2016: QRAA - Colours of Queensland - Flying Arts Alliance

In Flying Arts’ 45th year, the Queensland Regional Art Awards theme was ‘Colours of Queensland’. Artists were asked to consider what brings colour, vibrancy and life to their local community or region, drawing on personal experiences and observations. The idea of colour was not limited to a figurative interpretation: artists who work with limited or monochromatic palettes were encouraged to address the theme conceptually.

Judging Panel

Andrew Baker – Andrew Baker Art Dealer
Karina Devine – Warwick Art Gallery Director
Dr Beata Batorowicz – Senior Lecturer (Spatial Construction – Visual Arts)

Curator

Andrew Baker – Andrew Baker Art Dealer

2016 Winners

Karen Stephens, Noogooraville – Flying Arts Art for Life Award – $10,000 cash, acquisitive award
Carmen Beezley-Drake, Mapping the Colours – The Annie Tan Memorial Watercolour Award -$2500 cash, non acquisitive award
Edwin Hamill, Pineapple Music – Brian Tucker Young Artist Development Award – $1500 cash, non acquisitive award
Mieke den Otter, It was just after dusk and the quiet had begun to descend – Janet de Boer/Flying Arts Textile Award – $750 bursary to attend Blue Mountains Contextart
Nina Dawson, Bush Bride – Art Shed Brisbane People’s Choice Award – Adult: $500 materials voucher
Helena Dohle, Ocean Blue – Art Shed Brisbane People’s Choice Award – Young Person: $250 materials voucher
Donna Davis, Entwined III – The Edge Digital Art Award – Fully funded one week residency at The Edge (SLQ)
Buck Richardson, Generating the Colours of Queensland… after dark – Flying Arts/Jugglers Art Space Regional Artist Award – Fully funded one week residency at Jugglers Art Space, Brisbane

Tour Launch at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, 11 March 2017

**Noogooraville**

**Artist:** Karen Stephens
**Artist Location:** Redbank
**Medium:** Oil on Polyester (2015)
**Dimensions:** 59 x 68 x 5 cm
**Artist Statement:**
Noogooraville is a contemporary landscape painting that investigates the Noogoora burr, a weed of central Western Queensland. Specimens for this painting were observed and collected in Winton. The unusual colour palette is atypical for an Australian landscape in order to understand the burrs status as a foreigner. The ‘Noogoora’ burr was accidentally introduced to this land from Central America in the late nineteenth-century. The carpet of strange forms is perhaps not too dissimilar to the Richard Godfrey Rivers paintings of introduced exotic trees – ‘Under the Jacaranda Tree’ (1903) and ‘An Alien in Queensland’ (Flame of the forest tree) (1904) (QAG). Noogooraville invites reward for looking. The pictorial space creates a visual dialogue depicting an abundant layering of forms in an endless space with no horizon that leaves the eye circling. Tactility of paint invites visual touch and asks for a better understanding of the deeper meaning behind the work.

**Photographer:** Faun Photography

**Mapping the Colours**

**Artist:** Carmen Beezley-Drake
**Artist Location:** Rockhampton
**Medium:** watercolour (2016)
**Dimensions:** 78 x 120 x 3 cm
**Artist Statement:**
Capturing the essence of this broad landscape seems a natural progression, having painted the Queensland landscape for so many years. The abstract shapes overlaid with colour create a rugged textural quality, as colours can change drastically with the seasons, from a dry red/ ochre to lush greens. Watercolours fluidity and transparency combined with its tendency to flow in a slightly uncontrolled manner can be an asset in creating the surface of the land and emphasis its abstract quality. I sketch the interlocking lines from maps until I have a grided pattern. Overlaying with splashes of colour letting it run freely blending into their own shapes, I pick up linear shapes and reinforce them in other areas. Structured lines represent the human interaction, etched into the landscape surface, both connecting and separating the spaces, the ‘roads’ sometime faint and often vibrant foretell the tangibility of marks that time will eventually obliterate.

**Photographer:** Carmen Beezley-Drake

**Pineapple Music**

**Artist:** Edwin Hamill
**Artist Location:** Buderim
**Medium:** Acrylic on canvas (2016)
**Dimensions:** 75 x 100 x 2cm
**Artist Statement:**
My piece, titled “Pineapple Music” pays homage to one of the biggest festivals in my region. The big pineapple festival is a congregation of people from all different life backgrounds celebrating a common interest of music. The festival gives off a somewhat relaxed vibe which has tried to be conveyed through the style of this painting with the use of loose brushstrokes, simple figures and an overall abstract tone. The sense of community is heavily implied by the faceless individuals within the crowd. What is hoped to be shown from this painting is a sense of belonging which is represented by people being brought together by a common factor, in this case it is everyone looking towards the pineapple which is an icon. But overall it is is a commentary on how i see my region as a whole.

**Photographer:** Edwin Hamill

**‘It was just after dusk and the quiet had begun to descend’**

**Artist:** Mieke den Otter –
**Artist Location:** Bellbird Park Ipswich
**Medium:** Textile (2016)
**Dimensions:** 50 x 120 x 5 cm
**Artist Statement:**
This handmade felt is a simple circular shape that surprised me when I hung it on a white wall to photograph. The piece transformed into the intrinsic notion of a moth. The textures and colours are reminiscent of the beautiful surface marks made by the scribbly gum moth on its host tree. Only a quarter of moths in the natural world have been named. It’s an unseen world and we need to respect its diversity.

**Photographer:** Mieke den Otter

**Bush Bride**

**Artist:** Nina Dawson
**Artist Location:** Mission Beach
**Medium:** Textile, Wearable Art (2016)
**Dimensions:** 120 x 50 x 1 cm
**Artist Statement:**
I am a Textile artist from North Queensland currently creating wearable art pieces with the Ecoprint method. This piece ‘Bush Bride’ is made using pure silk and is dyed using local native North Queensland plants. The local environment and in particular, plants are my passion. The unique forests of the Wet Tropics inspire me to create wearable art pieces capturing the essence of the Australian bush and allowing me to reconnect and blend back into my local environment. I have a background in Environmental Science and I have worked as an ethnobotanist, horticulturist and revegetator specialising in local native plants. My experiences have allowed me to get to learn about the plants personally by knowing their forms and uses. Teasing out the colours from plants to make dyed prints on textiles is my latest journey into the wonderful world of Queensland’s native plants and truly captures the colours of Queensland.

**Photographer:** Nina Dawson

**Ocean Blue**

**Artist:** Helenna Dohle
**Artist Location:** Linville
**Medium:** Fineliner Pens, Pencils, Felt Pens, on Paper (2015)
**Dimensions:** 73 x 53 x 2cm
**Artist Statement:**
Ocean Blue To me the ‘Colours of Queensland’ is best represented by our beautiful beaches. What can be more vibrant, colourful and life-giving than our beautiful ocean? In this artwork, the ocean is comprised of symbols, and patterns in the brightly coloured blues and greens of the Pacific. This is all contrasted against the sandy coloured beach in the foreground. The sky is a vivid light blue, and the mountains in the distance are a deep cobalt. These colours, are what I think of when I imagine the colours of our Sunshine state. Inspired by a trip to Bribie, this artwork is a self portrait of me walking along the beach.

**Photographer:** Helenna Dohle

**Entwined III**

**Artist:** Donna Davis
**Artist Location:** Deebing Heights
**Medium:** Pigment print on fine art rag (2016)
**Dimensions:** 65 x 45 x 5 cm
**Artist Statement:**
‘Entwined III’ explores ecological systems as vibrant, interconnected and sublime living networks that support, encourage and sustain new growth. Suspended above the surface, the trunk like forms have an intricate network of threads entwined within and around, above and below, surrounding, protecting and nurturing the young fungi inside. In nature there is a beautiful balance between function and aesthetics, where healthy ecosystems bring about new life and with it wonder and opportunities. It is easy to draw parallels between natural and social ecologies: Similar to the unseen root systems of plants and fungi, our interactions in and with our own community help to sustain a vibrant, healthy and colourful place to live, grow and bloom.

**Photographer:** Donna Davis

**Generating the Colours of Queensland . . . after dark**

**Artist:** Buck Richardson
**Artist Location:** Kuranda
**Medium:** Digital Art from original photographs (2016)
**Dimensions:** 50 x 50 x 50 cm
**Artist Statement:**
Everyone knows the stunning vibrant colours of Queensland’s butterflies, flowers and our tropical reef fish. Not so many know the colours that abound under the cover of darkness, the moths, the beetles and the shield bugs in particular. A moth or a beetle may appear almost black to the naked eye. But under light, colour, pattern and shape emerge, maybe with cryptic subtlety or maybe with sharpness and vigour. These creatures of the night have populated my palette for over a decade. My passion is to satisfy and delight the eye aesthetically with these gems and to stimulate interest and respect for the myriad of creatures that underpin the work, as in my 3D piece, Generating the Colours of Queensland . . . after dark.

**Photographer:** Buck Richardson

2016 Touring Artists

**Late night, double shift**

**Artist:** Anne O’Sullivan
**Artist Location:** Toowoomba
**Medium:** Water-based oil on wood (2016)
**Dimensions:** 30 x 40 x 4 cm
**Artist Statement:**
Most of my paintings are explorations of colour. My recent artwork, ‘Late night, double shift’ is no exception. The painting is a depiction of myself late at night washing up in my kitchen. As a working mother, this is a fairly accurate depiction of a regular event in my life in regional Queensland. The kitchen is dimly lit by the light of an indoor bug zapper. Despite the pretty party dress, the overall effect of the painting is perhaps a little gloomy. Green is one of my least favourite colours, perhaps because it was the colour of my high-school uniform. Many of my most recent paintings have the theme of women and work, and the manner in which the goals of the feminist movement have not been achieved in this regard.

**Photographer:** Anne O’Sullivan

**Through the Black Hole**

**Artist:** Buck Richardson
**Artist Location:** Kuranda
**Medium:** Digital Art from original photographs (2016)
**Dimensions:** 80 x 120 x 5 cm
**Artist Statement:**
Everyone knows the stunning vibrant colours of Queensland’s butterflies, flowers and our tropical reef fish. Not so many know the colours that abound under the cover of darkness, the moths, the beetles and the shield bugs in particular. A moth or a beetle may appear almost black to the naked eye. But under light, colour, pattern and shape emerge, maybe with cryptic subtlety or maybe with sharpness and vigour. These creatures of the night have populated my palette for over a decade. My passion is to satisfy and delight the eye aesthetically with these gems and to stimulate interest and respect for the myriad of creatures that underpin the work, as in Through the Black Hole.

**Photographer:** Buck Richardson

**Hanging out the washing**

**Artist:** Caroline Lieber
**Artist Location:** Mount Molloy
**Medium:** Gouache on canvas (2016)
**Dimensions:** 60 x 60 x 4 cm
**Artist Statement:**
I live with my family in a beautiful old house on the top of a hill in a small town in Far North Queensland. This is a special place. There is colour and vibrancy all around. When I hang out the washing the bright coloured towels flap in the breeze and I look beyond to the range, I feel very fortunate. My paintings celebrate the beauty of daily life. I am inspired when I look with gratitude at the elements of my days. I want to share that attitude of treasuring and honouring domestic life.

**Photographer:** Caroline Lieber

**Familiar Ground**

**Artist:** Cathy Woods & Lesley Hawker
**Artist Location:** Goondiwindi
**Medium:** Found Object, Ochre & Pastel (2016)
**Dimensions:** 15 x 50 x 50 cm
**Artist Statement:**
Familiar Ground explores notions of connectivity, reconciliation, natural cycles and regional identity through drawing with the vibrant colours of the earth on found objects. Archival rusted plough tynes embellished with delicate ochre and pastel mark making sculpt concepts of regional culture by drawing analogies between rural generations and the spirituality of the land. The tynes have become the ground. These iconic objects have etched the ground with surgical symmetry to sustain life for generations. Each tyne is part of a collective symbolic army of priest-like forms positioned as if moving forward with mindful purpose and intent. The symbiotic relationship between ‘the familiar’ and ‘staying grounded’ is conceptualised through a discordant yet indelible partnership of metal and ochre mediums. The usually unyielding metal forms are softened with spiritual landmarks creating a sense of place, a higher order, a spiritual presence…the Familiar Ground of regional identity.

**Photographer:** Cathy Woods

**Rockhampton Connections**

**Artist:** Celeste Sherwood
**Artist Location:** Rockhampton
**Medium:** Acrylic on canvas, digital photo – transfer medium (2016)
**Dimensions:** 115 x 112 x 2 cm
**Artist Statement:**
Connections bring colour, vibrancy and life to my local community: connections between past and present, reflected in the juxtaposition of heritage and contemporary architecture; ghosts of the past sit comfortably alongside youth bristling with tattoos and technology; connections between people – lovers, companions, workmates – meeting at cafes and bars, walking beside the river; connections between people and towns – bridges and rivers, roads and telephone wires – linking us. Though we are a diverse community we draw together, reflecting the human need for connection.

**Photographer:** Celeste Sherwood

**Summers End**

**Artist:** Cheryl McGannon
**Artist Location:** Doonan
**Medium:** cold wax, oil paint, mixed media (2016)
**Dimensions:** 63 x 93 x 50 cm
**Artist Statement:**
I like to maintain an open experimental attitude towards materials and tools. Building up layers, and gouging down to reveal what is below creates an opportunity for the unexpected to reveal itself. The unfolding of mystery is what pulls me forward, leads me into the unknown, embracing and/or grappling with whatever comes up. I manipulate the materials to express myself, to find my own visual language. I am an avid explorer of my local area and my work titled ‘Summers End’ results in a subtly nuance, rich surface that resonates with memories the long summer days lingering over the Mary Valley.

**Photographer:** Cheryl McGannon

**Spirit Bird Calling**

**Artist:** Christine Elcoate
**Artist Location:** Hunchy
**Medium:** Watercolour, ink, pastel (Mixed Media) (2016)
**Dimensions:** 75 x 52 x 5 cm
**Artist Statement:**
Bird Spirit Calling is a mixed media created to express my 19 years on my mountain surround by birds. Some calling out to tell me about rain, others calling to say they are passing through, some just being and enjoying the tranquility of my forest sanctuary and lake below. I now feel that I have connected with the colour and vibrancy, and energy of the birds and birdsong surrounding me. I also feel a sense of fulfilment about my sense of place. I am glad I now “see”, “hear” and “feel” my own bird spirit calling back to them.

**Photographer:** Christine Elcoate

**Who’s a Pretty Boy?**

**Artist:** Christine Brassington
**Artist Location:**Helidon
**Medium:** acrylic on canvas (2016)
**Dimensions:** 61 x 92 x 2 cm
**Artist Statement:**
“Who’s a Pretty Boy?” doesn’t set out to convey any pithy, political message; it is a literal interpretation of the theme “Colours of Queensland” that simply attempts to convey the marvel I felt at seeing a photograph of a budgie flock on a central Queensland property. They looked to me like moving, vivid green hills in country that is flat, red-brown and pale-yellow, as far as the eye can see. I didn’t want to overthink it, so the style is naïve, with minimal detail to suggest rapid flight, and restricted colours to focus attention on the basic elements of sky, birds, land. The title “Who’s a Pretty Boy?” is, of course, a reference to the affection with which the endearing budgie has been held by many as a family pet.

**Photographer:** Christine Brassington

**Colours of Wakka Wakka Country**

**Artist:** Danielle Leedie
**Artist Location:** Kingaroy
**Medium:** Digital (2016)
**Dimensions:** 23 x 18 x 0 cm
**Artist Statement:**
Sunflowers, Red soil, Lavender, Peanuts, Grapes, Bunya Nuts, Bunya Mountains, Football all of these are iconic features within our region, I have used colours that represent various iconic features that exist on the land of my people-the traditional owners of our region the Wakka Wakka people. Each circle represents the different townships/communities in the South Burnett. Symbols used represent people gathering, tracks represent travel between those communities and the white coloured symbols scattered around represent the Bunya Mountains – once a meeting place for my people during Bunya Nut season. The contrasting colours of my region link strongly to our rich cultural history, agricultural diversity and the sporting rivalries of our local towns but most of all the vibrancy and richness of the landscape on which my people have walked for thousands of years. Culture,food,sport and the land, these are the colours I see as I walk on my country.

**Photographer:** Danielle Leedie

**Nautilus**

**Artist:** Dasha Riley
**Artist Location:** Woombye
**Medium:** digital photographic print on metallic paper mounted on acrylic (2016)
**Dimensions:** 40 x 40 x 0 cm
**Artist Statement:**
Australia Zoo, located on the Sunshine Coast near Beerwah, is one of the biggest and best wildlife conservation facilities in the world and one of Queensland’s top tourist attractions. After immigrating to Australia, the zoo has played an invaluable role in introducing me to Australia’s amazing wildlife, and its beautiful animals have inspired several of my works. ‘Nautilus’ features one of the zoo’s two Emus, Eddie. Eddie was rescued hungry and in poor condition from a nearby forestry area but has flourished since being cared for in Australia Zoo, where he now lives with his Emu friend Eric.

**Photographer:** Dasha Riley

**Lily Pilly**

**Artist:** Marina Hooper
**Artist Location:** Yungaburra
**Medium:** Oils (2015)
**Dimensions:** 76 x 102 x 4 cm
**Artist Statement:**
I live on the shore of Lake Tinaroo, surrounded by the vibrant colours of the environment around me. The lush flora and botanicals invite me to colour my oil paintings with realism, impression and creativity. My natural world allows me to capture sparkle and vigour of my surroundings with a rich colourful palette.

**Photographer:** Marina Hooper

**Night Falling on Magenta Islands**

**Artist:** Adrienne Williams
**Artist Location:** Mt Perry
**Medium:** Oil on Canvas (2016)
**Dimensions:** 91 x 91 x 4 cm
**Artist Statement:**
‘Night Falls on Magenta Islands’ is a continued exploration of a patch of grass trees and dry rainforest 100km west of my home. For the last few years my palette has referenced the colours from the biodiversity maps and ecosystem maps of my region. The maps describe divided land use areas through colour coding. Magenta, orange, purple, green, and white create divided tensions between wild places and the altered landscapes that surround and contain them. Magenta is the colour of ‘rare and endangered’, often appearing as little islands dotted across the terrain. Ironically, these grass trees thrive outside the magenta zoning, and regular grazing has created a safer environment from bushfire. This is an unlikely and long term symbiosis and a hopeful display of nature’s adaptation to change. Colour and landscape are essential to my practice and my regional backyard is a library of subjects.

**Photographer:** Adrienne Williams

**Fitzroy Storybook**

**Artist:** Ainslie McMahon
**Artist Location:** Sandringham
**Medium:** acrylic (2016)
**Dimensions:** 60 x 120 x 4 cm
**Artist Statement:**
The Fitzroy River is so much more than its title – “Largest river catchment in Queensland”. As the muddy waters of this majestic river flow through Rockhampton, and empty out into Keppel Bay, it provides an extremely valuable source of food and entertainment for all creatures great and small. The Fitzroy is endowed with a healthy ecosystem pulsating with life, which in turn promotes healthy fish stocks, contributing to superb recreational fishing/boating experiences for the local community, and tourists. On the banks of the Fitzroy, parks and walkways provide tranquility and an opportunity for reflection, in the midst of a bustling urban environment. Rockhampton is absolutely blessed to have the mighty Fitzroy River on its doorstep. This artwork celebrates the diversity of Rockhampton’s valuable asset in all its natural glory; from the grey hues of the muddy banks, the ochres of tangled vegetation, to the aqua hues of water.

**Photographer:** Ainslie McMahon

**Kallymenia cribrosa**

**Artist:** Alison McDonald
**Artist Location:** Jensen Townsville
**Medium:** Formed recycled copper hot water service and cast polyester resin (2016)
**Dimensions:** 44 x 39 x 23 cm
**Artist Statement:**
In 2012 Umbrella Studio Arts, Townsville sent me, as their first artist to a 3 month residency in Aberystwyth, Wales. Whilst there, I spent considerable time ankle deep in layers of seaweed collecting and photographing it. Since returning I have been studying Professor William H. Harvey’s ‘Phycologia Australica’ on Australian marine algae that he collected whilst he visited Australia from 1853 to 1856. This particular Australian seaweed is a Rhodophyta or red algae. Copper is also red metal and changes colour, which also replicates the green, brown and red colours of seaweed. I have utilised a recycled hot water service as copper is prolific in north Queensland and the hot water service alludes to our northern heat and rising temperatures. The base is cast in polyester resin, a plastic which hints at my continuing dismay of plastic detritus in our ocean environment, like that which I found amongst the seaweed.

**Photographer:** Andrew Rankin

**Thundi**

**Artist:** Dolly Loogatha
**Artist Location:** Gununa
**Medium:** Synthetic Polymer on Linen (2015)
**Dimensions:** 61 x 91 x 4 cm
**Artist Statement:**
Thundi is my father’s Country, this is where I was born on Bentinck Island. A big river runs through it. It is a place we use to camp at when we were younger. It is a good place to shelter from bad weather. I think to do it with all of these colours because it comes out of my brains. When I walk around I think what to do and dream about it. It’s the colours in my sleep…working it into your brain…lots of colour in my Country. It just comes from my heart.

**Photographer:** Grace Barnes

**Juicy**

**Artist:** Helena Lomulder
**Artist Location:** Clifton
**Medium:** Acrylic and resin on canvas (2016)
**Dimensions:** 100 x 100 x 4 cm
**Artist Statement:**
I have been a resident of the Darling Downs for six years and studying for a Bachelor of Education at the University of Southern Queensland. This is a major food growing area of Queensland and, although mangoes are not one of the crops in this area, they remain a symbol of summer when they appear for sale locally. Summer brings life to the area through new crops covering swathes of land in myriad colours, tourism increases with an influx of colourful personalities, bringing colour, vibrancy and life to the area. For me, mangos mirror the colours of the sun, warmth, growth, and juicy fruits that make people smile.

**Photographer:** Helena Lomulder

**Moortung ‘family’**

**Artist:** Izabella Hazard
**Artist Location:** Plainland
**Medium:** Acrylic on canvas (2016)
**Dimensions:** 60 x 120 x 4cm
**Artist Statement:**
‘Moortung’ meaning ‘family’ is a 60cm x120cm acrylic on canvas. At each end of the piece are large circles created by precise dot placement to represents my parents, beside each circle is a thick bands of dots. These dots represent the personal attributes attributes which guide you as an individual. In the center of the canvas there are trails of dots, these dots are representing how the attributes flow between family and the community. Incomplete circles outlined by white with just a splash of each colour inside are representing my brothers and myself and how we are still growing as individuals being influenced by the attributes of our parents and the community, we haven’t fully formed as individuals and this is why the circles are empty although have colour inside them as we are still showing individuality in our own way.

**Photographer:** Izabella Hazard

**This Spicy Life**

**Artist:** Jacqueline Sanderson
**Artist Location:** Coolum Beach
**Medium:** Acrylic and polyclear on pebbles, silicone and estapol on pine. (2016)
**Dimensions:** 44 x 44 x 2 cm
**Artist Statement:**
While the vast mountainous hinterland of the Sunshine Coast entertains the dazzling sunsets, it’s pristine beaches host magical sunrises. Along the soft shores small pebbles dot the tidemark where, during the night, the sea kissed the sand. It is here amidst the vibrant colour of ocean and sky that I find the pebbles, each one representing a unique interaction, a special relationship; between the ocean and the sand, between my community and myself. For me the vibrancy and life within my local community comes not only from stunning sea and landscapes, but from engaging with people through my work, art, studies, and community interactions; schools, volunteering and festivals. These daily exchanges are a reminder of the cultural wealth and diversity, which we are privileged to live amongst. Encouraging compassion and tolerance by sharing, connecting and supporting each other in a multicultural community is, to me, the spice of life.

**Photographer:** Jacqueline Sanderson

**Cooby Dam 2**

**Artist:** Kate Civil
**Artist Location:** Toowoomba
**Medium:** acrylic on canvas (2016)
**Dimensions:** 40 x 30 x 2 cm
**Artist Statement:**
Cooby Dam near Toowoomba is an intrinsic part of this towns makeup and provides essential water and a place for water sports nearby. Drawn insitu, this work shows father and sons together in kayaks, in exercise and quality family time. With Queensland’s sunshine and love of outdoor activity, this work is quintessential to our identity as a sporting culture with water at the heart of it. The colours are representational and the subject matter meaningful. Drawn with quick, broad strokes, the painting captures a personal moment in time as a voyeuristic look into a family at play. With recent water shortages and our deep need of it for sustaining life, this painting shows a place and time of residents in a natural setting. Centred around a vital and vibrant part of the Toowoomba community, this work is my look at Toowoomba and the colours of a Queensland town at play.

**Photographer:** Kate Civil

**Catherine Parker: Pilgrimage to Places. 2016**

**Artist:** Lee FullARTon
**Artist Location:** Ipswich
**Medium:** Mixed Media: acrylic, ink, block print and collage on canvas. (2016)
**Dimensions:** 75 x 60 x 4 cm
**Artist Statement:**
When I think about the Colours of Queensland, I immediately see the vastness of the state dotted with swirls of vibrant colour. These colours to me are Queensland Artists; they are an energy of stories, practice and colour that connects us all. In particular I have captured soulful, energetic, passionate, and joyful Toowoomba Artist Catherine Parker. Catherine is dedicated to her art practice that is deeply connected to travelling, experiences and spirituality of place and spaces. Her pilgrimages span from as far as India to Far North Queensland’s tropical islands for extended periods of time making art. She submerses herself in the day-to-day lives of locals, which provide her with rich narratives of environments and cultures. Beyond her personal work Catherine is an artist that shares, nurtures, supports and connects us to creativity. Everyone should be connected to the colours of Catherine Parker.

**Photographer:** Sue Hammond

**Bay to Bay**

**Artist:** Lee Harrison
**Artist Location:** Marcus Beach
**Medium:** Acrylic on Canvas (2015)
**Dimensions:** 40 x 120 x 4 cm
**Artist Statement:**
The catalyst for this painting was the windswept attitude of the coastal trees on the shoreline, together with the bright green foliage which contrasts so well with the complementary reddish/pink cliffs in the background. Artistic licence has been used in this painting entitled “Bay to Bay”, with the barely visible yachts sailing around the headland in the distance – the purpose being to capture the viewer’s interest to really look into the picture. The Bay to Bay yacht race between Tin Can Bay and Hervey Bay was the inspiration for this painting but it could easily be anywhere in Australia.

**Photographer:** Stuart Harrison

**Summer Blooms**

**Artist:** Lisa Roebig Holmes
**Artist Location:** Finch Hatton
**Medium:** Oil and Acrylic on Canvas (2015)
**Dimensions:** 45 x 45 x 2 cm
**Artist Statement:**
“Summer Blooms” is a joyful and exuberant representation of the exotic floral species that grow in North Queensland. The people who live in these colourful tropical environments mimic their surroundings, as they too are vibrant and unique personalities bursting with life and spirit. Simplistic shapes are enhanced using the dot art techniques of Aboriginal artists to pay homage to the first Australians who have lived in these tropical environments for hundreds of years. The sun and frangipani are symbolic of the long hot days of summer and repetitive contour lines signify the growth and life that warmer seasons bring to tropical North Queensland.

**Photographer:** Debbie Holmes

**Pine Mountain, the orange cave**

**Artist:** Maaret Sinkko
**Artist Location:** Yeppoon
**Medium:** oil on linen (2015)
**Dimensions:** 95 x 95 x 6 cm
**Artist Statement:**
The beautiful Rockhampton Trachyte formation (or volcanic plugs) including Pine Mountain, are integral to the identity of our hinterland. At any point in the back roads of the hinterland I know where I am. I know how to get home using the mountains and cross roads as a compass. Pine Mountain has eroded into bare smoothed rock and jagged screes. Wedged throughout are hoop pine, fig trees and acacia. Small caves and holes are worn out through time. The orange cave is found on the less-known northern escarpment. The colours I have used are inspired by the mountain’s mineralogy. The true colours of the mountain as revealed though new cracks and fissures and the process of oxidization. Parts of the mountain appear bleached in the summer sun. The soil holds the mountain as if in a cradle in the same way the landscape makes me feel.

**Photographer:** Hugh Simmons

**The Post apocalyptic Hobby Farm Next Door**

**Artist:** Matthew Cheyne
**Artist Location:** Karalee
**Medium:** Oil on Polyester (2016)
**Dimensions:** 106 x 106 x 5 cm
**Artist Statement:**
‘The Post apocalyptic Hobby Farm Next Door’ is part of a series of paintings chronicling the fate of the condemned house next door to my studio in Ipswich. It is not intended as an indictment, on the contrary, I am very fond of my neighbour and her menagerie and she is perfectly philosophical about the misfortune that has lead to her current state of affairs. She has often said “I don’t care about the house. As long as the animals are happy, I’m happy.” In a semi-rural suburb of manicured lawns, this feral landscape is the site to which all local wildlife and children are magnetically drawn. As a painter, there is definitely a strong sense of attraction-repulsion about the ankle deep, iridescent dam and the incongruous alpacas that wade through it.

**Photographer:** Caroline Cheyne

View this multimedia work at https://vimeo.com/176531784

**Bellmore: Roots**

**Artist:** Merri Randell
**Artist Location:** Cornubia
**Medium:** HD video (2015)
**Dimensions:** 120 x 120 x 120 cm
**Artist Statement:**
Randell creates hybrid landscapes to represent her experience of Queensland forests – vast in scale and detail, the same forms captured from different angles and perspectives – all shown at once – all connected. Through the addition of sound and motion her landscapes come alive and embody the typically hidden respiratory, digestive and reproductive botanical events of these places. ‘Bellomore: Roots’ was created during the Logan BushCare Residency which sought to raise awareness about BushCare and celebrate the cultural diversity of Logan. The anima of her local natural areas and the people who love them are her palette of colour – driven by the nexus of light, water and struggle for life and community. Randell’s work playfully challenges colonial Australian cinematic myths which demonise our landscapes such as ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ (Weir, 1979) where the rock was accused of consuming the schoolgirls – rendering the landscape crimescene and murderer.

**Photographer:** Merri Randell

**We Started as Strangers**

**Artist:** Michelle Hair & Kyle Schneider
**Artist Location:** East Bundaberg
**Medium:** Acrylic on canvas (2016)
**Dimensions:** 91 x 61 x 2cm
**Artist Statement:**
It’s the experiences you have with those you love and care for, that matter and give colour to your life. It’s the times you live without your LED screen lighting your mind with artificial colours and empty exchanges of small talk. It’s the colour of their smile behind a campfire instead the colour of their Instagram filters. It’s the colours of your laughter in conversation rather than the colours of their emoji’s. It’s getting lost in the moments you never want to end over the endless stream of your Facebook feed. It’s the adventures of the HMS Internship, a family that met at strangers but is now stronger than some of blood, in which it doesn’t matter when it is, where we are or what we’re doing; because these are the people that bring colour to my life.

**Photographer:** Kyle Schneider

**Age and diversity**

**Artist:** Miles Allen
**Artist Location:** Flaxton
**Medium:** Metal dishes, paint, acrylic on board, under perspex (2015)
**Dimensions:** 50 x 50 x 5 cm
**Artist Statement:**
These dishes were found at a council tip with tubes of dried-out paint and worn, discarded brushes. The dishes were presumably used for mixing paint many years ago and then discarded. These objects draw parallels with the retirees in my ageing and diverse community who each bring their contributions of rich, colourful stories when talking about their journeys through life. Assorted colours reflect the diversity of cultural experiences shared in these elders’ tales. Whilst the flaking textures and tarnished colours allow rust to show through and are as worn as physical and mental abilities, there is depth, a vivid intensity and a blend of lively and poignant emotions which contribute to a varied and captivating patina.

**Photographer:** Nathalie Bastier

**Trolly Return**

**Artist:** Paul Reynolds
**Artist Location:** Cooroy
**Medium:** mixed media oil, pastel (2016)
**Dimensions:** 120 x 90 x 3 cm
**Artist Statement:**
This work explores the use of colour and branding in those hubs of community lives the shopping centres. And its aspirational impact on both third and first world context

**Photographer:** Paul Reynolds

**Figbird02**

**Artist:** Richard Gillespie
**Artist Location:** Townsville
**Medium:** Digital Illustration on cotton rag (2016)
**Dimensions:** 74 x 95 x 3 cm
**Artist Statement:**
The Colours of Queensland The Figbird feeds in flocks. The males of the species have olive green wings, a black head, and distinct bright red facial skin. They are to me the colours of Queensland. I’m delighted when the soft fruits and berries are in season on the trees in my garden and these birds arrive. Until cyclone Yasi, there was a tree right outside my bedroom, which they loved. Often, around twenty birds would arrive to forage, letting everyone in the district know what a great time they were having. It was cheerful music adding a bright tone to the morning. That tree is gone but I have plenty of palm trees which flower and produce dense bunches of yellow stems laden with red fruit, which attract the lovely, colourful figbird. Richard Gillespie

**Photographer:** Richard Gillespie

**Tropical Paradise**

**Artist:** Elise Higginson
**Artist Location:** Chinchilla
**Medium:** Acrylic and marker pen on canvas (2015)
**Dimensions:** 96 x 51 x 2cm
**Artist Statement:**
‘Colours of Queensland’ reminds me of bright sunsets, misty rainforests, and wide sweeping landscapes and beaches. There is so much to celebrate in Queensland with the pristine wonders and colours of our State. These unique colours are something that I’ve tried to capture my painting, “Tropical Paradise.” In particular, I have aimed to represent our tropical north’s flowers and plants. My biggest influence here has been the fact that I grew up in North Queensland and my childhood home featured a magnificent garden. Therefore, I was surrounded by tropical green palms and shrubs contrasted with the vibrant splashes of colour provided by our tropical flowers… a combination that only Mother Nature can do so well.

**Photographer:** Elise Higginson

Tour Launch at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, 11 March 2017

2016 Supporters

Flying Arts Alliance Inc is a not-for-profit organisation inspiring the appreciation, practice and professional development of the visual and media arts as a lifetime interest or career throughout regional and remote Queensland, supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation, the University of Southern Queensland and corporate partners and benefactors.

Flying Arts Alliance Inc presents the Queensland Regional Art Awards through the assistance of project partners TOLL, RSM, Brian Tucker Accounting, The Edge – State Library of Queensland, Travel Associates, Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, Art Shed Brisbane, and Jugglers Art Space Inc.

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