The Queensland Regional Art Awards (QRAA) is an annual visual arts prize and exhibition for established and emerging artists living in regional and remote Queensland. The program aims to provide a platform for further professional development.
From dirt roads to rock pools, luscious rainforests to local festivals, Queensland is a state that inspires exploration. It’s full of diverse personalities, local legends and hidden gems valued by tourists and locals alike.
In 2018, artists were asked to embrace a spirit of adventure to discover something unique about their own community or one that they visit within the state.
The theme was to be addressed in an accompanying artist statement of 100 – 150 words.
2018 Judging Panel
Bianca Acimovic (Touring Exhibition Curator) – Director, Rockhampton Regional Art Gallery
Renai Grace – Director, Museum of Brisbane
Bruce Heiser – Director, Heiser Projects
Read the media release announcement here.
2018 WINNING ARTWORKS
Artist: Erin Dunne
Artist Location: The Range
Medium: Graphite on paper, 2018
Dimensions: 56 x 78 x 5
Artist Statement:
Despite being a popular highway stopover, the tiny town of Duaringa in Central Queensland is rarely considered a destination that would inspire a sense of wanderlust for the average tourist. While Trip Advisor lists a grand total of zero attractions, patient exploration uncovers its charms. Time moves more slowly. Shielded from the march of gentrification, it’s a living museum. Familiar yet strange. Beautiful and verdant in one glance, ramshackle and crumbling to dust in the next. Abundant space. Sweet perfume of freedom. “Destination Duaringa” takes the form of a visual travel journal recording my journey through town with Dad as my tour guide to places familiar and new. Dad shares the precious gift of stories associated with them until we move beyond geographical travel and are reaching back through time and memory to connect with family history. Wanderlust teaches me that this place and I are part of each other.
Photographer: Erin Dunne
Artist: Karen Stephens
Artist Location: Winton
Medium: Acrylic paint on paper, 2018
Dimensions: 50 x 70 x 8
Artist Statement:
A.B. Paterson’s verse Waltzing Matilda (1895), or a traveller on foot with a swag, sets the scene for a contemporary traveller moving through the Winton landscape. In this space your gaze is set free in vast stretches of Mitchell, Feathertop and Flinders grass underneath a brilliant blue sky. In my private thoughts it astounds me that the simplicity of grass continually holds my attention and brings joy. The grass can be illuminated at dusk and dawn or flowing like ocean waves in the winter wind. I love being embraced by its warmth. Consumed by wanderlust, I spend a lot of time exploring the rhythm and composition of grass. On closer inspection, the obvious gives way to sophisticated variations of colour by the placement of species in between. Both mysterious and elusive, what I love most about the grass is how it softens a landscape that is frequently understood as hard.
Photographer: FAUN PHOTOGRAPHY
Artist: Rebecca Lewis
Artist Location: East Ipswich
Medium: Stop Motion Collage, 2018
Dimensions: 30 x 40 x 0
Artist Statement:
With suitcase in hand our protagonist wanders down a street in (insert your favourite regional small town here), Queensland. Seeking an authentic experience of this small town she has left the main street behind. As she strolls along she gathers mementos, safely packing them away before rambling on. Chance encounters with the locals, discovering little treasures, these are the memories and objects she will carry home from her travels. With the street scape built from original Lino prints and the little paper characters taken from mid-century comic books I have combined these elements with the hope that placing them side by side gives each element greater context and builds a story around them.
Photographer: Rebecca Lewis
Artist: Lillian Whitaker
Artist Location: North Maleny
Medium: Projected Video and 4 track field recording, 2018
Dimensions: 80 x 126 x 0
Artist Statement:
Mist #3 encapsulates the iconic rolling green hills and foggy atmosphere of Maleny, Queensland. Mist #3 comprises field recordings in various forms. These field recordings involve captured natural visual occurrences (in this case being an ephemeral mist) as well as recorded organic found sounds (such as a running Obi Obi creek and the calls rainforest creatures). Throughout the piece, I really wanted to emphasise the ephemeral and ethereal qualities of the hinterland range when engulfed in a delicate mist. I have showcased these elements through the use of a coexisting soundscape where in addition to field recordings, I’ve added tranquil synthesised elements which represent my interpretation of what mist would sound like if it were to emit sound. I have projected my video onto a stark white tent creating a strong juxtaposition between the focal point of the moving video, and the dark still background of the Maleny rainforest.
Photographer: Lillian Whitaker
Artist: Suzy Furness
Artist Location: Ilkley
Medium: Silk, 2017
Dimensions: 115 x 70 x 0.5
Artist Statement:
What about the wanderlust of the insects who meander and wander over the barks of our eucalypts? Do their travels count? I hope so. Dusk to Dawn took as its starting point the insect marks on a scribbly gum in Mooloolah National Park. I then added the colours of the various tree barks on my property, and the colour of the daylight seen behind them.
Photographer: Suzy Furness
Artist: The Ly
Artist Location: Loganholme
Medium: Watercolour Paint on Paper, 2018
Dimensions: 58 x 78 x 2
Artist Statement:
Display homes produced by a range of leading builders establish a stunning village on streets and estates in Queensland. Travelling to display homes, to me, is a great choice to explore fresh, attractive and contemporary designs. Wherever located, visitors can enjoy and discover a dream of living at display homes. Killara village includes a row of beautiful display homes which was reflected on my painting. I perceived and painted the light and the shadow, the mass and voids on building facades in a winter morning. I identified and focused on cars, people and signs which create lively and vibrant activities. I showed the mood and the depth of spaces to make a feeling of strong desire and impulse on the display homes exploration I experienced.
Photographer: The Ly
Artist: Hayley Roberts
Artist Location: Narangba
Medium: Digital Photograph on Fine Art Paper, 2018
Dimensions: 33.100000000000001 x 55 x 3
Artist Statement:
Recently I’ve been dreaming about running away into the forest. Suburbia has worn me down and I long for something simpler and wilder. As urbanisation consumes the natural world and disillusionment with consumerism grows I’ve noticed more and more people share the desire to return to nature. I wanted to create an image that provides a portal, if you will, to a place of calm forged through a bonding experience with nature. ‘If Trees Could Talk’ was created in Lamington National Park along the Border track. I visited O’Reilly’s for a solo weekend to reconnect with nature and hiked for three hours with a backpack stuffed with a costume dress and my camera gear to create this self-portrait among the rare Antarctic Beech trees, some of which are believed to be 3000 years old. How incredible to be so resilient and how lucky we are to still have them.
Photographer: Hayley Roberts
Artist: Caitlin Broderick
Artist Location: Toowoomba
Medium: Acrylic on canvas, 2017
Dimensions: 40 x 50 x 2.5
Artist Statement:
This painting is dedicated to the natural wonders of Masthead Island. Situated off the coast of Gladstone, Masthead Island is one of the most untouched cays of the Capricorn Cays. Here, vivid hues of orange and blue saturate the ocean floor, as sun-rays dance their way down to places never seen before. Amongst the crystal blue water and exposed corals lies a small, picturesque island that could only be dreamt of. The untouched beauty of the island has a surreal feeling, that no words can describe – it can only be seen to be believed. This is what I have tried to capture in my painting. Masthead Island will always hold a special place in my heart. I hope that this place remains an untouched, natural beauty, so that one day my grand children can experience the true beauty of this Queensland gem.
Photographer: Caitlin Broderick
- Destination Duaringa, Erin Dunne (Rockhampton) – The Flying Arts ‘Art for Life’ Award, thanks to Holding Redlich and the Flying Arts Alliance 500 Club Donors – $10,000 cash, non-acquisitive
- Killara Display Homes, The Ly (Loganholme) – The Annie Tan Memorial Watercolour Award, thanks to The Booth Memorial Fund of Annie Tan (Yuh Siew) and the Geoff Booth Foundation – $3,000 cash, non-acquisitive
- Mist #3, Lillian Whitaker (North Maleny) – Betty Crombie Young Artist Development Award, thanks to David Crombie – $2,000 cash, non-acquisitive
- Dawn to Dusk, Suzy Furness (Ilkley) – Textile Art Award, thanks to Janet de Boer and Art for Life donor – $1,500 cash, non-acquisitive
- Streets of Your Town, Rebecca Lewis (East Ipswich) – Digital Art Award, thanks to The Edge, State Library of Queensland, The Johnson and Flying Arts – Fully funded one-week residency at The Edge, SLQ including 7 nights accommodation at The Johnson, valued at $4,000
- Mitchell, Feathertop and Flinders, Karen Stephens (Winton) – Remote Artist Award, brought to you by USQ Artsworx – Fully funded one-week residency at McGregor Summer School (Jan 2019) valued at $2,500
- If Trees Could Talk, Hayley Roberts (Narangba) – People’s Choice Award (Adult), thanks to Ironlak Art and Design – $1250 Ironlak art materials voucher
- Where the ocean meets the sea, Caitlin Broderick (Toowoomba) – People’s Choice Award (Youth), thanks to Ironlak Art and Design – $750 Ironlak art materials voucher
Judge’s Commendation
Artist: Shannon Garson
Artist Location: Maleny
Medium: Porcelain, oxides, glaze, underglaze, 2017
Dimensions: 30 x 30 x 4
Artist Statement:
My aim is to explore ceramics and life through the synthesis of surface decoration and form. Through these pots I strive to connect the visible world , plants and the environment with the intangible and the mysterious. I began this work when working towards an exhibition in the U.S, thinking about the Australian artists travelling so far with a load of pots carrying our ideas to a foreign shore. This led me to the epic migration of the Artic Tern that flies 40 000 kilometres between the Arctic and the Antarctic every year. The vessels I made for this exhibition use drawings and paintings of the Arctic Tern, abstractions of meteorological and topographic maps and details of shoreline habitat to capture the endless blue and white distance of the open ocean, the fascination of new lands and the relief of seeing the shoreline, a destination, however temporary.
Photographer: Shannon Garson
- The epic flight of the Arctic Tern 2 plates, Shannon Garson (Maleny) – Judge’s Commendation for a 3D work
WANDERLUST TOURING EXHIBITION
Download here:
Wanderlust catalogue (low-res)
Developed by the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) in collaboration with Flying Arts Alliance and Art Education Australia (AEA)
Works listed with prices are available to purchase (click on images to view full details) – please contact us for sales enquiries
Artist: Erin Dunne
Artist Location: The Range
Medium: Graphite on paper, 2018
Dimensions: 56 x 78 x 5
Artist Statement:
Despite being a popular highway stopover, the tiny town of Duaringa in Central Queensland is rarely considered a destination that would inspire a sense of wanderlust for the average tourist. While Trip Advisor lists a grand total of zero attractions, patient exploration uncovers its charms. Time moves more slowly. Shielded from the march of gentrification, it’s a living museum. Familiar yet strange. Beautiful and verdant in one glance, ramshackle and crumbling to dust in the next. Abundant space. Sweet perfume of freedom. “Destination Duaringa” takes the form of a visual travel journal recording my journey through town with Dad as my tour guide to places familiar and new. Dad shares the precious gift of stories associated with them until we move beyond geographical travel and are reaching back through time and memory to connect with family history. Wanderlust teaches me that this place and I are part of each other.
Photographer: Erin Dunne
Artist: Emma Ward
Artist Location: Gracemere
Medium: Archival acrylic on canvas, 2018
Dimensions: 61 x 61 x 4
Artist Statement:
Over the years, I’ve kept or been given natural objects as mementos of areas I’ve visited here in CQ. My Still life has been painted in a modern ‘flat lay’ social media style, and was created to celebrate and display a treasured collection of some of my favorite things; a thunder egg from Mt Hay, Chrysoprase from Marlborough, shells, seaglass & stones from Yeppoon & Emu Park, Copper from Mt Isa, fern fossil from Byfield, and a piece of rusted truck bed from a road in Rockhampton, all these things are tied together with a long coiled string, representing my life journey, and my ‘wanderlust’, and the wrinkled tablecloth on which they all sit represents life’s up & downs. Our adventures form wonderful memories, and this energy can be preserved in the treasures we collect ‘along the way’.
Photographer: Emma Ward
Artist: Christopher Trotter
Artist Location: Boonah
Medium: Found objects, 2018
Dimensions: 34 x 44 x 15
Artist Statement:
Come to the Scenic Rim and you will be amazed by the diversity of the landscape. Spectacular mountain ranges and rock formations surround beautiful bodies of water from rain forest streams to open dams. I’ve been developing unique experiences within my region with the creation of hidden sculptures dispersed about the landscapes. Such works can only be discovered by bush walking for an hour and are located adjacent trails within the forest canopy or involve a 10 minute canoe trip about one of our beautiful dams. This artwork is part of my ‘Foreign Body’ series and is a reaction to introduced species into Australia such as Deer. This piece normally resides on the forest floor. The artwork form is inspired by parasitic rainforest growth such as Staghorns.
Photographer: Christopher Trotter
Artist: Sandra Ross
Artist Location: Gympie
Medium: Charcoal and Ink on paper, 2018
Dimensions: 89 x 120 x 3
Artist Statement:
Lust for travel has been in my life since a young child with my commercial Captain father making it possible and I experienced the world was full of amazing places. Recently I have been drawing mountains as a response to some very difficult emotionally challenging situations that I needed to overcome. Drawing has become a way for me to make sense of these through intuitively making marks as a response to feelings evoked in me. Travelling to Huangshan in China and having developed a close relationship with the Glass House Mountains of the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, I realise that my drawing titled “Walk in the Mountain” is a memory of the arduous and somewhat dangerous journey taken to reach peaks of these mountains and a metaphor for the many personal emotional obstacles that I have had to endure in my life.
Photographer: Sandra Ross
Artist: Noela Mills
Artist Location: Maleny
Medium: Acrylic/mixed, 2018
Dimensions: 75 x 60 x 2
Artist Statement:
I have family members currently wandering around the islands of the Whitsundays in a catamaran. Two adults with two preschool daughters – loving the freedom to wander, explore fish, swim, relax, play and appreciate the healthy outdoors life that Qld has to offer them. No plans, just going where the wind takes them. The theme of this exhibition epitomizes the experiences that my family members are having. My painting titled ‘All at Sea’ is reminiscent of the boats, moorings, open waters of our great coast line and the adventures that are on offer.
Photographer: Noela Mills
Artist: Shannon Garson
Artist Location: Maleny
Medium: Porcelain, oxides, glaze, underglaze, 2017
Dimensions: 30 x 30 x 4
Artist Statement:
My aim is to explore ceramics and life through the synthesis of surface decoration and form. Through these pots I strive to connect the visible world , plants and the environment with the intangible and the mysterious. I began this work when working towards an exhibition in the U.S, thinking about the Australian artists travelling so far with a load of pots carrying our ideas to a foreign shore. This led me to the epic migration of the Artic Tern that flies 40 000 kilometres between the Arctic and the Antarctic every year. The vessels I made for this exhibition use drawings and paintings of the Arctic Tern, abstractions of meteorological and topographic maps and details of shoreline habitat to capture the endless blue and white distance of the open ocean, the fascination of new lands and the relief of seeing the shoreline, a destination, however temporary.
Photographer: Shannon Garson
Artist: Joe Botica
Artist Location: Gladstone
Medium: Watercolour on Paper, 2018
Dimensions: 53 x 43 x 2
When my family and I first moved to Gladstone in 2012, one of my first memories of exploring the local area was visiting Lake Awoonga. The lake brought me a strong sense of peace and clarity, and we soon became regular visitors. A few weeks ago, I decided to visit Awoonga to try to gain inspiration for my submission to the 2018 QRAA. I arrived at sunset and was blown away by the intense beauty I was witnessing. The water turned to glass and reflected the rainbow sky, mesmerising everyone who was watching. In the artwork, I aimed to recreate this beauty and sense of peace. It had never occurred to me that the sunset would be so beautiful, but now that I know, I’m sure that I’ll be back for more Awoonga sunsets.
Photographer: Joe Botica
Artist: Joolie Gibbs
Artist Location: Gympie
Medium: Ink on paper, 2018
Dimensions: 120 x 63 x 4
Artist Statement:
The Araucaria bidwilli, known as the Bunya Pine, attracts many visitors to South East Queensland, in particular the Bunya Mountains, where it grows naturally. They are majestic reminders of our planet’s history, dating back to Jurassic times. They command and deserve respect as they dominate the landscape. They hold cultural and spiritual significance for our First Nation’s people who celebrated and feasted on the bunya nut during their Bunya festivals, and still do today. The large bunya cone can hold approximately 90 seeds or kernels in its conical shape, and are favoured for their nutrition and unique flavour. The timber is also favoured for the soundboards in guitars and for cabinetmaking. This drawing is of a juvenile bunya tree that I planted more than ten years ago on my property. I get pleasure out of watching it grow.
Photographer: Joolie Gibbs
Artist: Nicole Voevodin-Cash
Artist Location: Mudjimba
Medium: Pen on paper, 2018
Dimensions: 100 x 120 x 20
Artist Statement:
Travel/walking for me is immersive and the experience embodies my perception of where I am embedded in the world, Phenomenologically speaking! When I travel/walk I carry a Billycan, (a simple recording device) that draws when I move tracing and following my movement which gathers visually the remnants (material and experiential) of where I am. Dalby’s landscape is dictated by its agricultural background, topographical (flat) landscape and isolation. To many not a desired location yet my experience exposes this gems innate beauty through engagement. Thanks to this method of creating, these drawings emulsifies this location and experience together into an inextricable poetic whole. It records my time, my exertion and my narrative where I walk in Dalby. These seemingly symmetrical but uneven drawings cannot be separated from the walk, the travel, the effort of ME and Dalby: a beautiful momento of where I walk and travel.
Photographer: Nicole Voevodin-Cash
Artist: Karen Stephens
Artist Location: Winton
Medium: Acrylic paint on paper, 2018
Dimensions: 50 x 70 x 8
Artist Statement:
A.B. Paterson’s verse Waltzing Matilda (1895), or a traveller on foot with a swag, sets the scene for a contemporary traveller moving through the Winton landscape. In this space your gaze is set free in vast stretches of Mitchell, Feathertop and Flinders grass underneath a brilliant blue sky. In my private thoughts it astounds me that the simplicity of grass continually holds my attention and brings joy. The grass can be illuminated at dusk and dawn or flowing like ocean waves in the winter wind. I love being embraced by its warmth. Consumed by wanderlust, I spend a lot of time exploring the rhythm and composition of grass. On closer inspection, the obvious gives way to sophisticated variations of colour by the placement of species in between. Both mysterious and elusive, what I love most about the grass is how it softens a landscape that is frequently understood as hard.
Photographer: FAUN PHOTOGRAPHY
Artist: Rebecca Lewis
Artist Location: East Ipswich
Medium: Stop Motion Collage, 2018
Dimensions: 30 x 40 x 0
Artist Statement:
With suitcase in hand our protagonist wanders down a street in (insert your favourite regional small town here), Queensland. Seeking an authentic experience of this small town she has left the main street behind. As she strolls along she gathers mementos, safely packing them away before rambling on. Chance encounters with the locals, discovering little treasures, these are the memories and objects she will carry home from her travels. With the street scape built from original Lino prints and the little paper characters taken from mid-century comic books I have combined these elements with the hope that placing them side by side gives each element greater context and builds a story around them.
Photographer: Rebecca Lewis
Artist: Miles Allen
Artist Location: Flaxton
Medium: Mixed media, 2018
Dimensions: 50 x 50 x 14
Artist Statement:
I do a lot of wandering on foot trying to find uninhabited places off the beaten track. Often I wander through the studio and storeroom, looking for inspiration and bits and pieces which can tell a story. I discovered these tins whilst exploring an abandoned, broken-down property well away from anywhere else, a treasure trove of rust and decay and nowadays rarely visited. Someone had eaten the contents, thrown away the tins and there they remained, gradually returning to the earth. Along comes the wandering artist who liked their shapes and uniformity of size and is keen to resurrect the tins. He picks them up and takes them home. They remain in the storeroom for several years, gathering dust until one day I start playing with them, arranging them and gives them some order, making something new from the old and giving them a different life.
Photographer: Miles Allen
Artist: Rosey Cummings
Artist Location: Oak Beach
Medium: Coiled and stitched washed up beach rope/driftwood. Fibreart/weaving, 2018
Dimensions: 60 x 24 x 11
Artist Statement:
Rockpool in the wet is a response to Far North QLD’s wet season and recent monumental rains. Exciting and dramatic does not begin the explain the experience. Deluges, pounding rain, crashing murky waves, beaches piled with organic and man made detritus. Frogs calling, thunder and lightning. Streams and rivers cascading along the coast and everywhere water. The materials I have used to coil and stitch this piece were thrown up onto my local beaches during this wet; beach rope and driftwood. They evoke rain spilling over rocks, driftwood and sand and settling into new beach depressions before running back to the sea. The visual excitement that made exploring and observing the beach in the rain exciting. But there is also a more serious side to this piece: To provoke a thoughtful response to the intrusion of man-made waste into this fragile, unique environment. Come and experience it yourself!
Photographer: Rosey Cummings
Artist: The Ly
Artist Location: Loganholme
Medium: Watercolour Paint on Paper, 2018
Dimensions: 58 x 78 x 2
Artist Statement:
Display homes produced by a range of leading builders establish a stunning village on streets and estates in Queensland. Travelling to display homes, to me, is a great choice to explore fresh, attractive and contemporary designs. Wherever located, visitors can enjoy and discover a dream of living at display homes. Killara village includes a row of beautiful display homes which was reflected on my painting. I perceived and painted the light and the shadow, the mass and voids on building facades in a winter morning. I identified and focused on cars, people and signs which create lively and vibrant activities. I showed the mood and the depth of spaces to make a feeling of strong desire and impulse on the display homes exploration I experienced.
Photographer: The Ly
Artist: Jack Martin
Artist Location: Mackay
Medium: Oil Paint on Canvas, 2018
Dimensions: 25 x 20 x 2
Artist Statement:
My partner and I moved to Australia less than one year ago. We immediately began a roadtrip around Queensland to explore the state we would now call home. From sugarcane farmlands to tropical beaches to deserted highways to dry bushlands; Queensland’s landscapes were so varied and different from what I knew they were inspiring. My painting is Wallaman Falls; a place I had to drive along a winding mountain-side road to access, a place I witnessed the tallest torrent of water I’d ever seen, a place where for the first time in my life I felt the humidity of a rainforest on my skin and a place where I swam in a dark pool at the foot of a mighty waterfall. I pasted the paint on, carving out rock faces and plant forms with a palette knife, attempting to imitate the unbridled movement of water with spontaneous and loose application.
Photographer: Jack Martin
Artist: Brandon Wockner
Artist Location: Toowoomba
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas, 2018
Dimensions: 50 x 100 x 2
Artist Statement:
Taken from a place I traveled too, I wandered and found a neat creek still running against the detriment of drought, providing hope for all the animals around. It was a place I had been before but this time flowers had taken over the weeds demonstrating such beautiful colors. I am self taught artist, I find the experience and journey of my development its own reward as it allows natural discovery and perplexing riddles that I do not have the foundations to create in which lies the challenge adding to my journey. I try to create ideas of hope within my art, places that we’d rather be. This painting was taken from the flora that resides in Egypt, Queensland. I became an artist because I love to paint, I share my paintings in the hopes that it inspires others to strive for their dreams. Hope is all we have left. Dedication: In loving memory of Benjamin Farrugia
Photographer: Brandon Wockner
Artist: Abramo Papp
Artist Location: Russell Island
Medium: Watercolour on Fabiano, 2018
Dimensions: 75 x 55 x 2
Artist Statement:
Sailing was my favourite pastime. It was the only thing that fully relaxed me and took my mind off the challenges of work. For over ten years I would crew on yachts racing out of Manly Marina on weekends and Wednesday afternoons. This was both challenging and exhilarating. I then bought my own boat ‘Prelude’ and lived aboard for several years where I came to study the reflections the boats and masts made on the water at various times of the day. Breezes over the water would be distorted by the boats, forming interesting juxtapositions of relatively still water and eddies of ripples in various directions. This painting is a close up of one of those pieces of water – verging on the abstract. I find these reflections captivating – bringing back my love of the water and sailing.
Photographer: Abramo Papp
Artist: Keelyn Waters
Artist Location: Tugun
Medium: Oil on Canvas, 2018
Dimensions: 76 x 54 x 6
Artist Statement:
Going overseas, sailing on a cruise ship, visiting another city, seeing travel photos on social media. This is Not wanderlust to me. My wanderlust lyes in the belly of the country that I live; the bush. My wanderlust is with the kookaburra by the waterfall, in the lush forest of the great dividing range, in the view of the blue mountains. It is away from any technology, with people that I love, in the timeless space of untouched wilderness. The coloured leaves of Australian gums has always made me calm and euphoric. I am glad it runs in my blood.
Photographer: Keelyn Waters
Artist: Beth Barrett
Artist Location: Tivoli
Medium: Acrylic and mirror on MDF Board, 2018
Dimensions: 105 x 40 x 25
Artist Statement:
Queensland has many diverse national parks and reserves to explore and walking them provides a great opportunity for solitude and self-reflection. This piece displays some of the many stepping stones that have been walked along while experiencing our natural wonders. The lines, textures, and colours used reflect the cool, peaceful features found within the hidden pools and crevasses. The addition of mirrors also adds to the sense of reflection. Whether stepping into a new adventure or revisiting a favourite vista, the path is never the same. Depending on the light, time of day or season – and even the company – the environment is a constant wonder. To take the first step and then continue visiting these special places can change your perspective on nature and foster greater appreciation for the world’s beauty.
Photographer: Caitlin Sippel
Artist: Lillian Whitaker
Artist Location: North Maleny
Medium: Projected Video and 4 track field recording, 2018
Dimensions: 80 x 126 x 0
Artist Statement:
Mist #3 encapsulates the iconic rolling green hills and foggy atmosphere of Maleny, Queensland. Mist #3 comprises field recordings in various forms. These field recordings involve captured natural visual occurrences (in this case being an ephemeral mist) as well as recorded organic found sounds (such as a running Obi Obi creek and the calls rainforest creatures). Throughout the piece, I really wanted to emphasise the ephemeral and ethereal qualities of the hinterland range when engulfed in a delicate mist. I have showcased these elements through the use of a coexisting soundscape where in addition to field recordings, I’ve added tranquil synthesised elements which represent my interpretation of what mist would sound like if it were to emit sound. I have projected my video onto a stark white tent creating a strong juxtaposition between the focal point of the moving video, and the dark still background of the Maleny rainforest.
Photographer: Lillian Whitaker
Artist: J Valenzuela Didi
Artist Location: Logan
Medium: Acrylic on canvas, 2018
Dimensions: 61 x 91 x 4
Artist Statement:
A solitary figure patiently awaits a journey that will carry her away from the confines of modern life. The typical Queensland backyard, though familiar, is revealed as a detached and alien landscape. Within this moment, the ever-present desire to break free becomes a spiritual pilgrimage. In this work I wanted to portray the desire to travel, to break free from the daily grind, to discover a tropical paradise that although so close, may feel so far.
Photographer: J Valenzuela Didi
Artist: Jenny Neubecker
Artist Location: Waterloo
Medium: Acrylic and pastel collage, 2018
Dimensions: 25 x 20 x 2
Artist Statement:
Life on a grazing property necessitates close observation and awareness of the weather, on a daily basis. I watch the changing colours and shapes with awe and fascination as the land and sky provide important clues about the weather and seasons. Summer Storm No.1 is one in a series of works on paper that aim to capture the engaging and powerful energy of a storm, as it develops, between earth and sky. Strong, gestural graphite marks represent the life-giving forces that brood and build before gathering momentum and exploding dramatically across the landscape, infusing the sky and land with an energy that will stimulate growth and nourish the flora and fauna that are dependent on this land.
Photographer: Jenny Neubecker
Artist: Netta Loogatha
Artist Location: Gununa, Mornington Island
Medium: Acrylic on canvas, 2018
Dimensions: 120 x 100 x 4
Artist Statement:
This is my Country on Bentinck Island at Oak Tree Point. We call it Lookati in our Kayardild language. I was born here at Bilmee, Dog Story Place. We lived in humpies then – no clothes, nothing at all. I learned to hunt from an early age, how to fish and collect shellfish, how to gather foods from the bush. I was young when the Europeans came in 1946 to take us away from our home and forced us to live on Mornington Island in the dormitory in the Mission there.
Photographer: MIArt
Artist: Donna Davis
Artist Location: Deebing Heights
Medium: Pigment print on Hahnemuhle fine art rag, 2018
Dimensions: 45 x 85 x 5
Artist Statement:
‘Unfamiliar’ reflects on the notion of seeking unity with nature by exploring the unknown. I recently visited Cairns to creatively investigate the decline of the endangered Northern bettong, with reference to Dr Sandra Abell’s research. Whilst in the tropics I was overwhelmed by the wondrous intertwined ecology that persisted to excite and invite me to explore deeper and deeper into its depths. Interestingly, this feeling mirrored that of my journey learning about the small noctural bettong; an intriguing ‘keystone’ species with a refined taste for native truffles! A diorama of sorts, individual elements in this work were created as soft sculptures, then digitally crocheted together to create a dynamic interpretation of the wonder of my explorations in the tropics. I invite the viewer to imagine they are on a journey into the unfamiliar and unknown in this magical and irreplaceable landscape: seeking unity with nature through exploration, knowledge and understanding.
Photographer: Donna Davis
Artist: Ethel Thomas
Artist Location: Gununa, Mornington Island
Medium: Acrylic on canvas, 2018
Dimensions: 120 x 90 x 4
Artist Statement:
My Mum was born at Minikuri on the west side of Bentinck Island. You can see Dalwai Island across the sea from here.
Photographer: MIArt
Artist: Suzy Furness
Artist Location: Ilkley
Medium: Silk, 2017
Dimensions: 115 x 70 x 0.5
Artist Statement:
What about the wanderlust of the insects who meander and wander over the barks of our eucalypts? Do their travels count? I hope so. Dusk to Dawn took as its starting point the insect marks on a scribbly gum in Mooloolah National Park. I then added the colours of the various tree barks on my property, and the colour of the daylight seen behind them.
Photographer: Suzy Furness
