

Artist Statement:

This painting is much influenced by the torrential rains we had days on end while living in Bali for four months. I started feeling a bit of eco anxiety again about what is happening everywhere with so many extremes. I tried out locally made bamboo painting brushes for this work

Artist Name: GLORIA STERN

Artwork Title: SALSA PARTNERS

Medium: Oil on linen

Size: 41 x 31cm

Artist Statement:

I have always loved watching dancers and over the years I have painted many pictures with this theme. The figure in motion is of great interest to me and my exploration is to try and build atmosphere around the style of dance I am working on. In this case it is Salsa.

Artist Name: MEL HAYTON

Artwork Title: HOMELESS WOMAN I

Medium: Oils on canvas

Size: 60 x 50cm

About the Artist:

Mel Hayton is an emerging visual artist. She aspires to create emotion, challenge thinking and promote awareness.

She has won several art prizes and been commended/finalist. Her works are held in private, public and corporate collections across Australia, USA, Canada and the UK.

Studied at NAS, London Art Academy, other.
Exhibited in 40+ group and 4 solo exhibitions across Australia.

Artist Statement:

Many unforeseen circumstances lead to older women joining the fastest growing segment of homeless people in Australia - women over 55 years.

In my conversations with some of these women I hear the same words – illness, powerless, elder abuse, invisible, ignorance, financial abuse, domestic violence.
"Stand up for yourself. "
"People don’t want to know."
"You’re just an old woman."

It can happen to anyone.

Artist Name: NICCI BEDSON

Artwork Title: RETRO MODERN

Medium: acrylic on board

Size: 23 x 29cm

About the Artist:

Nicci Bedson draws inspiration from the suburbs and built landscape that surround her, on the south coast of NSW. Her style is iconically Australian and she imbues her paintings with a sense of nostalgia and familiarity.

Artist Statement:

Retro Modern is a nostalgic take on a little motor inn, located in Berry, in the Shoalhaven region/ Yuin country in NSW. I was drawn to the mid century stylings of the motel, as there is something so enduring about the architecture of the era, that we are seeing through a modern come-back.

Artist Name: KATHERINE BOLAND

Artwork Title: PRESENCE NO 3

Medium: Limited edition (1/5) pigment print from digital composite on Lustre photograph paper

Size: 59 x 42cm

About the Artist:

Since the 2019/20 bushfires, Katherine Boland has been compelled to make art to raise awareness about the climate emergency. Katherine was awarded the National Capital Art Prize (Sustainability Category) in 2023 and the Burrinja Climate Change Biennale Art Award in 2022. She has also exhibited at three consecutive United Nations Climate Conferences.

Artist Statement:

‘Presence No 3’ combines a photograph I captured in the Blue Mountains with digital elements. Materialising in the lush rainforest an imposing apparition demands that we contemplate our impact on the natural world and the imperative to preserve our fragile ecosystems. This work invites reflection and reverence for the interconnectedness of all life.

Artist Name: TAMARA PLAYNE

Artwork Title: THE CANONISATION OF THE CHOIR MISTRESS

Medium: mixed media paper

Size: 60 x 60cm

About the Artist:

I chose Yani Mills as a female performing artist to make visible an older woman musician in a male dominated scene where expectations differ for men and women as they age. Yani has made an indelible, and yet largely unsung contribution, to the community through the choirs she has led over the last 30 years. Mosaic Multicultural choir is a collaboration with QPAC and Multicultural Australia. Her other choir, Roar, celebrates its 20th birthday this year. Yani has just released an album with her band Maude Linn and The Tear Jerkers.
This work shows the context of patriarchy and misogyny represented by woven words that act as a contant backdrop for female performing artists. These words are plays on the various lenses through which female performing artists are viewed: microscope, periscope, telescope etc morph into peeroscope, terrorscope, leeroscope etc. The weaving of the words conveys the enmeshed complexity of the prejudice experienced, yet obscures and dismisses it, while female performing artists carry on regardless.
Portraiture has been an instrument of status and power throughout Western patriarchy which explains why so few women are its subjects. When women are the subjects they are usually saints with golden halos. Yani is represented here as a saint to mock this invalid constraint on the representation of women in portraiture and to question portraiture itself as a symbol of legitimised status and power.

Artist Statement:

Tamara Playne is a visual artist, writer and musician working in mixed media. Her experience as a curious, neurodivergent woman living with chronic illness positions her to question what passes for normal in hierarchical systems of power such as patriarchy and capitalism. She is particularly interested in making visible (otherwise) silenced voices and interpreting history through diverse lenses.

Artist Name: JULIE LUCHT DE FREIBRUCH

Artwork Title: SUNSET DRIVE

Medium: Acrylic on polycotton canvas

Size: 35 x 35cm

About the Artist:

Julie’s work is inspired by her local environment, exploring Queensland’s vibrant tropical landscapes, its nature and distinctive buildings. The contrast between man-made and natural forms is a popular theme in her work, as is the exploration of light. Julie uses fluid acrylics in her paintings, her style inspired by the strong graphic design elements of printmaking, and atmospheric details of illustration.

Artist Statement:

The sun sets over a Gold Coast river, emphasising the ripples of the water, the silhouettes of the palm trees, and merging landmarks into amorphous forms. With a backdrop of intense atmospheric colours, a small car makes its way home, its headlights creating its own impact on the landscape. Meanwhile, a house sits as a witness to this evening’s impressive show of light, allowing the beauty of nature to be the main attraction, our own busy lives quietly calmed as a result.

Framed in raw oak.

Artist Name: MIRANDA HAMPSON

Artwork Title: KLEPTOMANIAC LOVE ARCHITECTS’

Medium: Acrylic on cotton canvas

Size: 39 x 55cm

About the Artist:

I am an Aboriginal Anaiwan woman (Uralla, NSW). I was born and raised on Gumbaynggirr Country and currently living on Dharawal Country.

My grandmothers, both artists, in watercolours and oils, opened me up to the art world from a young age. I hold a Bachelor of Arts (Photography) and BA Applied Science (Parks, Recreation and Heritage) with First Class Honours.

I am human, so I have experienced trauma, both happened to and created by me. My work is based on the human experience but with the aesthetics that connect me to my childhood, nature and culture.

Whilst the human experience in my art is based on my perspective and wide range of influences affecting my reality of existing (mental, emotional, cultural, spiritual and physical), I hope to relate to my audience.

Artist Statement:

‘KLEPTOMANIAC LOVE ARCHITECTS’: One should feel safe in their bower. However trickery and seductive techniques can lead to dangerous consequences. They will display, they will dance and they will also steal your confidence …even your life.

These paintings represent the male and female colours of the fascinating Satin Bowerbird and are presented side by side in a 55x39cm diptych frame.

Artist Name: JULES TRUDEAU

Artwork Title: THE MAGIC HAND OF CHANCE

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 20 x 40cm

About the Artist:

Born in Melbourne in 1974, Jules is an emerging artist living in the NSW Southern Highlands. While studying at Julian Ashton's Art School in Sydney, he acquired an appreciation and understanding of the classical methods of drawing and painting.

Jules' compositions bear an acute sensitivity to the captivating dialogue between light and shadow and an intuitive understanding of the luminosity of colour and the spatial relationship between singular and set objects. His artworks are characterised by carefully balanced visuals and thoughtfully crafted compositions.

Recently, Jules' artistic path has taken a nostalgic turn, shifting from landscapes and portraits to still life depictions imbued with memories and iconography. The recurrence of certain themes in his work allows for the subtle unveiling of richly layered stories.

Artist Statement:

Alcohol and indulgence
a slow, quiet, raging silence
too taboo to talk.
A disguise,
a growing unease
surrounded by friends.
Pulling so hard on the the paddles
but the sails drag us down.
I want to lose control, unbridled
a morning melancholy,
after midnight, midlife.

Artist Name: MARTIN CLAYDON

Artwork Title: PEANUT 2

Medium: Oil and Acrylic on Canvas

Size: 32 x 36cm

About the Artist:

Martin Claydon (born.1989) is a painter based in Sydney. He is National Art School alumni since 2013. Through the ancient practise of painting, art and life get connected into brush strokes, as subjects and objects are relocated in a network of painted space. The passage of the art object within the sphere is intrinsic to the works materials and meanings.
Martin’s approach to painting reveals a heavily worked surface, often scraping and reworking an image. Highly charged embodied gestures result from this labour and present engaging subjective and material experiences. As the image is forced into the weave so too does it press into us. The social universe isn’t exterior to the painting it’s within it. Figurative modes become a manner of ‘consistency building’. Links are created whether plastic, morphological, or rhetorical between disparate objects and ideas.
Born in England (1989) emigrated to Australia (2002), Martin has a degree in Fine Art consisting of stints at the See Street Gallery School, Middlesex University, London and the National Art School, Sydney. He has completed a BFA (painting) (2013). His work is held in public and private collections in both England and Australia, including the Sydney Town Hall archive, Lane Cove Council Chambers, Redlands Art Gallery. He is associated with Metro Gallery, Melbourne where he shows his work. Some career highlights include being awarded the Lloyd Rees Memorial Art Prize (2015). A finalist in both the Brett Whiteley Traveling Art Scholarship (2018) and the Black Swan Portrait Prize (2018).

Artist Statement:

A crude rendering of a peanut, ballooning and blistering, swelling up over the canvas. Paintings feel lived-out to me not painted.

Artist Name: MICHELE RUDDER

Artwork Title: THE HARDSHIP TO LEAVE A LOVED ONE

Medium: Oil

Size: 55 x 70cm

About the Artist:

Raised in France Michele is inspired by European Artists.her style could be described as Impressionist going towards Surrealist.
Michele has exhibited in Adelaide, Gold Coast, Brisbane,Noosa and Noosa regions
.Michele has published two ART BOOKS to share Emotions and Observations with colours depicting the high and lows experienced in life

Artist Statement:

This painting is having a golden frame to enhance a deeper feeling of loss going through time

Artist Name: NELUS OANA

Artwork Title: HOT AUSTRALIAN SUMMER

Medium: Oil on composition board

Size: 49 x 61cm

About the Artist:

I work in oil on canvas or oil on composition board using mostly my fingers to apply a combination of thick impasto and delicate knife strokes to create depth and luminosity in my artwork. Greatly influenced by the emotional and enigmatic painters of the Expressionist period, particularly Van Gogh, as well as the rhythmic brushstrokes of Australian artist John Perceval, my works are filled with tremendous energy. I combine dramatic, almost violent brushstrokes, lavish textures and resonant colours to depict the sensuous beauty of Australia.
Rather than simply being representations of particular locations, my paintings move beyond the canvas into the realm of personal experience and subconscious images. They reflect the tension between nature and the human element, and celebrate the natural beauty of Australia.

Artist Statement:

Queensland, the land of the Queen. What a beautiful name! The Wonderland, the sunny land! What an inspiration for my painting, "Hot Australian Summer"! I have had the privilege of having my painting's subject be the brightness of summer tones, the movement of light on my favourite flowers. The sky is transformed by the moving waves of light that flood the painting and my soul. I am thrilled with the result. The atmosphere is the exact expression of my experience and feelings with Queensland.

Artist Name: SAMANTHA BLACKMORE

Artwork Title: I WISH..

Medium: Acrylic paint

Size: 30 x 40cm

About the Artist:

I was born Deaf. Art is my form of inner strength, which I always have passionate about painting. My creativity always comes with my thoughts while I was painting.

Artist Statement:

I wish ....longing for family love.

Artist Name: STEFAN KOCH

Artwork Title: WINTER LANDSCAPE

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

Size: 40 x 40cm

About the Artist:

Over the past twenty years Stefan has been painting mainly with acrylics and pencils inspired by daily events in his life. Stef had his first solo-exhibition in Switzerland in September 2013 and it met with great success. More solo exhibition in Switzerland followed in 2014 and in 2015 with "Top Dogs" which was featured on Swiss national television. In 2016  he released his new work with an exhibition "Brains and Portraits" at "The J" in Noosa Heads, followed in 2017 by his solo exhibition with the title of "Flowers". In 2019 he was a finalist in the small scale art award in Brisbane.

He works in his studio in Noosaville - Queensland.

Artist Statement:

Winter Landscape


This work combines past emotions with todays reality. Having lived on the northern hemisphere for the first third of my life and experiencing cold winters combined with leaf less trees and grey depressing skies, and now living in the subtropics of Queensland, enjoying that crystal clear “Queensland blue” sky, most winter days over the past 40 years.

Artist Name: JOYA GAANG

Artwork Title: UNTITLED(BONG HWANG DO)

Medium: Korean watercolour (Minhwa) on mulberry paper

Size: 51 x 51cm

About the Artist:

I am the first and only korean traditional folk painter in Melbourne. I am specialized in korean watercolour which is called ‘Minhwa’ from the Joseon Era(1392-1910) mixing with modern objects of this generation and australia. I paint on Hanji, double layered mulberry paper which is made on the traditional way and dyed with black coffee.
I am fascinated about the meaning of Minhwa as both “painting of the people” to wish for good things to happen and the painting for the kings. So each objects in my painting era have symbols of happiness and luck and the status of the Joseon dynasty so that I can convey messages for everyones’ blessings, desires and wishes. @joya.in.minhwa

Artist Statement:

A legendary bird, the Phoenix is called Bong Hwang with a face of chicken, peacock, pheasant, swallow, and mandarin duck and a body of dragon and tortoise.
They live in paulownia trees and appear when good things happen in the world. It is also used to pray for the prosperity of the royal family.
I would like to express them playing around waterfalls during sunset.

Artist Name: HAZEL TWYCROSS

Artwork Title: BEDSHAPED

Medium: Oils

Size: 20 x 20cm

About the Artist:

My artwork springs from places or people that inspire me, often this occurs when I am outside of my
normal environment. The novelty of new, heightens my awareness and I have many references to my
travels in my works. I see vibrancy of colour often beyond what is there, or that is what I find myself
translating to the page. I am inherently drawn to detail and find beauty in intricate forms. I use light
and colour to tell the story of my feelings.
Currently exploring abstracting and refining at the same time, trying to have these both work on the
page.

Artist Statement:

And legs of stone. Awake, sort of, sleep deprived again, fallen by the wayside. A coffee for shapeshifting. Move, just run. Back into action. No time to wallow in there. Up i go, in white light.

Artist Name: KARRYN ARGUS

Artwork Title: I'LL HOLD YOU UNTIL YOU CURE

Medium: Casting plaster, found object

Size: 15 x 9cm

About the Artist:

Melbourne artist Karryn Argus has exhibited her handmade objects in selected group shows and has been a finalist in numerous Art Prizes throughout Australia. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) from Monash University and a Master of Fine Art form RMIT. Karryn teaches in the Diploma of Visual Arts.

Artist Statement:

I’ll Hold You Until You Cure #1 investigates healing from loss. Karryn holds plaster works until they cure, as she calmly waits to experience the healing warmth in her hands. This work continues her ongoing interest in the embodied sculptural object and the relationship between bodies, objects, and spaces.

Artist Name: ANNA DAVI

Artwork Title: THE PRESENT MOMENT

Medium: acrylic and mixed media, paper bonded to board

Size: 45 x 45cm

About the Artist:

I am attracted to depicting birds, animals and the human form, using acrylic paint and mixed media.
I add realistic details to engage the viewer and express the subject’s key nature. Brush and pencil work, and unexpected colours shuffle the everyday, inviting the viewer to fill in their own details.

Artist Statement:

I love to depict birds in flight, suggesting movement and capturing moments in time, a witness to something that will never be repeated. I “mess up” the bigger picture - giving the feel of what’s unfolding. Then I delight in homing in on the finer details of eyes and beaks.

Artist Name: INGRID STRASSER

Artwork Title: 08:15

Medium: Oil

Size: 240 x 300cm

About the Artist:

I'm planning to paint food that you eat with your eyes, at the stage where it's very fresh and absolutely appealing. These images will feature larger than life depictions of food, to reference how absorbed we become from the moment we sit down with our meals.

Artist Statement:

The image focus' on the tastiness of the egg, the allure, heat and immediacy of a home cooked breakfast.

Artist Name: LEANNE HALLS

Artwork Title: THE GOLDEN TEAPOT

Medium: Oils

Size: 23 x 30cm

About the Artist:

Born in Australia, I spent a number of years working abroad in Japan. It was during this time that I was exposed to various kinds of traditional Japanese art and design. My passion for art led me to pursue tutelage under master of Japanese art forms and western oil painting.
My work is characterised by fluid and expressive brush strokes, atmospheric perspective and light. I do not paint oranges, vases or hills or trees, rather I capture the feeling of light falling across the objects within the painting. My painting philosophy is to paint movement, the movement of light, colour and tone across the surface of any given object.
Finalist in a number of awards including Glover Art Prize, Lloyd Rees Art Prize, Eutick Memorial Still Life Award, Lethbridge 10,000 Art Prize and others, I have a growing reputation and confidence. My paintings have also been published in various publications including The Art Collector. My works are held in private collections in Japan, USA, Netherlands, UK and Australia.

Artist Statement:

My work is all about capturing the beauty of everyday objects, like that golden teapot sitting on my kitchen table. I love playing with Chiaroscuro technique to create contrast and depth in my paintings, which adds a touch of drama to the ordinary. Light is my ultimate muse, constantly inspiring me to bring life and dimension to my pieces. Through my art, I hope to bring a bit of magic into people's lives and encourage them to see the beauty in the mundane. So come along on this journey with me, and let's explore the world through a different lens.

Artist Name: PAUL REES

Artwork Title: OH WHAT A FEELING 3

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 41 x 21cm

About the Artist:

I paint in oils and watercolours. I am drawn to beauty and strangeness in the landscape, especially remote areas. My ‘Enormous Vastness’ series tries to capture our uneasy relationship with the other-worldliness and fragile beauty of Outback Queensland, often using the metaphor of a stylised 4WD, a modern-day Ned Kelly.

Artist Statement:

This is part of my ‘Enormous Vastness’ series. On a trip through Outback Queensland the ubiquitous vehicle tracks got me thinking about 4WDs as modern day Ned Kellys roaming the landscape. A 4WD crashes into a wombat hole as the marsupial flees, referencing Nolan's 1946 'Policeman in a Wombat Hole'.

Artist Name: SANAE MAWHINNEY

Artwork Title: KILN FIRED TRANQUILITY TEAPOT 06

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 43 x 43cm

About the Artist:

Having studied architecture at university and worked in various design firms in Tokyo before relocating to Melbourne, I discovered a profound fascination for interior design and the ability to express my interests through art.
My artworks are multi-layered acrylic abstracts, drawing inspiration from the tranquillity of trees, forests, and waterfalls. Through my art, I seek to embody the essence of "Wabi-Sabi," traditional Japanese philosophies of beauty that celebrate imperfection and impermanence. I proudly identify as a "Wabi-Sabinist," deeply embracing this life philosophy and dedicated to inspiring others toward peaceful minds and lives.

Artist Statement:

The 'TRANQUILITY TEAPOT' from the 'KILN FIRED' collection drew inspiration from a Shigaraki-yaki pot I discovered in Ginza,Tokyo showcasing an indescribably gentle and sweet palette. In the realm of ceramics, allowing the glaze to flow naturally under the influence of gravity, with the outcome only revealed after firing, adds a unique beauty. In this piece, I aim to capture the beauty of glaze naturally dripping, revealing underlying layers and creating a composition where colours blend organically, expressing the wabi-sabi aesthetic — an art form that embraces the beauty of simplicity and imperfection.

Artist Name: ADRIANA ARTMEIER

Artwork Title: INHALE

Medium: graphite on paper, photo paper, plastic sleeve, acrylic and silver pigments on mount board

Size: 13 x 25cm

About the Artist:

Adriana Artmeier is a Melbourne-based artist focusing on realism mixed with a hint of surrealism elements.
Originally from Germany, she moved to Australia in 2016 after graduating from the Municipal Technical School of Design in Munich.
The majority of her work is inspired by her experiences and challenges in society.

Artist Statement:

This piece is inspired by confronting past trauma head-on and trying to keep calm in the fire. It's a reminder to keep breathing and continue, closing that chapter once you've worked through it even if it seems impossible and come out on the other side stronger than before.

Artist Name: TONYA

Artwork Title: EVERY MOMENT WITH YOU

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 25 x 20cm

About the Artist:

Tonya Hetreles is a Sydney based artist, primarily focusing on oil and acrylic painting. With embracing a more figurative approach in recent works, she is experimenting with the representation of capturing moments of ordinary life with figures in their own world. Tonya's works characteristically feature lots of vibrancy in colour and highly contrasted tones. Including the evidence of process and brushstokes are important elements to the final product and included in all paintings produced to create a more dynamic and rough effect.

Artist Statement:

Capturing mundane moments to anyone external yet treasured and wholesome to the individuals involved is something I believe to be incredibly precious. To encapsulate that perceived feeling between beings and relate that to yourself, in my case feelings of childlike amusement, freedom and fun, is an expression of emotion towards certain people and experiences in my own world.

Artist Name: KIRSTEN HOCKING

Artwork Title: LIFE BALANCE

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Size: 40 x 50cm

About the Artist:

Perth artist and educator, Kirsten Hocking, holds a Bachelor of Contemporary Arts (ECU) and a Graduate Diploma of Education (UWA). She exhibits locally and nationally and has won several awards, including The People’s Choice Award (Claremont Art Awards, 2016). Her art practice is informed by her professional background in aromatherapy.

Artist Statement:

Plants, for me, metaphorically represent life and our cultural relationships to nature. Sunlit and joyful, these stephanotis seeds are exuberantly youthful. The broken wicker basket alludes to the degeneration of ageing life. The scales – a memento of personal travels – symbolise the choices that are made as one journeys through life.

Artist Name: ELLA SENBRUNS

Artwork Title: SILK PHANTOM

Medium: Oils on canvas

Size: 56 x 46cm

About the Artist:

Ella Senbruns is an artist from South East Queensland who works across mixed-media drawing, painting, murals and digital illustration.

With strong use of dynamic line-work, Senbruns creates characters that are surreal and feminine, and often appear as though they are halfway through transformation. By distorting the body and combining it with plants, animals and objects, she creates mesmerising and confronting representations of emotion - high, low, and bittersweet.

In 2021 Senbruns graduated from a Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) at the Queensland College of Art. She has since worked as a studio artist, freelance muralist and life drawing instructor.

Artist Statement:

“Silk Phantom” depicts the tent-shaped webs of orb weavers, delicately hung within dense native scrub. With careful inspection, viewers may be surprised to discover that the silhouette of a woman has been disguised within the spider silk!

The top-right web subtly implies the details of a nose, brow and cheeks, all facing down towards the Boronia blossoms as though to smell or inspect them. The centre-left web suggests the curvature of breasts, giving this ethereal figure a distinctly feminine appearance.

By painting spider silk in a way that resembles the disembodied essence of a woman, Senbruns reflects on personal experiences of womanhood within South East Queensland. These sparkling and intricate strands of web may be alluring, but simultaneously repelling through their association with spiders. For many of us, the notion of touching a web is enough to unsettle.

“Silk Phantom” can be interpreted as an emotionally charged allegory for desire and fear, projected onto women’s bodies and the Australian landscape.

Artist Name: DEB MICHELL-SMITH

Artwork Title: THE FISH

Medium: Acrylic on board

Size: 40 x 50cm

About the Artist:

As an artist based in Narrabri, NSW, my work is a celebration of the everyday, drawing inspiration from the vibrant colors and inherent beauty of daily life. My art delves into the landscapes, environments, and neighborhoods that surround me, exploring the deep connection between nature, people, and places. Through my work, I uncover the layers of my life in regional Australia, reflecting on the connections to people and places, memories, and the community that shape my existence.

Utilizing nostalgic colors and a keen understanding of shadow and light, I create emotive narratives through paint. The repetitive nature of my brushstrokes and the layering of colors mirror the layers of my memories and experiences. In essence, I am painting a story, discovering myself, and crafting my own sense of place.

My art practice is influenced by the works of Wendy Sharpe, Sidney Nolan, Juli Allcorn, and Kathrin Longhurst, whose styles and themes resonate deeply with my own creative journey.

Artist Statement:

This figurative work captures two young boys in a moment of innocent adventure, one whimsically donning an ice cream container as a makeshift helmet while they catch a fish. It evokes the nostalgia of childhood, a time marked by carefree exploration and the joy of discovery. Through this piece, I explore themes of identity and the journey of growing up in the contemporary world, reflecting on how these early, playful experiences shape who we become.

Artist Name: VERA ZAMMIT

Artwork Title: SUNRISE AT SWANSEA, TAS

Medium: Oil on board

Size: 40 x 60cm

About the Artist:

I am a self taught artist painting in oils mainly in the genre of landscape and urban scenery. My inspiration comes from places I have travelled to and my local environment around Brisbane.

Artist Statement:

A spectacular sunrise view over Waterloo Beach at Swansea, Tasmania. As the sun started to rise, the orange and violet hues intensified and I was captivated by the reflections which appeared to spill over the water towards me. How often do we greet a new day with so much splendour?

Artist Name: DAMIAN JOHN LEE

Artwork Title: OUT O STEAM

Medium: Oil on Board

Size: 30 x 45cm

About the Artist:

Damian is an Adelaide based artist who spent most of his life in Mount Isa and North West Queensland. He is heavily influenced by the remote outback and the remnants of time that are left behind.

Artist Statement:

Many items exist as a reminder of past human activity. NWQ has many such artefacts including derelict equipment such as this steam engine from mining days of the past. Uniquely preserved because of the dry hot climate and little human or animal activity. A reminder that we are all simply passing through.

Artist Name: CHARLOTTE ORGILL

Artwork Title: OPEN COAST

Medium: Mixed media

Size: 50 x 40cm

About the Artist:

As an emerging artist, I have had one successful solo exhibition this year and I’m trying to find ways to share my art. I have developed a visual vocabulary of saturated colors and abstract forms to depict the light and landscape you see on the coast, in Central Queensland.

Artist Statement:

Open Coast is an abstract depiction of the horizon where the ocean and the sky meet. There is a slight difference between the tones of blues. In this piece, I wanted to show the slight separation of the sky and sea but use elements to show their connection.

Artist Name: LIZ GRIDLEY

Artwork Title: FALCO - BIRD OF PREY

Medium: oil on aluminium

Size: 45 x 36cm

About the Artist:

Liz Gridley’s work centers on her experiences of states of hyper-emotion where distress arises from overstimulation. The personal inevitability of death & death care is a point in which dialogue can be culturally celebrated or silenced. Here Gridley’s experience with hyper-emotion makes room for conversation that is often taken for granted or pushed aside as taboo. Through contemporary figurative oil paintings Gridley reflects her internal states and connects viscerally with the viewer.

In 2024, Gridley was awarded a place in the “Victorian Artists Society Coterie” sponsored by the Hansen Little Foundation. She currently has works available in Australia and internationally.

Artist Statement:

Falconeris, poised, unwavering and determined, red cast coming up his arm from his stage—his prescence is undeniable. The Falcon is a symbol of laser-like concentration and single-mindedness. By embracing this spirit of focus, we can harness our energy efficiently, overcome obstacles with determination, and remain centred amidst life's demands.

Artist Name: TIEL SEIVL-KEEVERS

Artwork Title: DEATH OF THE SUNFLOWER 1

Medium: Acrylic and Ink

Size: 42 x 42cm

About the Artist:

Tiel Seivl-Keevers’ practice explores themes and observations from her environment with a focus towards impermanence and temporal flux.
Her art practice is attuned to cycles of life within landscapes and humanity’s impact on the natural world. For the last two decades she has worked as an artist, exploring various media.

Artist Statement:

'Death of the Sunflower 1' contributes to an ongoing narrative exploring the life cycle of flora and fauna, paralleling it with the complexities of human mortality and personal relationships. The work aims to foster a deeper understanding of the human experience and the profound interconnectedness between life and death.

Artist Name: MICHELLE FERREIRA

Artwork Title: THE FOURTH

Medium: Photography

Size: 60 x 40cm

About the Artist:

Michelle Ferreira has recently graduated from RMIT Master of Photography. As an artist and environmental activist, she is interested in the emotional resonance of our impact on nature. Her photography is an intersection of documentary, surreal and abstract landscapes. The work engages emotions to convey empathy and reveal the beauty of nature, both the obvious and unassuming.
She has lived, created and exhibited worldwide – Australia, Portugal, Czech Republic, Malaysia, and New York through group and collaborative projects; exhibitions include CLIMARTE Gallery, Pingyao International Photography Festival 2022, Ballarat International Foto Biennale 2020 and Red Gallery in Melbourne. She was recently awarded the Creative Climate Awards 2023 (New York) and the Head On Landscape Award 2023 (Sydney). She is currently doing an artist residency at RMIT University — RMIT Culture Graduate Residency.

Artist Statement:

This double exposure image is from the Melbourne “Where the green seeps into the concrete'' series. This project explores our urban experience with nature. It reflects on how human systems interact with nature in the cities and how valuable the sense of interconnectedness with nature in the city is for humans. The relevance of this photographic work speaks to the fundamental human rights and need for connection to nature and how vital it is for our mental and physical well-being.
This photographic work is an ongoing series focused on different cities (subjects) to highlight cities' pivotal role in fighting climate change. For this project, I apply one rule — each double-exposure frame will be within view — and the overlaid images are seen from one spot to create an abstract environment where nature and urban spaces meet. Working within this framework helped me narrow my focus and be hyper-aware of my surroundings. Though the work is experimental with angles and subject placement, it also became intentional and enhanced the storytelling. Double-exposure images convey the duality and figuratively the interconnectedness of the urban intersection with nature. The experience of environmental change blends as a poetic analogy to a changing environment.

Artist Name: TIM MARR

Artwork Title: SELF PORTRAIT

Medium: Ink pen

Size: 34 x 23cm

About the Artist:

I use the stippling technique with ink pens to create fine details. I'm fascinated with themes surrounding consciousness, mental stamina, history and nature. Many of my pieces include the use of geometric shapes and fine details to express the exploration of the artwork’s theory. Each artwork tells a story of knowledge or experience in life that holds meaning to me personally.

Artist Statement:

Inspired by the song 'lateralus' by the band Tool.

Expanding consciousness and breaking free from mental constraints are some of the themes I love about Tool's songs.

"Over-thinking, over-analyzing separates the body from the mind". We can become disconnected. I like to think of stoicism and how it teaches “you have power over your mind, not outside events”. If we can be fully present in our bodies we can experience the reality of the world around us much clearer.

Artist Name: EMILY APPLEBY

Artwork Title: THE DOOR

Medium: Coloured with silver and gold leaf on paper

Size: 14 x 29cm

About the Artist:

I am an amateur artist from the Gold Coast who loves experimenting with combinations of crisp lines, geometric patterns and bold colour palettes.

Artist Statement:

This artwork depicts one of my family's favourite holiday spots and as a young child it always seemed magical with ice creams and rock pools and never-ending games of catch. I want a little of that wonder to come through in this work as each individual detail is so important but ultimately lost without the whole.

Artist Name: BEATRICE PROST

Artwork Title: TAIL TALE

Medium: Hand carved unique print on aluminium, aluminium frame

Size: 61 x 61cm

About the Artist:

Beatrice creates in her studio in Tinbeerwah. She uses her own photography to encapsulate a current story and a sense of place. Now and here. Beatrice deconstructs and transforms each of her carefully curated own photos. She patiently and meticulously hand carves the alumimnium to emphasise powerful symbolism or simply awe dropping Australian nature.

Artist Statement:

Our coastlines are graced by the bi-annual migrations of whales. Each whale is unique and can be recognised from the mapping of her marks on the underbelly. On this windy encounter off the K’Gari coast, Beatrice uses her own photography to encapsulate a current story and a sense of place. It is a story of power and grace of those mighty gentle giants.

Artist Name: DINA GILLESPIE

Artwork Title: ARRIVED

Medium: Oil on linen

Size: 60 x 45cm

About the Artist:

Dina is an emerging artist based in Sydney. As a primarily self taught artist Dina works in oils, with her main focus being Landscape and portraiture. Through using a limited palette, muted tones and simple form, she strives to evoke an emotional response from the viewer

Artist Name: YVONNE FRIZZO

Artwork Title: ON A CLEAR DAY

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 52 x 42cm

About the Artist:

Six years into my art journey, the love of nature never fails to inspire me. The love of learning and experimenting brings great joy during this exciting adventure of art.

Artist Statement:

This piece brings joy and brightness into life while experiencing wet and gloomy weather for many months. Reference is compliments to local photographer Fairlie Sandilands who granted permission for me to put my interpretation onto canvas

Artist Name: JENNIFER PULLMAN

Artwork Title: ARKAROOLA- THREE STORIES

Medium: Oil

Size: 20 x 61cm

About the Artist:

I explore mood, shape and light and how these transform the way we see nature. Each work includes various surface textures with layering and scraping of paint, tonal colours, marks and lines. These become abstracted stories of the Australian landscape.

Artist Statement:

Title: Arkaroola: Three Stories
The triptych features one place in Arkaroola, South Australia within different spaces of time. The viewer sees and selects different landscape patterns, colours and forms to cast as memory. Various impressions emerge from such experiences. One place: three stories.

Artist Name: ROB SINCLAIR

Artwork Title: A MOMENT IN AUSTRALIAN MARITIME HISTORY

Medium: Oil

Size: 50 x 60cm

About the Artist:

Rob Sinclair is a Brisbane artist who enjoys attempting to create images showing moments in time. Colour and light are his object in order to capture the are and movement of the subjects. Well known for his landscapes, portraiture is a special interest.
.

Artist Statement:

From the era of the Tall Ships, these two vessels, the barquentine rigged Southern Swan and steam tug Waratah, still can be seen on Sydney Harbour. The painting is done in the tones of sepia to capture the photography that existed in the early 1900's.

Artist Name: CATHRYN LLOYD

Artwork Title: WHERE WORDS FAIL, MUSIC SPEAKS

Medium: Collage, acrylic paint, pencil, paper, ephemera on wooden board

Size: 20 x 20cm

About the Artist:

I'm a collector of many things, patterns, paper, fabrics, textures, colour, feathers, shells, leaves, stones, fragments, the discarded and ephemera. I'm drawn to the natural world and I refer to myself as a ‘bricoleur’. Much of my artwork emerges from existing resources and materials which are reused, recycled, and upcycled. I'm inspired by the challenge and opportunity to create and make do with what is at hand. This is becoming an increasingly important aspect in my art- making given the environmental and ecological challenges that are facing us. Curiosity and creativity are two human characteristics I value deeply. We all experience, interpret and respond to the world in different ways. That’s what makes it inspiring, at times perplexing and a great foundation for making art, and collage is the perfect expressive art medium. I feel at home in the process of collage it continually surprises me, taking me to places real and imagined.

Artist Statement:

There are times when we experience life that cannot be described in words alone. While there is conflict and destruction there is also beauty that manifests in the world around us. Music can be the portal by which we can express that which cannot, when words fail to convey the human experience. Music can shine a light, making the intangible, tangible.

Artist Name: SARAH SNEDDON

Artwork Title: WE GO AGAIN

Medium: Linocut on watercolour paper

Size: 30 x 21cm

About the Artist:

After 35 years of making art around the edges of distractions, travel, day jobs and motherhood, I am working to find my way back to a consistent practice. I’m interested in exploring line and form and, experimentation with process.

Artist Statement:

This work is part of a small series exploring repetition and reproduction.

Artist Name: MIA GUNTON

Artwork Title: SELF PORTRAIT

Medium: Acrylic on canvas

Size: 30 x 30cm

About the Artist:

Mia is currently a student at Griffith University/Queensland College of Art and Design studying a Bachelor of Visual Arts. She works as a Visitor Services Officer at Home of the Arts (HOTA) on the Gold Coast. Mia’s most recent exhibition was a group show at QCAD’s Webb Gallery, Warm Apple Pie, which explored the impact on women through metaphor.

Artist Statement:

Mia Gunton's paintings look at the symbolism and language surrounding food. Mia's dessert paintings explore the concept of sexism built into language inspired by the notion of "Women as Desserts." She implores viewers to look at the connection of food and sexual desire, and the possibilities of food as a symbol.

Artist Name: LENI KAE

Artwork Title: LOVE AT THE HEART OF YOU AND I

Medium: Graphite, Charcoal, Watercolour

Size: 42 x 29cm

About the Artist:

I am an artist and writer from Sydney, Australia. My visual works are inspired by an innate need to explore the human spirit, emotional landscape, and our connection to all around us. I believe we get to know ourselves through reflections and conscious connections; and at the heart of this exploration exists the key to enlightening our mind and soul to our true selves. I believe the arts and nature can be so powerful to our journey of conscious awakening. Art and nature invite us to visit the concept of ‘Unity’ and see ourselves as part of a bigger universe; to question the truths of our sensory experiences and our existence.

Artist Statement:

There is a connectedness that lives at the heart of all mankind. This sentiment is at the heart of this drawing. Two seemingly separate people are united in thoughts, emotion and dream.
If all is done with this in mind, imagine the light and peace that our world will attract.

Artist Name: COLLEEN HELMORE

Artwork Title: KIWI BREAKFAST

Medium: Watercolour on paper

Size: 25 x 35cm

Artist Statement:

Almost every day I have this fruit for breakfast and I wanted to convey all that beautiful juicy deliciousness that entices me to continue to consume it.

Artist Name: ROSE KNIGHT

Artwork Title: SEA AIR

Medium: oil

Size: 61 x 61cm

About the Artist:

Since arrival in FNQ in 2018 Rose has been a finalist in the Glover, Villiers, Doyles and Lethbridge Art Prizes and winner in the Tyto Annual Art Prize, Mission Arts Annual, Central Highlands Regional Art Awards 2024 having successful solo exhibitions at Tanks Art Centre Cairns, Tableland and Hinchinbrook Regional Galleries.

Artist Statement:

My paintings don’t intend to be purely descriptive, but rather present themselves as an unfolding of a dream…. Such as when you waken with subliminal impressions still lingering just beyond reach. More and more I find myself painting intuitively, as a response to the environment…. Searching for the essence and it’s source. These paintings are moments of personal freedom.

Artist Name: DEBORAH HUNTER MILLS

Artwork Title: WHITE BAY

Medium: Oil on board

Size: 28 x 35cm

About the Artist:

Water is a common theme in my work. I grew up on a small island in the UK and felt a connection with the beaches and sea in Tasmania. This painting is inspired by the colours and lines of the water

Artist Statement:

I spent a long weekend down on the Tasman Peninsula with a fellow artist where we went sketching and painting. The weather was beautiful as was the landscape

Artist Name: JANICE GOBEY

Artwork Title: YOU CALL THIS A FISH

Medium: Oil on Linen

Size: 51 x 51cm

About the Artist:

Janice Gobey is a Melbourne based artist working in both Painting and Installation. Her work has focused on exploring subjects such as broken marriages, love, toxic masculinity, anger and more recently healing through nature.

Gobey has dedicated time to painting en plein air in Spain, France and Melbourne. Her interest lies in Jung’s exploration of nature and its potential to heal our overwhelmed systems amidst the current state of the world. She believes that being in nature and communing with animals can have a therapeutic effect.

Many of the animals that capture Gobey’s interest hold significant symbolic meaning.

Artist Statement:

During January of 2024, I spent time on an artist residency at Chateau Orquevaux in France. Dusty, the resident chateau cat decided to join us for lunch one day, I managed to capture a quick snap which I turned into this painting. He initially was attracted to a rather awful tuna sandwich, but the fish is much more in line with his tastes! I liked the blue background with the green, the orange stripe highlighting the connection to the cat. He appears to be caught in a moment of instinctive intrigue by the fish on the plate, highlighting nature's inherent narratives. This scene is not just a visual experience but a dialogue on the simplicity and complexity of animal behavior.

Artist Name: ALAN MAK

Artwork Title: CONNECTED

Medium: Ceramics

Size: 9 x 32cm

About the Artist:

My practice include different mediums, most of the time they are a reaction to a particular moment in time, and whatever are available at hand. I treasure every moment that I am able to practice to draw, paint, and make. My work are created with materials and spaces that I can access at the time. They are a creations and a reflection of a moment which I find difficult to repeat. I treasure them all.

Artist Statement:

The two pieces of ceramics may appear different, they are tied together through an emotional connection. Although they able to stand on their own, but the contrasting expression made them more prominent. Personally they are part of a process for me to understand individuality and togetherness, and to express the joy of a moment in time.

Artist Name: EVA DE SAN MIGUEL

Artwork Title: IN A SEOUL ALLEYWAY

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 60 x 60cm

About the Artist:

I am an artist based in Ipswich, Queensland and I paint in oils on canvas. I like to capture everyday objects lit by brilliant sunshine and singular moments in the urban landscape.
The philosopher Heraclitus said you can't step in the same river twice. I think the same way about household objects and the light that captures them and how it changes throughout the year. I like the impermanence of those moments ostensibly made permanent in a painting and I find joy in discovering how to capture little domestic scenes in paint.
I also capture moments like this while out and about – small seemingly insignificant moments and scenes in the urban landscape, lit by the sunshine or a flickering fluoro light in a certain way, just in that moment that I happen to be passing by.

Artist Statement:

Wandering around a foreign city, you can see the temples and curated attractions and you can see snapshots of everyday life. Both matter, but I find the snapshots of everyday life more interesting. I can imagine the flipside to this though: imagine wandering around your own capital city with its beautiful highlights and seeing a tourist taking photos of some boxes in an alleyway.

Artist Name: VICKI RATCLIFF

Artwork Title: BALANCING ACT

Medium: oil

Size: 53 x 53cm

About the Artist:

I am drawn to capture the women that share each morning with me at Mona Vale rock pool. Their support, their warmth and strength and their love of life help to create an inspiring local community. They have a joy about them and an age defying beauty. I aim to capture small moments of this world, and the constantly changing moods of each new day in the early morning light.

Artist Statement:

Life’s balance comes down to my feet in the sand, morning light and a cold water swim. The rest of the day then has a whole new perspective. I want this painting to immerse the viewer into my world.

Artist Name: MATTHEW HALL FONG

Artwork Title: SICK BOY

Medium: Charcoal & white chalk on hand toned paper

Size: 42 x 38cm

About the Artist:

Matthew Hall Fong is an emerging representational artist from the Northern Rivers of New South
Wales. Since picking up a brush, Matthew has fully immersed himself in the world of fine art - reading,
practicing and observing the techniques of the old masters from 17th, 18th and 19th century.
Matthew is now currently enrolled and studying at the prestigious Florence Academy of Art where
he is learning traditional drawing & painting practices.

Artist Statement:

This drawing was drawn from life during my time training in Florence, using charcoal and white chalk on hand-prepared toned paper. The final result amounting approximately 80+ hours over several months. The subject is a plaster cast of a sculpture made by Vincenzo Gemito titled 'il malatiello' (sick boy). As a practicing painter educated in the realist tradition, I have always found inspiration in the great 19th century Italian artists such Gemito, Antonio Mancini, Giovanni Boldini & Domenico Morelli.

Artist Name: SARAH JENNIFER DUTE

Artwork Title: OVERGROWN FLINDERS ST STATION, MELBOURNE

Medium: Acrylic Paint on Cotton Stretched Canvas

Size: 31 x 31cm

About the Artist:

Sarah Jennifer is an Australian born artist who currently resides in Melbourne, VIC, and specialises in acrylic paintings on deep-edge, cotton stretched canvas. She has been practicing art in various forms from an early age, starting her entrepreneurial journey selling painted pebbles at highschool, participating in art markets, and eventually completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts at UNSW Art & Design in 2019. She has exhibited her work in 5 previous exhibitions, 4 being group shows including ‘Power SHIFT’ at Gaffa Art Gallery in 2018, and her first solo show called ‘A Future Place’ held in Leichhardt in January 2021. In 2023 she founded and directed a group show called "The Next Step (Sydney)" in Flow Studios 88 for a group of 12 emerging artists ranging from sculptural work, photography, painting, videography and more. She has also launched her business as a live wedding painter outside of exhibiting, where she paints newly weds live on their wedding day, and goes by the name 'Melbourne Wedding Painter'.

As part of her philanthropic journey, her solo show ‘A Future Place’ raised $400 AUD towards reforestation in California through the non-for-profit organisation One Tree Planted, and at her self-directed and funded joint show ‘Amalgamate Sydney’ she raised nearly $1000 for charity. Her show 'The Next Step (Sydney)" also raised approximately $20,000 in profit for the emerging artists involved from sales on the opening night, and no commission was taken. Sarah considers philanthropic work as a part of her art practice, and will continue to donate percentages of her artwork sales to environmental and global restoration and other relevant causes as part of her work. Her desire and current actions are focused on expanding her practice to reach an international audience and expand how she approaches this specific theme of art.

Artist Statement:

'Overgrown Flinders St Station, Melbourne' explores the dichotomy of the man-made metropolis versus natures call to untamed growth and how these two systems of existence may potentially merge in the future. This particular artwork focuses on Melbourne’s iconic Flinders St Station with nature covering its classic architecture in an eerie, yet serene way. The artwork playfully approaches what a possible future would look like if the building-dominated world became a more apocalyptic, overgrown future, and yet looks at the peaceful undertones of the tranquility and harmony this imagery can create.

Artist Name: VANESSA LEIGH THOMSON

Artwork Title: BLUE LADY

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 40 x 50cm

About the Artist:

My art is a reflection of my love and appreciation for the beauty of nature that surrounds us all. Despite struggling at first, I persevered and found that painting was a form of meditation for me.
My focus has been on capturing the soul and spirit of the natural world through my art, and I'm passionate about conservation.
The years I spent studying were challenging and inspiring, and I've spent the last 20 years developing my style and skills while painting for the joy it brings me.

Artist Statement:

In a complex, ever-changing world where we often find ourselves grappling with our own sense of self, the question arises: should we boldly assert our individuality, even in the face of potential judgment from others, or should we opt to seamlessly blend in with the crowd?

Artist Name: CATHRYN CROWE

Artwork Title: ON SAFARI

Medium: Acrylic on canvas

Size: 20 x 20cm

About the Artist:

As a mixed media abstract artist much of my inspiration comes from the natural environment. Bushwalking, trekking in wild places, travelling, and time spent in my garden provide a multitude of experiences and memories. Painting feels like a way forward, a way of engaging with the world and exploring possibilities.

Artist Statement:

Being on safari was an extraordinary experience. From golden grasslands to pristine rainforests, this ecosystem has a distinctive energy and vitality. My process focussed on loose brush strokes, layering paint, paring it back, scratching into it and playing with colour dynamics to evoke a sense of this vibrant landscape.

Artist Name: CINDA MANINS

Artwork Title: TROPHY: RESILIENCE

Medium: Porcelain

Size: 18 x 9cm

About the Artist:

My creative practice is philosophical and conceptual in theme and resource aware in practice.
I explore the concepts of temporality, permanence and impermanence, and the relationship of humanity to the earth, particularly in the context of the Anthropocene.
The construction of each ceramic piece is guided by the qualities of the material, and the philosophies of Humanism and Wabi-sabi.
My forms are hand built and sculptural, often simple forms, with complex surfaces.
​In 2023 I undertook the CoPP’s Environmental Leadership Program, where the examination of the qualities of Leadership captured my interest and led to the development of the Trophy series.

Artist Statement:

This artwork is one of a series of trophies that elevate and explore some of the qualities of Leadership required to guide Humanity through environmental crises to a stable and secure planet home.
The trophy form and use of porcelain in this work is intended to elevate the quality of Resilience through its appearance of purity. It is distressed but has endured. The Classical form of the flame style trophy is a reference to ancient civilisations where philosophers first explored and noted human dilemmas, and laid down existential frameworks for us to explore questions of ways of being and knowing.
There are many wonderful resilient people working on amazing projects to mitigate climate change, species extinction, habitat protection and recovery, ocean protection, and the many other threats to our planet who are not always recognised for their efforts.
It is interesting to note that power and leadership qualities are not always paired.

Artist Name: BRONWYN DOHERTY

Artwork Title: MOODS OF THE SEA

Medium: acrylic on canvas

Size: 51 x 40cm

About the Artist:

Sydney born, Bronwyn studied art at the NAS and a teaching degree from Alexander Mackie CAE. She taught Art and worked at her own practice. Moving to Brisbane in 1990, she has exhibited in group and solo shows, in Queensland and NSW, primarily as a painter, recently includes ceramic sculpture.

Artist Statement:

Watching the many moods of the sea is sometimes quite cathartic, a dramatic vision of ones own emotions constantly displayed at a safe distance, anonymous and relatable.

Artist Name: SARA NASH

Artwork Title: HOME TURF

Medium: Digital photograph printed on cotton rag

Size: 30 x 30cm

About the Artist:

My perception of home is deeply rooted in my need for comfort, safety, and connection. Imagine a place where the softness of grass cushions your every step and the gentle touch of sunlight dances through the blades, creating patterns of warmth and shadow.

Home is more than just a physical space; it's a sanctuary—a haven where we find respite from the chaos of the outside world.

In this sanctuary, safety is paramount. It's where I let my guard down, knowing that I’m shielded from harm and surrounded by familiarity. The presence of softness and light among the grass creates an atmosphere of warmth and security, enveloping me in a cocoon of comfort.

Moreover, home is a place of light—not just the physical illumination that brightens my surroundings but also the metaphorical light of love, laughter, and shared experiences. The interplay of sunlight filtering through the grass adds to the ambiance, infusing the space with a sense of joy and vitality.

This abstract photo encompasses the elements of comfort, safety and softness, all harmonising together amidst the backdrop of nature's embrace.

Artist Statement:

Digital photograph printed on museum fine art paper.

Artist Name: LAURE RACHON

Artwork Title: AILLEURS

Medium: Oil

Size: 30 x 30cm

About the Artist:


 I am an eclectic contemporary Artist. I used few techniques with metals, gold and acrylic and Oil. I have a special interest in portraits.
I worked on Duality themes. I received few awards at the Robert MCcubbins Art show 2017 and 2023. Finalist on the Lethbridge art prize 2023 small scale.I also had few exhibitions at Brisbane and Melbourne.
I tried to give a special energy in my work and I think like Fernand Léger
“J’ai horreur de la peinture discrète “

Artist Statement:

Ailleurs
Oil on linen
30x30
I choose a modern and colourful approach for this portrait of Tiana Australian country singer ..
I like the way she was able to disconnect a slightly second somewhere else during a show!

Artist Name: JUDE TULLOCH

Artwork Title: FREEFALL AND FLIGHT

Medium: Mixed Media

Size: 61 x 51cm

About the Artist:

I am an outsider artist who works on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

Artist Statement:

This is one of a series of three collages that had their genesis in November 2016 on the that night Donald Trump won the US Presidential election. I wondered what the future would hold. Everything felt like a mess. Because I couldn't sleep, I walked into my workroom where there was a mess too! That only elevated my anxiety, so I sat on the floor amidst the chaos. Jimmy the dog, who'd followed me, settled in at my feet. Then, for some unknown reason, I picked up my cheap camera and started taking photos of random things in the room. The photos were absolute rubbish, but the act of being engaged in something alleviated my anxiety. Years later I revisited the photos, digitally re-coloured them, and chopped them up to make these mixed media pieces.

Artist Name: KIMBERLY SWAN

Artwork Title: TIME OUT AT THE BENCH

Medium: Oil on board

Size: 41 x 41cm

About the Artist:

My current practice in observational painting is inspired by day-to-day objects and happenings. I describe my world in paint to understand it, connect with it deeper and explore narrative. I believe I am here to observe and record what I see in my own unique way.

Artist Statement:

Team Sirens for Northern Beaches Roller Derby take a team Time Out at a recent game. My second passion after painting is the wonderful world of roller derby and its subculture. It provides a plethora of amazing figurative compositions to explore with paint.

Artist Name: GAVIN MILLER

Artwork Title: JEFE DE ESTACIóN DE ALMADENEJOS-ALMADéN

Medium: Acrylic on recycled board

Size: 38 x 52cm

About the Artist:

Local artist painting to chronicle scenes of the Anthropocene.

Artist Statement:

Estación de Almadenejos-Almadén is the stopping-off point for Almadén, Spain, the site of the largest mercury mine on the planet. Now closed the mine supplied quicksilver to enable gold recovery from historical gold mining undertaken all over the globe including Australia. The UN Minamata Convention has banned the use of mercury because of the extreme toxicity of organic mercurial compounds formed by bacteria when mercury enters the environment. Alarmingly mercury is still used in some countries in 'Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining' operations where its use poisons users and ecosystems.

Artist Name: LYNNE WALLIS

Artwork Title: BLINK OF AN EYE

Medium: Photography

Size: 50 x 50cm

About the Artist:

Primarily a painter, I use my photography as source material but have only recently used the medium as a direct vehicle for expression, a new direction. I’m interested in the way that print qualities and framing possibilities can also contribute significantly to the ideas conveyed in an image.

Artist Statement:

Fast lane on a French expressway. The fast journey through life that keeps gaining speed. Fast print, quick framed, pixilated phone photo, pinning a moment to the wall. One moment frozen, memories flash and fade. A 21st century odyssey gone in the blink of an eye.

Artist Name: DAVID LOOSE

Artwork Title: TWO PIED OYSTER CATCHERS

Medium: Spray paint on canvas

Size: 51 x 41cm

About the Artist:

David began his artistic journey on the streets and railway lines of north Brisbane in the late 80’s. It was here that he mastered the use of spray cans. David received numerous commissions and his work was represented on walls all over Brisbane. He went on to work as a commercial airbrush artist.

David uses the themes of Australian natives and explores how our culture exists within this land and region. Budgies and Banksias are two icons of Australia’s landscape. David uses them to represent a quintessential Australian-ness most of us can relate to. Australia however is a far more complicated, multicultural place and Australian culture is being redefined all the time. The Chinese text (Hanzi) explores this by weaving in different cultural aspects of our diaspora in a bright and playful way. Overall, David’s art looks to examine modern Australian culture and where this places us in a global context.

Artist Statement:

A pair of Pied Oyster catchers forage at the shore. This imagine for me, invokes childhood memories of the many family holidays I had on the beaches of K'gari and the many more I now get to enjoy with my own kids. The freedom of not having anywhere to be. The pure joy of being able to explore to your heart's content. All of these feelings are captured for me in this pair of oyster catchers.

Artist Name: RUTH

Artwork Title: SOLITUDE

Medium: oil painting

Size: 61 x 46cm

About the Artist:

In the lush rainforests of Far North Queensland, I paint dreams in buttery oils, blending surrealism with self-expression. My work connects the inner self with the outer world, reflecting both personal and universal experiences. Through my art, I explore the delicate threads that bind us all.

Artist Statement:

I love these places.
I have trodden in such places in my heart or my dreams ?
I love these places..
The solitary ones walk in these places in confidence.
This is the edge of the unknowable. for where we can be like eagles ,who delight in rarified air, or the great mountain goats who dance on cliff faces .
This is the place of the solitary ones who love being at the edge of the unknowable .
This is an ode for the courageous ones .

Artist Name: BRENTON DRECHSLER

Artwork Title: KRUMAU AM KAMP 17

Medium: Oil on Board

Size: 15 x 15cm

About the Artist:

Through a vigorous practice of painting, editing and reflection, I have considered the link between my sense of self and the materiality of paint. The ties that have emerged between my queer identity, research, and the materiality of painting have led me to an exploration of how the interconnectedness of practice can generate a sense of belonging and how that also speaks to my sexual diversity. Multiplicities, repetitions, and dualities - like my ever-present green and white stripe evoke the back-and-forth nature of being queer.

Artist Statement:

The source photograph for the work Krumau am Kamp 17 was taken on a recent self-directed residency in Germany and Austria, for my 2023 Honours research project at Adelaide Central School of Art. This setting is an abstracted transcription of another work that I have made previously. By making multiple works over and over I am inserting my sense of self into the site with more familiarity and more nostalgia over time. The work is framed in a metal tray frame that was made by my father; Edward Drechsler, who accompanied me on this residency and initially pointed out the composition.

Artist Name: TARN GIDDENS

Artwork Title: SCHOOL IN THE GARDEN AT BOORAMEEL, 1978

Medium: Crayola Crayons on Paper

Size: 30 x 25cm

About the Artist:

Tarn Giddens creates with Northern Australian longings in mind. The Queensland bush, the rainforest around Cairns and the savannah country abounding around Katherine in the Northern Territory inform Tarn’s work. He stays in touch with these landscapes, places and memories, revisiting and recreating them through various mediums.

Artist Statement:

My mother spent her first year out of school working as a governess on a property called Boorameel in Central Queensland. Here, Mum conducts a lesson for the children she looked after, Joan and Sarah. It’s a chilly June morning so they are outside; barefoot in the sunny garden.

Artist Name: LEE HARROP

Artwork Title: SELF-PORTRAIT 2024

Medium: Black and white photograph

Size: 30 x 22cm

About the Artist:

Born in Aotearoa/New Zealand Lee resides in Darwin/Garramilla on unceded Larrakia land. She was awarded a PhD at Charles Darwin University and a Master of Fine Arts, First Class Honours, from Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design, New Zealand. Her art practice is ecologically-oriented and includes collaborative interdisciplinary projects.

Artist Statement:

Scientific evidence shows our bodies contain certain minerals found in rocks - ‘We are made of star stuff’ (Sagan). For over a decade I have cut, engraved, and polished geological core samples in my art practice. My self-portrait pays homage to the rock I shape, that continues to shape me.

Artist Name: MARY SULLIVAN

Artwork Title: SPIDER SILK

Medium: Mixed Media on Paper

Size: 38 x 31cm

About the Artist:

Mary Sullivan is a Melbourne-based artist. A writer, feminist and historian with a political science doctorate, she channels her social concerns into her true calling—art. Her network of contemporary artists, evolving from the School of Clay and Art, nourishes her growth as has participation in group and solo exhibitions.

Artist Statement:

This work explores nature’s life-giving force through spiders’ web making I use paper in a myriad of textures and forms, overlapping, tearing away, exposing underlying layers, finding parallels with the earth’s seemingly destructive nature, only to see it rebuild, reinvigorate, self-heal.

Artist Name: MARIANNE GRIGORE

Artwork Title: POPPY

Medium: Oil

Size: 50 x 40cm

About the Artist:

I am a Brisbane-born and based, self-taught contemporary artist. An enthusiastic member of Art Street, http:www.artist.com.au/artist-marianne-grigore.html., I also have my own boutique gallery, Blind Dog Gallery http:www.blinddoggallery.com.

Artist Statement:

"Poppy" is a painting of a red poppy> The red poppy is sometimes used as a symbol to remember those who have died during Wars or conflicts. Lest We Forget.

Artist Name: AMY WOOD

Artwork Title: LITTLE BRIGHT SPOTS #4

Medium: Acrylic on Paper

Size: 28 x 19cm

About the Artist:

Art is a moment I can lose myself in, a captivating story, a maddening attempt to express an elusive idea, striving to achieve a fluency that allows me to communicate effectively with others, to connect over shared moments and ideas. I feel slightly braver about expressing myself in art than in life.

Artist Statement:

Life is often hard. My little bright spot series is about the tiny moments that can restore and lift us. I paint this series direct from life in an attempt to capture the absolute pleasure I feel when these moments open up before me.

Artist Name: SONJA DE STERKE

Artwork Title: FISSURE ON REYKJANES PENINSULA, ICELAND

Medium: Archival Giclee Print

Size: 29 x 41cm

About the Artist:

I'm inspired by aerial photography capturing untouched landscapes and exploring fractal patterns created by nature. Enticing me to investigate techniques recreating fractals on a smaller scale. I started photographing the fluctuating patterns of inks coalescing and discovered the inks capacity to mirror the natural forces operating at a microcosmic level.

Artist Statement:

I captured this image, inspired by the Fissure on Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland this year. I set out to interpret this event through the intermingling of different inks. The coalescing inks creating fleeting imagery mirroring the fissures created by magma on the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland.

Artist Name: CHRISTINA WALKER

Artwork Title: LINE DANCE II

Medium: Mixed

Size: 61 x 46cm

About the Artist:

I am a storyteller at heart. A modern day Sheherazade. An alchemist transforming paint into truth.
I pursue elusive answers to questions that we are afraid to ask.
My content evolves from my process, the meaning accumulates from making.
Bringing my mind into a quiet and receptive state, I infuse my surface with personal symbols and loose gestural marks, weaving my lines around my dreams, creating a magical carpet while being in dialogue with my subconscious.
I let my paintings emerge and take shape, free of judgement, full of expression and authenticity. Layer upon layer I ban my hopes and fears to the substrate, transforming them and thus burning them down to their essence. I give myself permission to play, experiment and see shapes in clouds.

Artist Statement:

Experimenting with lines, dancing around the two panels, a surprising communication unfolded. An exquisite moment when I wasn't the dancer anymore, the decisive entity, but a mere observer.

Artist Name: NATASHA ZRAIKAT

Artwork Title: BECOMING

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Size: 60 x 60cm

About the Artist:

Natasha is fascinated with nature, humanity and how the two interconnect. The animal allegories found in her work represent various parts of her own psyche and how she perceives reality, exploring our intrinsic connection to our natural world.

Natasha’s paintings take us to a place where realism and imagination meet, blurring the lines that define realism and inviting us into a dream-like state where intuitive meaning triumphs over physical reality.

Artist Statement:

I made this painting in a moment of great personal struggle. I was nearing the end of a significant chapter of my life and staring into a large void that lay before me, trying not to fall in. It took all that I had to weather that personal storm and more than once I very nearly lost my nerve.

But some part of me knew. Not only that I could get through, but that I needed to. An entire new self awaited me on the other side of this despair. And the part of me that composed this painting knew it.

Looking back, there is no other way that such a powerfully optimistic painting could come out of such a dark moment. But I somehow knew. A new, greater, more connected version of myself was being born. I was becoming something else.

In times of great challenge, we need great inspiration, and who better than the lioness to remind a woman of her inner power? This was my second hybrid in the series, and it stood as a beacon of bravery, determination and strength in the face of adversity.

The sky and the sea behind her seem almost aflame, yet she stands, triumphant, unwavering. She is all of us, she is our natural world. She is our collective ability to regenerate, to survive against all odds.

Artist Name: CHRISTINE STARZYNSKI

Artwork Title: UNDERSTORY

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 50 x 40cm

About the Artist:

Christine has been painting throughout her life. She holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts from Southern Cross University and has exhibited extensively in the Northern Rivers area. She has received Art awards from Ocean Shores Art Expo in 2011 and 2015.

She has artworks held in collections in Germany and Australia.

Artist Statement:

‘under story’, was completed at a time of great sadness of events in my life. It reminds me of the depths of my inner turmoil. The ‘under story’ explores the various elements of the rain forest and of my thoughts, and the to and fro of my emotions.

Artist Name: JENNY HERBERT-SMITH

Artwork Title: MINOR SWING

Medium: Mixed media on paper

Size: 58 x 41cm

About the Artist:

I am a Sydney-based artist with a background largely in sculpture having completed my MFA (sculpture) at National Art School in 2019. In the past few years l transferred my music based approach to works on paper embracing the same energetic application of material.

Artist Statement:

Much like the improvisation of a jazz musician, where the musician follows the moment, layering each instrument’s sound with the next, ‘Minor Swing’ proposes a visual culmination of this process. My intention is to capture the essence of music, movement, and space to create a dynamic composition on paper.

Artist Name: KAREN COLLINS

Artwork Title: MOOR THIS WAY

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Size: 60 x 60cm

About the Artist:

Throughout my lifetime, I have been blessed with the opportunity to travel extensively, collecting captivating images in my memory, through sketches and my camera lens.
These experiences provide me with an almost infinite source of reference images, which I use to create my oil paintings. Painting my travels and memories allows me to relive these moments and share them with others.

Artist Statement:

After spending a wonderful week in UK’s vastly beautiful Dartmoor National Park, I was inspired to create paintings to capture the enduring vastness, solitude and untamed spirit of this magical and captivating wilderness.

"Moor this way" is an exploration of Dartmoor National Park on an overcast day. The painting captures the unique atmosphere on a day when an ever-present sky casts a soft light onto the rolling hills of vastness and solitude.

Artist Name: MUZA ULASOWSKI

Artwork Title: DINGO CONTEMPLATING

Medium: Acrylic on stretched canvas

Size: 61 x 61cm

About the Artist:

My work predominantly explores the intricate beauty and fragility of wildlife, seeking to capture the essence of each subject with meticulous detail and realism. Using acrylic on stretched canvas, I delve into the textures, colours and emotions of each creature I portray, striving to invoke a sense of its presence.

Artist Statement:

Inspiration for “Dingo Contemplating” came from observing the dingo’s melancholy gaze at Australia Zoo. My attempt to emphasize the dingo’s isolation from its natural environment was by using a bokeh background in contrast to the meticulous portrayal of its fur, highlighting the challenges they face in a rapidly changing world.

Artist Name: PATRICE WILLS

Artwork Title: NEW DAY

Medium: oil on linen

Size: 53 x 43cm

About the Artist:

My work has an intimist sensibility and although figurative and in response to people and place, the tone of my paintings indicate that they have come from the inside, not out. The work is about empathy and a felt sense, and the process of making is my way of unpacking, maintaining, and nurturing a relationship with my subject whether it be the land, a figure or portraiture. I utilize a painterly materiality and colour to fuse the figurative and the abstract, as I merge my ideas about what I am seeing and experiencing.

Artist Statement:

In 'New Day' I continue to explore the connection between walking, nature, and my arts practice. The activity of walking unshackles the ego to magnify profound experiences of humility, new perspectives, empathy, and compassion, bringing the attention to the immense value of every part of life. This painting brims with optimism and spirit and was in response to hiking through Arrernte country along the Larapinta Trail. Back in the studio I paint what was seen and felt, to make it visible again.

Artist Name: VICTORIA ALEPOROS

Artwork Title: TRANSCENDENCE IN BLOOM

Medium: Mixed media

Size: 30 x 30cm

About the Artist:

As an artist, my work is a continuous exploration of the dynamic interplay between the tangible and the intangible, the seen and the unseen. Utilizing mixed media, I blend collage, paint, and resin to create pieces that evoke a sense of surrealism and contemplation. My compositions often feature elements of nature intertwined with abstract forms, reflecting my fascination with the delicate balance of life and the enigmatic nature of the human experience.
In my art, I seek to capture moments of transcendence and transformation. The layered textures and vivid colours in my work are designed to draw viewers into a dialogue. Through my creations, I aim to evoke emotions and provoke thought, offering a visual narrative that resonates with the layers of our inner self.

Artist Statement:

Title: Transcendence in Bloom

Medium: Mixed Media (Collage, Paint, Resin)

This piece, "Transcendence in Bloom," juxtaposes the delicate beauty of nature with the enigmatic essence of the human spirit. The vibrant flower, meticulously collaged, symbolize life and vitality. The fluid, swirling paint evokes the ever-changing and unpredictable nature of existence. At the heart of the composition, a woman appears to float within a golden, cage-like structure, suggesting themes of entrapment and liberation. The resin coating creates a glossy, ethereal finish, enhancing the surreal and dreamlike quality of the work. Through this intricate interplay of elements, the artwork invites viewers to contemplate the balance between confinement and freedom, and the perpetual journey of transcendence.

Artist Name: FIONA ENDERMANN

Artwork Title: HARMONY RISING

Medium: Mixed media

Size: 40 x 40cm

About the Artist:

My concern and awe for the environment is reflected with my abstract landscapes and portraits of people connected to their environment. My art has exhibited in Meanjin and interstate galleries, and I recently held a successful exhibition at Brisbane Powerhouse precinct.

Artist Statement:

The artwork suggests a child at play within an estuary in Moreton Bay. The art is layered with oils on a photograph, as well as paraffin wax and etching with oils. The layering enables contrasting and translucent areas of colour, whilst the etching permits intricate detail.

Artist Name: PETRONELLA VAN LEUSDEN

Artwork Title: BANKSIA GALORE

Medium: Pastel

Size: 30 x 23cm

About the Artist:

Living on the Gold Coast, Master Pastelist Petronella van Leusden started at the Dutch Royal Academy of Art (KABK). Her work, characterised by versatility and depth, ranges from subtle nuances of tone and texture, through to vibrant colour and strong composition, all dictated by the concept she seeks to convey.

Artist Statement:

Discover the intriguing beauty of banksias in this artwork! From delicate beginnings to vibrant blooms, it captures the most beautiful stage of flowering, while hinting at the lurking seed pots in the background. Let the colors and contrast mesmerize you as you explore the captivating world of Australian flora.

Artist Name: NATALIE MATHER

Artwork Title: AWKWARD VICE II

Medium: Pen and felt tip on paper

Size: 59 x 42cm

About the Artist:

As an artist I aim to explore new possibilities of imagined and constructed space - melded with the characteristics of my own visual language. My visual language includes geological features, classical architecture and the architecture of my local Melbourne neighbourhood and 1980s design-influenced pattern and colour. This personal visual lexicon combines to create fragmented tableaus that are spatial yet flattened, plausible yet simultaneously impossible. The effect of this is bordering-on-baroque drawings that contain rhapsodic, precarious structures, drawings that lead into and out of themselves without a clear exit or entry point for the viewing eye.

Artist Statement:

Awkward vice II is one of a series of recent drawings where I explore experimental spatial constructions. These drawings are a contemporary response to the capriccio - an eighteenth century architectural conceit where seemingly realistic illustrated spaces were in fact exclusively imagined. In Awkward vice II, however, there is a more distinctive interplay between artifice and plausibility, the real and the unreal. This is underscored by my chromatically high-key palette and a lack of discernable ground or gravity - elements slide and float, appear both solid and flimsy, recognisable yet rendered in synthetic colours. In contrast to the capriccio, which were often etchings completed by experienced draughtsmen, I lean into my abstract painterly skills and use of playful low-brow materials such as felt tip markers to push into a more surreal and less deadpan pictorial territory.

Artist Name: ROGER ARTHUR CALLEN

Artwork Title: ROCK SUTURES, CURRAWINYA (BUDJITI PEOPLE).

Medium: Fire (soot, burns), Oils, wire, seeds, gel media

Size: 52 x 41cm

About the Artist:

Even the most sophisticated culture depends on the natural world, which we relentlessly convert to our own consumerist imaginings. First Australians found a way of existing with minimal harm to the environment, free of global warming, pollution and habitat destruction. I am a landscape artist concerned with our interaction with the natural world, the physis from which all life springs forth, which gave rise to our imagination and consciousness.

Artist Statement:

The 'Granites' at Currawinya National Park, Queensland is a Budjiti men's dreaming site,its rock laced by joints and sutures, weathered and cracked into rounded tors and hollows. Fire-lines on the canvas resonate with travels of ancestral beings; the spring-wire collage with mound springs nearby, the blue-green ink with the lakes. Painting with fire is a way of rendering the hot magmatic origins of our planet, such as gave rise to granite intrusives.

Artist Name: JOHN MARTIN

Artwork Title: CLIMBING THE GREASY POLE

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Size: 40 x 30cm

About the Artist:

The painting depicts US Naval academy students climbing the Herndon Monument in Annapolis USA. The 6.5m tall monument is covered in grease and the students work together to scale the monument and swap the hat on the top of the monument with another one representing their progress through their education in a graduation ceremony on sorts.
The painting is cropped so there is little context and it is hard to tell if the writhing sea of colliding and grappling bodies are working together toward a common goal or against one another in a competition.

Artist Statement:

John is a multi-disciplinary artist and architect who makes paintings about the way that individuals and entities represent themselves and how culture, technology, and world events impact that representation. He has studied Fine Arts, Animation and Architecture at QUT & UQ and his work has been shown in group shows, film festivals and art prizes across Australia and internationally.

Artist Name: ALIKI YIORKAS

Artwork Title: TWO HOMES

Medium: Artist Book Card 220gsm, artist's architectural drawings

Size: 10 x 28cm

About the Artist:

Aliki Yiorkas has completed a BFA at the National Art School, and a Diploma of Visual Arts, Sydney. Her practice is multi-disciplinary; a hybrid of drawing, print, painting and artists books. Aliki’s work is concerned with personal experience, striving to record an emotional response to direct experiences in her world.

Artist Statement:

A model of the home can be seen through relationships where strong personal ties cement the structure of home. Aliki, as a grandmother, constantly moves back and forth between two houses, reinforcing the meaning of home.

Artist Name: TANIA MASON

Artwork Title: ON THE SHELF

Medium: Watercolour, Gouache and acrylic on board, Framed

Size: 37 x 58cm

About the Artist:

I have been looking at the forms within large and small plants and it has given me ideas to recreate and restructure the way plants grow. If you look at a plant, tree, bush or flower and its gorgeous foliage you can see these wonderful compositions they make without trying!

The concepts behind my practice is to explore the human inclination and tendency to collect and display meaningful items on shelves, emphasizing that these painted aspects of flora may one day only exist as objects to be admired.

Artist Statement:

It has been acknowledged that the current future of our own environment is in peril! The main concept behind the works is to bring awareness of this peril and showcase that our delicate plant life in particular is currently endangered or extinct.

Titled, On The Shelf are sitting on floating shelves on the surrounding gallery walls, to represent important items on display and symbolise the fragility of their existence.

The intention is to explore the human inclination and tendency to collect and display meaningful items on shelves, emphasizing that these painted works may one day only exist as objects to be admired.

Artist Name: PANCHALI SHETH

Artwork Title: KNOW THAT YOU ARE NOT ALONE

Medium: acrylic and oil bar on canvas

Size: 60 x 50cm

About the Artist:

I hold a Master's degree and my work intertwines Indian miniatures' narrative and figures with hybrid layers. My process involves blending traditional techniques with contemporary perspectives, creating a dialogue between past and present. Each piece is a meticulous exploration of history, culture, and personal expression, rendered through intricate, layered compositions.

Artist Statement:

In my abstract painting "Know That You Are Not Alone, Others Are With You," I used bold, interwoven lines and vibrant, overlapping colors to represent interconnectedness and solidarity. Each brushstroke symbolizes individual struggles and triumphs, merging into a collective expression of unity and shared human experience

Artist Name: GLENDA MARKWELL

Artwork Title: SUNFLOWER SUNSHINE

Medium: Digital media

Size: 30 x 25cm

About the Artist:

Glenda Markwell has actively pursued her lifelong passion for art through painting and life drawing classes. Her interest has always been painting and drawing from nature, mainly focussed on trees and natural objects. In recent years she has challenged herself with portraiture. Glenda continuously pushes her personal boundaries, trying new styles, techniques, and subjects.

Artist Statement:

Fields of Sunflowers surrounded the farmhouse where I recently stayed. Each day I would walk through these fields, and I was captivated by the vibrant colours of the flowers and leaves against the glorious blue of the sky. The way these flowers burst from the buds and faded so quickly was stunning at every stage. They are joyous to look at regardless of whether each petal or stamen is fully formed or not. They just get out there and do their best with what they have got – ready or not. So inspiring.

Artist Name: SARAH DOYLE

Artwork Title: CAMELLIAS IN BLUE REVERIE

Medium: Oil

Size: 50 x 40cm

About the Artist:

“Camellias in Blue Reverie" captures the delicate beauty of white camellias in a dreamy setting. Each petal is painted to showcase the soft, creamy-white tones that symbolise purity and grace. The subtle variations in shading and light create a sense of depth. The soft light from a nearby window is subtly captured within the vase which plays with the light. This artwork invites viewers to experience a moment of contemplation, where the timeless elegance of camellias allows us to pause and breathe in this busy world.

Artist Statement:

Sarah Doyle lives and works on Guringai country in Sydney’s North Shore, Australia. Her work explores the intricate relationship of water, sky, and land, as well as her love for creating still life art. Her still life pieces reflect her passion for gardening, capturing the beauty of flowers, often from her own garden. Sarah's art is atmospheric, authentic, reflective, and thoughtful, inviting viewers to engage with nature’s beauty. She believes in the power of art to awaken and connect, hoping her work encourages viewers to see the world with fresh wonder. Sarah has exhibited at the Willoughby Arts Centre, Hornsby Art
Society and Ku-Ring-Gai Art Society.

Artist Name: SIMON BARWICK

Artwork Title: INVERT, SUBVERT

Medium: Mixed Media Diptych. 200gsm paper in timber frame, and oil on canvas board.

Size: 43 x 46cm

About the Artist:

Have you ever noticed how some gallery-goers spend more time reading the artwork’s Title Card than considering the artwork itself? Are they are missing out on experiencing the art? I think so and it bothers me!
In trying to overcome this, I have recently had success in presenting large square paintings hung as a lozenge (diamond) which made the viewer consider the artwork first.
In this diptych, by inverting the Title Card and the artwork in size, framing and relation to each other, I am asking the viewer to reflect on the process of experiencing art itself: is there a ‘right way’ to see art; what does it mean to me; is my response valid?

I have been playful in the Title Card text, detailing the movement that inspired the artwork, as well as referencing the reason for the inversion seen here. The inverted presentation subverts how the art is perceived - Invert, Subvert.

The capacity of abstract art to ask these questions inspires my creativity.

Artist Statement:

Over the last several years, my style has developed from highly conceptual abstraction involving geometric shapes and utilising the space of large canvases, to currently working on a much smaller scale.

This progression means that my mark-making is now more intuitive, responding to the size of the canvas and knowing that every mark has an increased importance.

I want to highlight the beauty of abstraction and garner emotional responses to the work, while retaining an intellectual curiosity about how the art is perceived.

Artist Name: GLENISE NORMA CLELLAND

Artwork Title: 3 EGRETS

Medium: oil

Size: 50 x 60cm

About the Artist:

Glenise Clelland
Glenise has over 40 years of exhibiting at major galleries and her paintings are keenly sought. She has won numerous prizes and had over 15 solo exhibitions. She is represented in Government, Corporate and private collections in 15 countries and across Australia. Her vibrant contemporary paintings express her passionate love of colour, texture and dynamic forms.

Artist Statement:

3 Egrets
Glenise’s studio of 23 years at Noosa North Shore was surrounded by acres of waterlily covered lakes where Egrets and many other birds were regular visitors. The multi layers of colours in this painting are inspired by the everchanging light on the water reflecting the sky and trees.

Artist Name: KELLY KONDIS

Artwork Title: MUCH ADO

Medium: oil on canvas in oak

Size: 53 x 53cm

About the Artist:

My work balances qualities of realism and impressionism exploring the organic elements and texture of the weather. I paint intuitively in oils and my landscapes are constructed over many layers with a subdued palette to represent a state of augmentation and transformation eventually arriving at immersive and sensory renderings.

Artist Statement:

Returning to view Turner's work again earlier this year i was drawn to the small windows of light in some of his darker works, reminding me that all storms pass. I created this piece with that thought in mind. Layers and layers of shadow and swirling winds can't block out that burning sun and with it returns hope.

Artist Name: EMMA-LEE MCGREGOR

Artwork Title: THE TOLL ON BRIBIE

Medium: Acrylic on canvas

Size: 75 x 60cm

About the Artist:

I am 32 year old mother of 3 who has grown up surrounded by art my entire life based din Moreton bay region but have only recently have dove into my art after loosing my father unexpectedly at the end of last year. I am fascinated by the local rich history in our area and love discovering unknown facts of our history.

Artist Statement:

This piece was created based on a photo of the toll bridge which was originally positioned at the start of Bribie bridge, it's also one of the only toll bridges i have seen that once the tolls paid for the bridge the bridge was taken away.

Artist Name: SHIRLEY PLOOG

Artwork Title: QUIET POETRY

Medium: oil on dibond

Size: 30 x 30cm

About the Artist:

Through my painting I strive to convey a feeling that resonates and conjures up memories of my surroundings, capturing the curious aspects of nature and delving into its minutiae.
I am committed to unravelling the intricate and fragile tapestry of the world around us.

Artist Statement:

I am a dedicated observer of the natural world with a philosophy entrenched in walking, observing and imagining. My delicate mark making and subtle shifts of colour creates a sensory experience that goes beyond the visual. The gentle delicacy of ‘Quiet Poetry’ reflects my profound connection to the landscapes I encounter.

Artist Name: HIRANYA RANAWAKE

Artwork Title: ARDENT FLOWER

Medium: Acrylics on Cotton

Size: 51 x 41cm

About the Artist:

My body of work is prominantly stylised figurative portraiture  which has been mildly influenced by romanticism and symbolism yet it has progressively developed into a sophisticated unique style.
Moody expressive body language and signature colourful line works discuss traditional ideas in a contemporary eye.

In a world with a manufactured happiness where everything is valued by materialistic worth, I explore real human connections, emotions and devotions which are withering away. Focusing on this very thought, I believe my female protagonist has become a creator of a profound human connection and a communicator of emotions.
The imagery I use, show a strong influence from the ancient Indo-Aryan painting techniques I was exposed to as a young person. My further studies on classical figure paintings found in cave temples, frescoes and monastery walls have also contributed to my creative practice.

Artist Statement:

A hybridised form of a female being who represents power, beauty, fragility, sexuality and vulnerability. She is able to maintain her feminine traits yet creates an alternate reality to coexist by recasting herself as an unparalleled character of expressions.

Artist Name: NATASHA LAXTON

Artwork Title:

Medium: Mixed Media

Size: 50 x 50cm

About the Artist:

I love to create a world of Beauty, Elegance and Magic. To escape from the reality WHICH CAN SEEM dark at times. Using mixed media such as inks, watercolours, acrylics and top with the refinement of oil paints to bring the paintings alive. Capturing the connection and essence of Mother Nature that is all around us and to bring together our souls with our dreams. I have uncovered techniques and a style that truly resonates with me. The gentle layering has played a pivotal role in enhancing the depth of each painting, inviting viewers to uncover hidden meanings and connections within the enchanting world around us.

Artist Statement:

20" x 20" (50cm x 50cm)
Transparent layers of collage, inks and oil paints.
In the stillness of the night, they carry memories of a thousand lifetimes intertwined with the threads of the universe. Soft echoes of untold stories and unspoken dreams. Secrets whispered by the wind, only to be caught by the petals of delicate roses and hearts that listen. 

Artist Name: LENI

Artwork Title: MY TEARS, THEY ARE GOLDEN

Medium: Mixed Media - Pencil, Graphite, Watercolour

Size: 42 x 30cm

About the Artist:

Leni Kae is an artist and writer from Sydney, Australia. Her visual works are inspired by an innate need to explore the human spirit, emotional landscape, and connection to all around us.

“I believe we get to know ourselves through reflections and conscious connections; and at the heart of this exploration exists the key to enlightening our mind and soul to our true selves. I believe the arts and nature can be so powerful to our self-exploration and conscious awakening.”

Artist Statement:

The swallow animal spirit is a messenger between worlds. The woman here is expressing her emotions through tears that send messages to the spirits. The swallows carry her dreams and prayers to the heavens. Through these ‘golden’ tears, she is letting go, making space for, and manifesting new beginnings.

Artist Name: SUBI SLATER

Artwork Title: GROOVY

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas panel

Size: 41 x 51cm

About the Artist:

I am a self taught artist and have been drawing and painting from a very young age. I enjoy working in different mediums, including acrylic, coloured pencil, charcoal and pastel, and I am inspired by the beauty in the the world around me which I try to capture in my artwork. I particularly love drawing people and animals but am always open to experimenting with different subject matter and styles.

Artist Statement:

When I look at butterflies, I always imagine what it would be like if the little body between the wings had a human form - how fascinating that would be! I have combined my love of the 1960's style, fashion and vibe with the concept of a 'human butterfly' to create what I imagine would be a groovy looking creature. I wanted the colours and patterns of the wings to be bold and eye catching, yet not detract from the central body of

Artist Name: LINDA FARDOE

Artwork Title: THE BLUE TREE

Medium: Acrylic on wooden panel

Size: 40 x 40cm

About the Artist:

I have a diverse practice sometimes there are overlaps. Drawing/print, painting/drawing, mark making prevails through all. I am fascinated how images can evolve simply from a bunch of marks. Originally from the UK, I find the Australian flora and landscape exotic. They are frequently my inspiration.

Artist Statement:

In WA dead trees painted blue in regional landscapes are reminders of the tragedy of youth suicide. Forests and parks for me are medative spaces where I seek solace. Using cut up pieces of plastic cards instead of brushes to build up layers, the image finally revealed itself.

Artist Name: DENNIS MCCART

Artwork Title: ONLY THE MEMORIES

Medium: Ink and oil paint on canvas

Size: 61 x 61cm

About the Artist:

McCart’s practice examines the tension between humans' instinctive connection to nature and the ever-increasing signs of detachment. Repetition, remembrance, and recreation are key components in his artworks. McCart has been highly regarded for his work which is a part of both private and public collections, and selected in exhibitions throughout Australia.

Artist Statement:

As an artist based in Brisbane, erasure of historical buildings is recurrent, I am attuned to this destructive pattern. Construction sites, emblematic of temporality and transitions, captivate me with their abstract shapes and nuanced tones. My painting delves into the archetypal imagery of demolishment, a pervasive symbol in contemporary culture.

Artist Name: LISA WEST

Artwork Title: BALANCING ACT

Medium: Acrylic on Collaged Board

Size: 20 x 20cm

About the Artist:

Lisa creates layered artworks inspired by her interest in patterns and connections between colour and form. Influenced by her affection for home and outdoors, Lisa portrays organic forms and spaces she observes daily. By assimilating personal interpretations, experiences and memories, her art aims to evoke sensations of relatability and sentimentality.

Artist Statement:

Balancing Act is an expressive rendering of formations seen recently walking through Girraween National Park. This rubbed back and layered artwork combines collage and acrylic paint and aims to capture the memory of the luminous colour of the rocks and foliage seen in sunlight.

Artist Name: SIGRID PATTERSON

Artwork Title: WATTLE IN TIN

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 53 x 53cm

About the Artist:

Based in the hinterland of Byron Bay on the east coast of Australia, Sigrid works in both oil and acrylic paint. Many of her pieces embrace the story telling power of flowers. She has extended this use of floriography in her still life genre to include Australian native plants, favourite and found vessels and mementos.

Artist Statement:

Every year in wattle season I paint a big bunch in one of my studio tins. I love the wild and wacky nature of the flowers and gnarly tress. The paintings are usually quick and made with love, tissues and antihistemines.

Artist Name: EMESE ANTAL CUTH

Artwork Title: MIKLóS IN A YELLOW ROOM

Medium: Pencil on paper

Size: 20 x 27cm

About the Artist:

To me, drawing portraits is among the finest pleasures in life. And when I feel like I have perhaps managed to capture a tiny glimpse of a person’s character, charm, quirks – in the curve of a lip or the glint of an eye… That is truly the pinnacle of existence.

Artist Statement:

In this little room in Budapest, fine dust has settled on the radiator and the windowsill. The smell of Miklós’s cigarette lingers on. The lazy summer afternoon sun has turned the yellow walls into a shade of gold: a shade as deep, warm and comforting as our decades-long friendship.

Artist Name: JUANITA SANGANITHY

Artwork Title: RAINBOW REST

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 35 x 45cm

About the Artist:

Juanita is an Australian artist who loves to use vibrant colours in her creative work, preferring acrylics to express her style, ranging from realism to abstract. She enjoys being immersed in nature and bringing it to life on the canvas, whilst seeking out interesting compositions that create an emotional response.

Artist Statement:

The high-pitched chattering of lively Rainbow Lorikeets in a bottlebrush tree outside my window captivated me. Their vibrant plumage against a backdrop of crimson blossoms had me in awe.

Artist Name: KIMBERLY SMITH

Artwork Title: UNTITLED NUDE 1

Medium: Mixed Acrylic on Canvas

Size: 30 x 16cm

About the Artist:

Brisbane-based queer artist; Kimberly Smith has been a practising artist since 2015. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts at QCA Southbank in December of 2022. Throughout her arts career, she has participated in four solo exhibitions, seventeen group exhibitions, three publications and her work is in several private collections globally.

Artist Statement:

Crochet historically has been a domestic practice kept to the confines of the home, much like nudity. Much like it's medium, this piece aims to challenge the traditional concept of the "nude". The subject is not submissive, nor is she positioned as an object of the viewer's desire. Nothing is alluring,weak or lacking in autonomy about the subject. She displays a strong power dynamic, refusing to acknowledge the audience; she holds control. She is not ordained in precious jewels or feathers, she is bare, raw, natural. She doesn't meet society's standards of beauty or sexuality and yet she is present and she is NUDE.

Artist Name: JANE SHERIDAN BOOTY

Artwork Title: SUN SHINE CREEK

Medium: Acrylic and Oil on Canvas

Size: 51 x 41cm

About the Artist:

My artistic vision intertwines the subjective realm of psychology with the objective world, projecting the complexities of deeper human perception onto the world around us. Inspired by a love of experimental themes in art, books and movies, my work invites the viewer to explore the intricacies of inner landscapes projected outward.

Artist Statement:

My painting is informed by everything from psychedelia to the landscapes of Hirõ Osono. Originally a scene from a suburban park, it is an image I have revisited often and layered over. I aim to pull the viewer into an otherworldly landscape, a place where reality converges with the imagination.

Artist Name: LAUREN DAVIDSON

Artwork Title: MOANA BEACH AT LOW LIGHT

Medium: Soft pastel

Size: 25 x 35cm

About the Artist:

Lauren Davidson is a local Brisbane artist who evokes feelings of connection and through layers of soft pastel. She creates paintings to capture ordinary moments with vibrancy and immediacy. Lauren’s work not only aims to capture the physical beauty of landscapes but are also invitations to pause and marvel at the wonder of the world. Through her art Lauren hopes to share in the awe of nature and instil a deep appreciation of the pastel medium.

Artist Statement:

The hope of distance and the comfort of near in the low light of sunset, create a sense of vibrancy and stillness in the colours of South Australia.

Artist Name: JOANNE KERR

Artwork Title: CHANNEL COUNTRY COLLAGES

Medium: Collage and mixed media on paper

Size: 58 x 48cm

About the Artist:

My art practise is based on drawings and sketches that are developed into paintings, collages, or lino prints. I have discovered through my own artistic and personal journey that with my own artwork, the inspiration of drawings, however small are the best starting points for my own re imagined landscapes.

Artist Statement:

Lines of trees or hills create points that are the beginnings of my work. Collaging torn paper marries together randomness and structure in this work. Placing layers of paper becomes a meditative thing which is not unlike sitting in the landscape witnessing nature’s ability to rejuvenate when given the chance.

Artist Name: MARIYAM SHAYA LATHEEF

Artwork Title: SOLITUDE

Medium: Oil

Size: 50 x 50cm

About the Artist:

As a self-taught artist and full-time doctor from the Maldives, the ocean has always been a profound influence in my life. Growing up surrounded by its beauty, I channel my fascination into oil and acrylic paintings that capture its serenity and majesty.

Balancing my medical career with my passion for art allows me to explore the therapeutic aspects of creativity. Each piece reflects the ocean's fluidity, light, and vibrant colors, offering viewers a glimpse of the natural beauty that inspires me. Through my work, I aim to evoke the ocean's calming and awe-inspiring essence, inviting others to experience the tranquility I find in the sea.

Artist Statement:

"Solitude" is a 50cm oil painting on round canvas, capturing a small fishing boat in the ocean. It is based on a photograph I captured during a whale watching tour in Port Stephens. Through gentle brushstrokes and rich hues, this piece celebrates the quiet beauty and simplicity of maritime life. The painting invites viewers to embrace the peaceful solitude and natural beauty of the ocean, offering a quiet escape into the tranquil waters of Port Stephens.

Artist Name: MIRANDA AUBRET

Artwork Title: NOPAL IN TULUM

Medium: Acrylic Paint

Size: 46 x 46cm

About the Artist:

Through my art, I depict the interconnections between human's emotions, connection between people, spontaneity and contradiction. Every layer of paint and brushstrokes embodies the complexity and beauty of one's being. I paint intuitively, letting place to the spontaneity of movements, choices of colours and mark making. I like playing with complementary colours as a reflection of our own contradictions. Connecting and accepting our whole selves is connecting with the world in a deeper and more authentic way.

Artist Statement:

My inspiration for this series is my trip to Mexico. The bold colours, the omnipresence of nature, the texture I could notice in the surroundings and the rich culture created this piece. A blend between colours, emotions and nature.

Artist Name: LARA J COOPER

Artwork Title: OKEY DOKEY ARTICHOKEY

Medium: Oil

Size: 425 x 375cm

About the Artist:

Feeling that there is enough chaos and destruction in the world, and not wanting to add more to the jarring noise, Lara seeks to tell stories, bring peace and capture beauty. She works in oil and watercolour and has a studio, gallery space in Maleny.

Artist Statement:

Afternoon light in a patch of glowing artichoke flowers, conjures up a sense of abundance and longevity, such that everything is going to be ok. The deep, almost shocking violet blue, is the reason why I grow artichokes - and secondarily for the bees who clamour to feast upon them.

Artist Name: MEG JEFFERY

Artwork Title: GREEN MCLEAN

Medium: Oil on board

Size: 40 x 60cm

About the Artist:

Meg Jeffery is a painter of the urban landscape, with a fascination for the deterioration of the built environment. Her current focus is on the demolition of old houses to accommodate the Gold Coast's urbanisation. Her paintings immortalise these homes and celebrate the lives that they have had.

Artist Statement:

Green McLean is an ode to the retro homes and fibre shacks in the neighbourhood where I live in Coolangatta. With a new high rise going up every minute on the southern Gold Coast, and I fear this little house won't be around for much longer.

Artist Name: ANGELA WILSON

Artwork Title: MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS

Medium: Acrylic on canvas

Size: 44 x 55cm

About the Artist:

Angela Wilson is a marine and landscape artist. A member of Art St with an online webpage resulting in many sales and commissions. Art works have been on consignment to galleries, cafes and hotels. She has held solo and group exhibitions since 2015. Her paintings are in acrylics, oils, metallics and inks using layers and glazes to create a vibrant and translucent effect, less exact and impressionistic variants of the real-life images.

Artist Statement:

Description: Mountain Climbers
In the cold of a foggy winter morning, the walkers set out across the fields to the base of the mountain ridge. Anticipating an arduous climb, they expect when the fog lifts to see a rewarding panoramic view.
This painting in acrylics, metallics and inks is primarily capturing the atmospheric physical surrounds but also the emotional expectations of the walkers. Layering the light layers in the background contrasts to the figures in the foreground.

Artist Name: EMMA DUCK

Artwork Title: SEEKER

Medium: Oil

Size: 46 x 36cm

Artist Statement:

Why do we seek life beyond our planet whilst we neglect the intelligent lifeforms right in front of us. Wisdom comes in many forms. Watch, don't just look, and you will find it.

Artist Name: NOAH SPIVAK

Artwork Title: ONLY US (FISSURE)

Medium: hand silvered glass, enamel pigment, timber

Size: 54 x 41cm

About the Artist:

Spivak’s current processes collaborate with the alchemical world, creating artworks that express a deep adoration (and understanding) for the materials used. His fascination with the invisible and obsession for process-led experimentation culminate in a body of work that explores the sense of self and its relationship to the physical world.

Artist Statement:

Spivak’s silver works investigate the liminal space between narcissism and self-loathing. For the artist, these works allude to the powerful duality of narcissism over his own identity - using this opportunity to publicly gesture towards his own issues in confidence, delusion and their respective relationships to self/image.

Artist Name: SALLY WEST

Artwork Title: DOG

Medium: oil on canvas

Size: 45 x 45cm

About the Artist:

I have been painting for 30 years. I am predominantly a plein air painter, working on site when the conditions are right.

Artist Statement:

I grew up in Central NSW on a sheep and wheat farm. I have been documenting working life for many years. The sheep dog is an integral part of life, often doing the work of 2 men with the stock, also providing important companionship.

Artist Name: TAMARA MENDELS

Artwork Title: GREEN TWISTY WITH DRIP-DOWN

Medium: Epoxy Resin and Pigment

Size: 18 x 20cm

About the Artist:

I don’t want to make what I know but rather delve into the unknown through play and process. I invent new ways of making art and create solid formulas for the art to be recreated once the experiment has been finalised. I am always looking for new methods to express the relationship between colour, gesture and mark making.

Artist Statement:

Isolated gestural forms with dripping/ drooping lines. Transparent to capture the changing rays of light that pass through its curved structure. Free standing to be viewed from all angles. Made by inserting resin into a twisted plastic tube, to be peeled off later revealing the form. I then partially cure a pot of resin to be able to pour it onto the gestural structure right before it hardens, so it can hold some consistency in order to form cascading drips gravitating down the sculpture.

Artist Name: KATE LEDDICK

Artwork Title: EVERYTHING'S DANDY

Medium: photography

Size: 32 x 45cm

About the Artist:

Kate is a photographer from Melbourne, with a strong interest in people, places and spaces. People in their natural habitat. Places where people bring up family, holiday and connect with friends, and spaces where the documentation takes place. Kate captures these images on digital and film cameras. Her love of photography started when she was a 70's child. Growing up in Bougainville. Born in Ballarat. Her different upbringing and love of travel definitely impacts that way she sees and captures images.
Kate is a mother and nurse.

Artist Statement:

One day post covid Melbourne lockdowns, we took to my friends' courtyard in Brunswick, and dressed up, and took photos. Looking at the simpler things in life, like common weeds in common backyards. The composition of beauty and darkness. The beauty in weeds and shiny rings, and unpainted fingernails. The beauty in things post covid. The wearing beautiful party dresses in your backyard. Celebrating all the moments here. The time is now.

Artist Name: FIONA ALLISON

Artwork Title: THE POWER AND THE FRAGILITY

Medium: oils on canvas

Size: 33 x 33cm

About the Artist:

Fiona Allison has been a life-long creative and collector of treasured things. Her still life paintings are composed of cherished everyday objects and explore the quality of light. She seeks to evoke a sense of calm through pared-back compositions that allow the authentic nature of objects, and the relationship between them, to be revealed.

Artist Statement:

This piece explores the juxtaposition of the finial and the ostrich egg. Dark and light. The end and the beginning. The powerful symbol of mankind’s control and the simplicity of nature’s perfection. But which one holds true power? Human dominance or the fragility of the wonder of creation.

Artist Name: ROBYN CARR

Artwork Title: TOPSY TURVY

Medium: Wood Burn

Size: 20 x 20cm

About the Artist:

My art depicts moments that either make me smile or simply appreciate the beauty in life. An expression, person, creature, view or a moment in time that I’ve captured. I hope that the observer can smile with me at the quirky and walk away feeling a little lighter for having seen it.

Artist Statement:

This wood burn captures the joy and spontaneity of early childhood. Enhanced with watercolors, it depicts a small child trying to do a handstand. The natural textures and vibrant colours merge to create a lively, yet nostalgic piece celebrating an infant’s playful moments.

Artist Name: ALMA SALTA ZENTNER-PITMAN

Artwork Title: SUNRISE (MY CHICKEN)

Medium: PASTEL AND PENCIL

Size: 30 x 20cm

About the Artist:

Alma is a figurative artist working in pencil and paper

Artist Statement:

A portrait of my beautiful chicken Sudnrise

Artist Name: ANDREA

Artwork Title: SILENCE FLOATS

Medium: Block ink

Size: 18 x 12cm

About the Artist:

Andrea Hamann is a Southern Highlands Artist based near Mittagong. Andrea’s work is inspired by the world around her, sometimes by the natural world and sometimes by the events of the world. Much of her work has a connection to the elements, wild weather and the moods of nature. Andrea works with printmaking and mixed media on paper and also in acrylic on canvas, producing miniature abstract landscapes on paper and larger works on canvas. More recent works have focussed on the tumult of war and of the impact of humanity on the landscape.

Artist Statement:

I grew up with stories of my father’s privation as a child in Ww2, chasing after trains to collect fallen coal, rifling through farms to steal cabbage or potato or eggs from a hen house, of spending months (MONTHS) in bed on a ration of piece of bread a day to conserve energy so as not to starve. Of him being displaced from his home three times, twice for armies who sent them to live in to the barn while the Russians and then the Americans set up camp in their home (now illegal under international law) and once permanently, by horse and cart, from their home to a school house where they lived five to a room.

I know those stories like a scar on my mind, and have found myself watching them live streamed for the past 8 months.

Silence floats in my mind as I watch these images echoing the past. Wondering how it happens over and over again.

Artist Name: MARION RODGERS

Artwork Title: THE GAZE

Medium: Figurative Photography

Size: 900 x 600cm

About the Artist:

Marion Rodgers is a photographic artist specialising in abstract/figurative imagery. Her work attempts to capture the subtleties of the personality of each of her subjects.

Artist Statement:

To convey emotion, the technique used here allows graphic qualities like texture, colour, shape, structure and rhythm to be distorted but still be recognisable.
Here also, abstraction shows a subtle universe which is much more emotive and imprecise, an alternative reality, making it ideal for meaningful portraiture.

Artist Name: SARAH SINGLETON

Artwork Title: DAKOTA RAYNE

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 50 x 40cm

About the Artist:

Painting is this busy mother's relaxation and release of emotions. I am a painter by weekend, usually working on portraits, animal portraits or vivid landscapes. I primarily paint in acrylic or oils and focus on playing with colour theory, loose brush strokes and layering to create depth and emotion.

Artist Statement:

What initially can appear to be one colour, can be observed as many variations after closer inspection. Like the first impression one might have from an initially reserved teen, who then minutes later radiates such colour, sass and personality. I used a monochromatic pallet to capture this impression when painting my daughter. This almost mute pose was in fact the calm before the release of pent-up laughter storm.

Artist Name: TRESOR MURACE

Artwork Title: HER

Medium: oil paint on canvas

Size: 40 x 60cm

About the Artist:

My practice within my MFA at the National art school is about exploring how in which humans have changed interactions from the rise of virtual profile creation. Before web 2.0 there was a physical self in which yourself and others referred too. In contemporary culture we are battling who is real between our physical self and our curated profile. This is also in regards to the relationship humans have made with reality TV, having been consumed by a celebrities personal life it is easier to project our desires onto that person and simple to remove their humane qualities. By having this figure we desire to be like we forget the important parts of ourselves and want to conform to what "trending" or what i getting the most likes as this therefore releases endorphins. It is a cycle known as simulacrum meaning we are creating and consuming media for the next person, in turn never ending competition due to the vast reach social media has in the 21st century culture.

Artist Statement:

Within my diptych the use of saturated colour speaks to the hyperreality in which we are surround in, in a highly, superficial and mediated world. The disconnect in the woman's eyes shows the loss of human touch we experience via speaking, and referencing online friends rather than accepting their physical experience without all of the other information clouding our judgement. The choice of the intimate size aims to draw the audience in to the marks,textures and pops of colour encouraging the viewer to accept and study the physicalities. The name "Her" references the movie about a male whom falls in love with his AI technology, exploring how both technology and social media is warping the human world in ways of pulling us further away from each other.

Artist Name: SUE TESORIERO

Artwork Title: PINK LADY

Medium: Oil on board

Size: 32 x 37cm

About the Artist:

Sue Tesoriero is a painter based in Sydney’s Inner West. Sue holds a bachelor’s degree in visual communications from Sydney College of the Arts (UTS). Sue has exhibited works in group shows both locally and abroad as well as three solo shows at AK Bellinger Gallery.

Artist Statement:

This Still life was an exercise using a limited palette of only 6 colours. The colours could not be mixed to make further combinations. It was painted in three layers using classical techniques, starting with a monochromatic ground. The items chosen were selected for their colour and size relationships.

Artist Name: DIANE QUICK

Artwork Title: THE LONG PADDOCK

Medium: ceramic

Size: 15 x 35cm

About the Artist:

Working with clay unites all my artistic instincts. Predominantly inspired by nature, and constantly experimenting, my work is a hybrid of wheel thrown forms and hand building. Using texture, pattern and colour to embellish surfaces extends the tactile nature of making, and echos aspects of the natural world that often evoke an emotional response.

Artist Statement:

Domestic and wild animals have always inspired me. The long paddock is a heartbreaking story of one death every two minutes in roadkill capital of Australia, Tasmania. We don’t need to look closely to see the scars of our actions, every small mammal is an integral part of our fragile ecosystem. Overcome by the quantity of road kill on a recent visit, I recalled Mark Twain’s words “Thy misplaced bone where flesh should be, And flesh where should be bone.” 
In responding to environmental issues including the precarious existence of threatened Australian animals, I approach the ceramic object as a vessel empty of life, and as a symbolic way of setting the slaughtered free.

Artist Name: LILLY

Artwork Title: ALICEBLUE

Medium: Oil and faux silver leaf on salvaged wood

Size: 31 x 14cm

About the Artist:

Lilly Piri is a visual artist who began her career at the Arts Academy in Morningside. She recently held a successful solo exhibition at the Art Post on Tamborine Mountain, and was a semi-finalist in the 2020 Lester prize for portraiture. Lilly loves painting and working with oils and acrylics.

Artist Statement:

AliceBlue is one of the few web safe colour names I can remember off the top of my head. This painting jumped (hopped?) into my head when I couldn't sleep one night. Maybe the hares in the park nearby sent it. It is painted on a bit of salvaged wood.

Artist Name: KRIS ESTREICH

Artwork Title: FADED ROSE FROM DAYS GONE BY.

Medium: Handmade papers, pen, ink and wash. ink

Size: 50 x 50cm

About the Artist:

This collage was inspired by the rose bushes in my garden. While drawing these flowers I found myself singing a very old nostalgic song about a faded rose. I have used hand made papers which have a softness like rose petals while the sharpness of the pen drawing finds an affinity with the thorns of the rose bush.

Artist Statement:

Kris Estreich is a mixed media artist working in collage, assemblage, painting, drawing and paper making.

Artist Name: SUSAN TREGEAGLE

Artwork Title: SETTING UP IN THE STUDIO

Medium: Oil

Size: 45 x 61cm

About the Artist:

I returned to the easel three years ago after a break of many years.
It has brought me both delight and challenge as I seek to paint the familiar and inspiring in my life, the periods of calm, of complexity and adventure.

Artist Statement:

Setting up in the Studio

Artist Name: PETA HARVEY

Artwork Title: MOONSTRUCK

Medium: graphite and charcoal

Size: 31 x 25cm

About the Artist:

Peta Harvey is a versatile artist whose practise is focused on drawing and exploring the combination of pen or pencil with brushwork and water-based media. Her aim is to craft realistic yet expressive artworks that reveal the distinct marks of the artist’s touch.

Artist Statement:

“Moonstruck” captures a young woman in graphite and charcoal, as she prepares for a night out. This portrait explores light, shadow and introspection whilst inviting viewers to ponder her thoughts and the mystery of her destination, reflecting the beauty of silent, unseen moments.

Artist Name: JULIE LLOYD

Artwork Title: FIRST LIGHT OF PLACE

Medium: oil on canvas

Size: 50 x 40cm

About the Artist:

Julie Lloyd Biography
I live and work in rural South Australia, seven years ago I took my first formal painting lesson. I paint in oils in a naturalistic, tonal style ,combining figures, memories, nostalgia with geography around the sitter to create a narrative within.

Artist Statement:

Timeless beauty of an old homestead steeped in history . The old bench seat symbolises the moments of contemplation and connection with the past. Evoking a sense of peace and nostalgia, inviting viewers to reflect on the stories embedded in a passage of time.

Artist Name: ROSITSA HURRING

Artwork Title: GRAVITY

Medium: Mixed media

Size: 51 x 40cm

About the Artist:

Working with different materials fascinates me.
This has taught me many techniques and allowed me to express my beliefs in having a sustainable world.
I am passionate about upcycling and creating jewellery.

Artist Statement:

Gravity was inspired by our pet friends, the ones that give so much and yet ask for so little.
Their joy for life can be immeasurable.
The selected denim offcuts, gesso and acrylic paint along
with my desire to create bright, eye catching painting created this playful work.

Artist Name: LISA ANDERSON

Artwork Title: THE BETRAYAL OF ICARUS

Medium: digital photograph baked on metal

Size: 15 x 11cm

About the Artist:

Dr. Lisa Anderson has created and exhibited internationally for over 40 years undertaking exploration and scientific residencies working with landscape/urbanscape/topographies through a prism of stories found in folklore and superstition as memories of place. Residencies included remote locations in the High Arctic and Antarctic and locations such as Paris, London, Ireland and Iceland. Installations for the St Tropez Antipodes, Boston Lights, MardiGras 798 in Beijing and the Toronto, Hong Kong and Amsterdam Art Fairs by London Gallery Bicha while locally at Customs House in Sydney and Wollongong and Ballarat City Galleries. As the Rupert Bunny Fellow 2023 for Port Phillip creating the exhibition Beguiling at the Victorian Pride Centre with images using tales of gods and sprites that help explain nature. Dr Anderson is the 2024 Artist-in-Residence at Abbotsford Convent working with the queer ghosts of memory and the folklore that surrounds them. Anderson work is public and corporate collections internationally. The video, Searching for Ghosts created here is currently a part of the Fringe for Venice Biennale 2024.

Artist Statement:

The Betrayal of Icarus.
This twinning of images, black and white against the original infrared reminds us that we are all too close to the sun, metaphorically we are headed towards an over-heated planet and just like Icarus by our own hand. Mirrored effect in nature and art are a forewarning of great change, speaking of possible futures and neglected pasts.
The place is a view from West Beach, St Kilda through the kite surfers to Williamstown and the crane towers of the Port of Melbourne

Heat baked print on aluminum. 11 x 15 cm
2023. a/p of edition

This work is not framed but will be simply framed if selected. Otherwise it would be difficult to handle. Will be signed on verso.

Artist Name: P. G. PREECE

Artwork Title: STUDY OF A WOMAN

Medium: Acrylic on canvas

Size: 40 x 30cm

About the Artist:

P. G. Preece studied graphic design before focusing on acrylic on canvas painting. She is based in Sydney and is known for her expressive paintings of people’s faces. Her distinctive use of line and layers results in varying degrees of abstraction and elements that recall Cubism and Expressionism.

Artist Statement:

This painting is a contemporary study of a woman’s face. Her features are defined with expressive marks in a limited colour palette. A surface layer of skin-coloured paint gives a sense that the woman is being seen through a veil or a fog, and is thus distanced from the viewer.

Artist Name: MINHAN CHO

Artwork Title: MOMENTS AT KUTA BEACH

Medium: oil

Size: 41 x 51cm

About the Artist:

Korean artist Minhan Cho's journey from pottery in Seoul to furniture-making in Melbourne led to a transformative immersion in nature upon his relocation to Moreton Bay in 2018. Focusing on developing techniques and visions, Minhan creates dynamic landscape paintings that invite viewers into his unique perspective shaped by diverse experiences.

Artist Statement:

Kuta Beach, Bali, captures a tranquil moment of people enjoying the shore. The textured layers and vibrant hues evoke the serenity and joy of coastal life, celebrating the harmony between nature and human connection in this idyllic setting.

Artist Name: ANN SCULLY

Artwork Title: SUNNY CORNER

Medium: oil

Size: 35 x 30cm

About the Artist:

I'm primarily interested in attaining some kind of 'poetic vision' if you like,
Failing that, I'd settle for more knowledge, skill and expertise.

Artist Statement:

My intention here was to attempt to share some of the joy of this little corner of the garden, where every winter the pear tree's lost leaves create a burnished sea and the sun-shot bird's nest fern looks like a giant kelp.
It was painted in oils on board over a few days in Winter 2023.
.

Artist Name: ANTONY DENSHAM

Artwork Title: C4.2024

Medium: Acrylic on canvas

Size: 50 x 40cm

About the Artist:

When contemplating landscape painting the artist describes a definition of the word vista that relates particularly well to the process of a painting as it develops. It reads.. An extensive mental view (as over a stretch of time or a series of events.)

With respect to the relationship between abstraction and figuration the artist says, ‘The marks are independent gestures, but also acknowledge the brain's tendency to search for representation. I’m looking for this middle ground, to confound the space somehow through the interchange of revealing and concealing.'

Artist Statement:

Antony Densham, an abstract artist based in Aotearoa, New Zealand, is renowned for his distinctive approach to capturing the ephemeral qualities of the landscape. His artistic journey is deeply intertwined with the stunning natural vistas of his homeland, which serve as a boundless wellspring of inspiration. Densham's work is a testament to his profound connection with the diverse terrain of New Zealand, ranging from rugged mountains to serene fiords, lush forests, and expansive plains.

Artist Name: JOANNE BRADDY

Artwork Title: FEELING LIKE I HAVE TO FIT IN SERIES

Medium: Stoneware clay

Size: 24 x 30cm

About the Artist:

Joanne Braddy’s sculptural works focus on the artists experience of living with mental health challenges and various disabilities. This series draws the viewer’s attention to the emotion in the figures. Her sculptures can be impactful, moving, healing and speak to the viewer on their inner struggles and strengths. Her work has appeared in numerous group exhibitions across Australia and has received several awards, including the Moreton Bay Region Council Art Brian Burke 25th Anniversary Award. 

Artist Statement:

Feeling like I have to fit in

I was told it was healthy to be in social situations, to be around groups of people.

But I have always, struggled,

I haven't always wanted to be the person that followed along with the Sheep of the crowd, just because I feel like that's expected of me.

But as human beings socializing is a human need but I've always struggled I've always preferred more deeper connection and being around people where I feel like I can be myself.

Artist Name: STU DOHERTY

Artwork Title: EMBRACE

Medium: Watercolour and gouache, cut paper assembly mounted on board

Size: 43 x 43cm

About the Artist:

My process of painting is a reflection of me; I am calm and thoughtful, slow and focused, lost in the flow of pigments and water on paper, I paint mainly with watercolour and gouache and use cut paper assemblies to gently allow the flat image to emerge from the paper.
I’m also working on stand alone brass and paper leaf sculptures.
I spent decades living in Redfern, Sydney, and even after five years by the sea in regional NSW, my obsession with nature remains strong, the Banksia is my current love.

Artist Statement:

“Embrace” is a watercolour and gouache painting combined with hand cut paper banksia leaves assembled and mounted on board. It is a love letter to the landscape outside my studio in Port Macquarie NSW.
Over decades the coastal winds sculpt banksia branches into graceful forms that resemble the arms of dancers, these special trees cling to the rocky landscape despite the sometimes savage conditions.
The board is professionally framed in a neutral white floating frame.

Artist Name: RACHEL RAE

Artwork Title: SNORKELLING ADVENTURES

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

Size: 50 x 40cm

About the Artist:

Colour, movement, patterns, and memory intertwined with human connections with the coastal environment are encapsulated in Rachel Rae’s artworks. Inspired by the vibrant hues and patterns of the Australian landscape, Rachel invites viewers to dive into her sensory snapshots, hearing waves, feeling breeze, and smelling the salty air.

Artist Statement:

Under the blue cloud-streaked sky, visitors revel in the ocean. A pile of belongings hint at the exciting anticipation of a day filled with coastal fun. Signs warn of danger stretching to the horizon, but three eager kids living in the moment, prepare for a snorkelling adventure without a care in the world.

Artist Name: CHARLES BAYER

Artwork Title: SELF PORTRAIT

Medium: Acrylic on canvas

Size: 30 x 30cm

About the Artist:

This is the first time I have ever painted a self portrait. Much to my surprise it took less than two hours to execute as I expected it to take much longer considering I was using acrylics on a black canvas. The paint just flowed with almost no thought or effort…it was almost like an out of body experience where I was sketching a total stranger.

Artist Statement:

I was inspired to paint my self portrait after seeing Billy Apple’s 1962 “Portrait of the artist in a Drip Dry Suit” late last year in a group show in South Melbourne. I had worked with Billy a number of year’s ago and never quite understood where he was coming from but the moment I saw his self portrait I got it. Unfortunately Billy is no longer died in New Zealand in September 2021.

Artist Name: PIP MILTON

Artwork Title: CURIOUS TENDRILS

Medium: Recycled newspaper and 'Who Gives a Crap' toilet roll wrapping paper twisted by hand into string then handwoven on shaft loom to create fabric with basketweave structure that includes random weave of some wefts.

Size: 58 x 48cm

About the Artist:

I am a handweaver with an incurable fascination of warps, wefts, their limitless potential of interlacements and how they create fabric. Fabric is fundamental to our existence and transcends other materials in it’s storytelling abilities. My handwoven fabrics, made from recycled paper and textiles, comment on consumerism and fast fashion.

Artist Statement:

‘Curious Tendrils’, tells stories of hope and sustainability as global efforts in textiles trend towards an efficient circular economy and fibre-to-fibre recycling. Handwoven from recycled paper laboriously twisted into string, this fabric is symbolically more valuable than the original paper items and advocates for increased awareness of our consumerist habits.

Artist Name: ANNETTE HOLLIS

Artwork Title: WATCHING

Medium: Watercolour

Size: 26 x 30cm

About the Artist:

I love to draw and paint the human form from life. I enjoy the urgency of discovering my focus, the problem solving involved, the decisions made on the fly.
Working directly with watercolour gives me the opportunity to create a spontaneous piece, to retain the energy of the connection between model and artist.

Artist Statement:

Looking and watching are not the same thing, yet both involve the focus of the eye on the subject. We are looking and the figure is watching.

Artist Name: SUSAN TESSMANN

Artwork Title: GRACE

Medium: Acrylic on canvas

Size: 30 x 30cm

About the Artist:

As a new artist who began her journey in 2020 I enjoy the medium of acrylics for the spontaneity, colour and softness that can be achieved. I love using my palette knives for the texture.

Artist Statement:

This vibrant acrylic on canvas of my Indigenous niece, Grace has been achieved with mainly my palette knife and layers of texture paste which I sanded back and reapplied many times to get the dynamic and bold strokes achieved with a palette knife.

Artist Name: DAVID MICHAEL ARDLEY

Artwork Title: DEEP DIMENSION CUBE

Medium: oil on aluminium

Size: 50 x 50cm

About the Artist:

Since the very beginning, my art has always been about the connection I feel to the natural environment and the beauty I seek to portray.
Working mainly in oils on polished aluminium canvas's, my art embraces water and light as the central core of my inspiration.

Artist Statement:

Deep Dimension Cube is an extension of a popular theme I have worked with for years. A 3 dimensional revolving artwork that speaks of my - and our - experiences and immersion in a blue sparkling void of quiet seclusion.

Artist Name: RAEANN SHIELDS

Artwork Title: WINNER IN BLUE

Medium: Ceramic

Size: 40 x 23cm

About the Artist:

Now retired from a fulfilling career as a Paediatric physiotherapist I have turned my attention to the equally creative field of clay. I so enjoy discovering opportunities for expression that this medium allows. Despite being visually impaired I love to find stylised ways of creating. My aim is to engender as much movement and emotion in each piece: and a dynamic, flowing rhythm that can be imagined and felt within. There is also a quirkiness that I find interesting and unique that clay does allow. I am exploring different textures, glaze and mediums including bronze and enjoy the challenges that this brings.

I am frequently asked more specifically about my vision and what I can actually see and while I wish my art to be judged on its merit I can understand the interest and query.
I have peripheral vision but no central vision, similar to a person with aged related, end stage macular degeneration. Peripheral vision is not sharp or focused. This means I cannot drive, read, write, find my way to places without technological assistance etc, I generally use a white cane so that I might not run into people. I find small details like hands, feet and faces particularly frustrating. I do, however rely on my background as a physiotherapist and feel/know that muscles/movement should flow . I try to over/under emphasize aspects of my pieces deliberately to enhance the dynamic nature of the piece.

Artist Statement:

Swimmer in Blue

Perched on the edge of the Pool, surveying all. She is relaxed and happily watches the action after the exertion of training.

Artist Name: MARGERY GOODALL

Artwork Title: THE BEAUTY OF SMALL THINGS: STITCHED STORIES #1

Medium: Textile

Size: 30 x 30cm

About the Artist:

Margery Goodall’s longstanding creative practice focuses on stitched cloth, with more recently, assemblages of found objects and waste materials. Her work has been exhibited in Australia and internationally since 1999, including the Alice Craft Award, the City of Joondalup Art Prize and the York Botanic Art Prize (2020, 2023).

Artist Statement:

Margery Goodall honours family memories by using minute scraps and threads donated by others – fragments that may seem inconsequential but are often imbued with stories. This re-use of unnoticed and discarded items in new ways hints at tales known and unknown, recalling the ordinary connections that enrich life.

Artist Name: CHRISSY

Artwork Title: CRIMSON BOUQUET

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 40 x 50cm

About the Artist:

Nature, in particular trees and plants are what I gravitate towards. My still lives are currently of interiors and houseplants in different vessels, whereas my landscapes are inspired by where I live, a sub-tropical and semi-arid environment of the Darling Downs. My colour palette explores earthy colours of shades of greens and blues along with orche with pops of magenta. Sometimes my style is semi-realistic as I love to exaggerate colour with an aim to capture the essence of the subject matter. Currently, I am is interested in the interplay between light and shadows, aerial perspective as well as the liminal space between landscape and still life.

Artist Statement:

A bouquet of roses in a glass vase casts soft shadows on the ground. This image is not your typical side view but an aerial view of the still life. A warm wintery palette of soft purple greys with typical reds and greens of the roses.

Artist Name: JULIE REES

Artwork Title: THE MESSENGER

Medium: Painterly photography on acrylic mounting

Size: 30 x 30cm

About the Artist:

Julie Rees, an artist based in Brisbane, uses personal and collective experiences to inspire her artwork. Julie Rees considers the subject matter before deciding on her medium, but photography and drawing are significant in her artistic process. Using her art as research, she hopes to explore personal and collective experiences from a different vantage point, gaining new perspectives.

Artist Statement:

'The Messenger' (2024) is a photographic piece capturing the auric energies released during planetary alignments, a phenomenon believed to shape our lives. The presence of Mercury alongside the Moon is said to be a relatively brief transit period that cautions against making long-term decisions.

Artist Name: HELEN ANDRADE

Artwork Title: DREAM WEAVER

Medium: Acrylic and spray paint on canvas

Size: 61 x 51cm

About the Artist:

In much of my art I utilise the human figure or face expressing the internal world of people and the energy of emotions. Colour is a strong motivation for me in the creative process, and I find that in the process my intuitive placement of colours, shapes and movement direction gives a sense of being in the moment, and a temprality. My work is quite often experimental and I enjoy the spontaneity of working from observation as well as delving into my imagination.

Artist Statement:

I firstly created an expressionist, textured portrait in acrylic paint, then added more expression with spray paint to create a dreamy, atmosphere as though entering the subjects internal world. Also the spray paint adds playful vibrant colours and shapes capturing a sense of energy and emotions.

Artist Name: DENISE LEIGH CROSS

Artwork Title: SACRIFICIAL ACT

Medium: Acrylic paint on canvas

Size: 50 x 50cm

About the Artist:

Denise Cross is a visual artist undertaking her MVA, working primarily in acrylic painting. She has been a finalist in reputable art competitions, regularly contributing works to solo and group exhibitions, within Queensland and Bangkok. Denise has been a secondary art teacher for 23 years, completing a BFA and M.Ed.

Artist Statement:

Contemplations of the heavenlies float above as loose sheets of monochromatic blues. A ribbon of crimson red meanders through the mid-ground, seizing the sacrificial act of my Heavenly Father, once hung upon the rugged cross. Rolling hilltops below echo the heart of humanity in need of our Lord and Savior.

Artist Name: MARIE SMITH

Artwork Title: NEGLECTED

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 46 x 46cm

Artist Statement:

Neglect
Neglect is an acrylic painting, inspired by a geranium in my garden.
Its pot reflects many seasons as the clay has cracked, beginning to flake and mould has made an appearance.
The Big Red Geranium is a perfect companion with its bold deep red blooms while the leaves and stems reflect that it thrives on neglect.

Artist Name: ANGELA MCHUGH

Artwork Title: ALL WE STOLE & SLAUGHTERED; A BRIEF HISTORY OF COLONIALISM

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 50 x 40cm

About the Artist:

Angela McHugh is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores personal story, learned history and memories through a hyper vivid lens. She typically paints at night in the back garden studio of her North Brisbane home. Her most recent works explore the defiance of being content with one's own solitude and complexities of balancing necessity and desire.

Artist Statement:

On 7 September 1936 the last known thylacine died from exposure at Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart.

All We Stole & Slaughtered.

A composite landscape merging Greek mythology and colonial calamity in Van Diemen's Land.

Artist Name: DR WENDELL ROSEVEAR O.A.M.

Artwork Title: BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Size: 60 x 40cm

About the Artist:

This is my 15th time to enter the Lethbridge 20000. I haven't missed a year since the start. I am grateful the inspiration of opportunity. Thanks.

Artist Statement:

I love letting imagination extend the joy of art.

Artist Name: NIC NICOLAS

Artwork Title: NO EXIT

Medium: Clay

Size: 33 x 20cm

About the Artist:

Nic Nicolas is a world-renowned performer, singer/songwriter, and artist based in Sydney, Australia. With a multifaceted career spanning various artistic disciplines, Nic's work is distinguished by its profound philosophical undertones, often exploring the fickleness of life and the intricate nature of existence. His artistic journey is a testament to his deep introspection and unique perspective on the human condition.

After an extended hiatus from sculpting due to performance and work commitments, Nic has recently returned to this form of artistic expression, bringing a fresh and invigorated approach to the Sydney art scene. His sculptures, always abstract in form, serve as a tangible manifestation of his philosophical inquiries. Working primarily with clay, Nic manipulates the medium to create pieces that challenge conventional perceptions and invite viewers to contemplate deeper existential themes.

Nic's return to sculpting has been met with widespread acclaim, as his abstract clay sculptures resonate with both art enthusiasts and critics alike. Each piece is a reflection of Nic's inner dialogue and his continuous quest to understand and articulate the complexities of life. His work not only captivates the senses but also provokes thought and introspection, making Nic Nicolas a significant and influential figure in the contemporary art world.

The intention of my art is to move the viewer and allow them to reflect on the big issues outside the mundane modern life and understand and question all aspects of life.

I also like to showcase the issues surrounding the homosapiens dominance of the landscape.

Artist Statement:

"No exit" Sculpture Description:

The sculpture "No exit" is a abstract clay artwork symbolizing life's creation. Shaped like a umbilical cord, signifying the origin of the selfish ape, with numerous distorted faces representing the torture of life and the involuntary nature of birth.

The bottom right features an image of an primate, from which humans are descended and displays a range of expressions to represent diverse personalities and the multifaceted nature of each individual navigating life's perils. The faces are distorted and piled on top of each other, depicting earth as a graveyard for mortal beings. These faces have an alien appearance, symbolizing humanity's constant yearning to reach for the stars, seeking something beyond their current existence. However, the sculpture underscores a harsh reality: in their present form, humans are bound to earth, with no escape from their mortal condition.

The rear of the piece has an indentation representing a naval symbolizing the tie that holds mortal existence to earth. Horizontal indentations represents the swirls of our location in the universe being the Milky way galaxy while the on the bottom of the bae represents the Orion arm of the galaxy in which we are situated. The uneven structure of the piece and its base highlights the human expectation for perfection despite inherent imperfection, emphasizing the inescapable reality of earth-bound existence - "no exit"

The base represents earth as being nothing than an unremarkable rock hurtling through space all alone.

Artist Name: LAINEY SPINA

Artwork Title: WILTED BEAUTY

Medium: Oil Paint on Aluminium Board

Size: 29 x 19cm

About the Artist:

Lainey is an artist who looks for the little joys of everyday life, trying to combine the romanticism of the past with the complex and vibrant modern world.

Artist Statement:

’Wilted beauty’ searches for the beauty in the mundane. This painting depicts hanging dried roses, inspiring the viewer to consider how something past its prime can be beautiful if it’s looked upon with eyes that appreciate its value.

Artist Name: SUZANNE JAYE CROMB

Artwork Title: WITH A TRACE

Medium: mixed media

Size: 30 x 30cm

About the Artist:

This piece is from a series of works made reflecting my interest in nature and in particular water.
The way light reflects and dances across the waters surface has always been mesmerising to me.
I have endeavoured to explore these ideas through mixed media paintings and drawing techniques by layering many colours and washes with pens and paint to build up the shimmering surface effects.
To the viewer I aim to give a glimpse into the stillness, peace and beauty that nature can offer us.

Artist Statement:

The natural wooden pine art board provides a unique starting point for my work. With its own forms and line shapes present in the surface of the board, I begin to map out the ocean image that exists within.
Time stands still for a moment here and we are left with the evidence of what has been etched in the water surface map.

Artist Name: WEN LANE

Artwork Title: NATURE’S BOUNTY

Medium: Clay/Wood

Size: 28 x 28cm

About the Artist:

Australian born, Gold Coast based artist Wen Lane uses her art practice to envision, document, and connect with the world around her, creating verdantly rustic hand built functional ware and sculptural pieces. Her work draws upon the beauty of the natural world using clay, glazes, and planetary elements discovered on her beach and hinterland walks in south east Queensland. Each component discovered, visually inspires a statement piece to be explored and brought to life by combining ceramics and organic matter. This merging of natural substances symbolises the joining of the internal and external world within the heart space which opens up when the beauty of nature is experienced. Originally trained in psychology, Lane’s practice emphasises the healing power of connection to oneself and nature through inspiration from these natural elements joined with clay. It’s this same connection which she aims to elicit in the viewer through her art. You can find her @lilmisspottymouth on Facebook & Instagram

Artist Statement:

Nature has a beauty and a nurturing way of supporting us and connecting us with our heart space and the natural world around us. It gives us shelter, food, emotional wellbeing, peace, and connection. Much like the support that the naturally carved, treated and lacquered timber base provides for the vessel nestled inside of it. The vessel, created by hand using local volcanic clay, and liquid contents (implied) represent the bountiful resources and sustenance provided to us by this beautiful planet.

Artist Name: MARIAN QUIGLEY

Artwork Title: WESTERN PORT SPRING

Medium: Acrylic on linen

Size: 46 x 61cm

About the Artist:

My work incorporates vibrant colour, minimalism and hard edge abstraction. Influences include the Post Impressionists, Japanese woodcuts and Australian painter Jeffrey Smart. My subjects include portraits and sea/land/cityscapes. I have been a finalist in a number of national awards including the Portia Geach Memorial Award and the Maritime Art Award.

Artist Statement:

Western Port Spring is inspired by the view of Western Port Bay from Bass in Victoria. I love the lush greens of the Bass hills and pastures at this time of the year. This is one of my favourite local views to which I keep returning. I aimed to capture the beautiful serenity of this scene using a minimalist, hard edge technique.