august, 2019
13aug(aug 13)9:00 am20sep(sep 20)5:00 pm
Event Details
Vote now for the People’s Choice Awards in this year’s Queensland Regional Art Awards.
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 theme in 2019 is ‘State of Diversity’:
Queensland is a state full of diverse ecosystems, wildlife, places, people and personalities. This year, artists are encouraged to explore the diverse elements and qualities that make up their own communities and locations within Queensland.
The theme was to be addressed in an accompanying artist statement of 100 – 150 words.
People’s Choice Award Voting Process
There are two categories within the People’s Choice Award. Your votes determine the winners of the following prizes:
Adult – $1,250 Ironlak art materials voucher
Youth – $750 Ironlak art materials voucher
Thanks to Ironlak
All entries that meet competition requirements are eligible for the People’s Choice Award.
Voting Process
1. Voting is restricted to one vote each for adult/youth per person.
2. To vote you must provide your real name and email address for confirmation.
3. A confirmation email will be sent to your nominated email address to confirm your vote. You will need to reply to this email to validate and confirm your submission. If you do not reply to this email your vote will not be valid
Voting Now Closed
Adult Category
Remnants
Artist: Kate Douglas
Artist Location: MOORES POCKET
Medium: Acrylic on canvas, 2019
Dimensions: 76 x 76 x 4 cm
Artist Statement:
This land adjoins a new housing estate in Ipswich. I live nearby and love this view, but eventually it will be cleared as well. Ipswich is a rapidly growing area, with huge tracts of farmland and bush being bulldozed and transformed into suburbia. Like many parts of South East Queensland, remnants of nature are replaced by concrete, tiles and colorbond fences.
The UN-backed IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, released in May, directly shows the impact of biodiversity loss on the future of humanity. It concludes environmental decline is “unprecedented” with around one million plant and animal species already facing extinction unless immediate action is taken.
In response, this landscape is layered with motifs of nature – patterns found on feathers, fur, scales and wings – patterns of the creatures who live here. In the name of progress, the future of their habitat is uncertain.
Photographer: Kate Douglas
Garden Feast
Artist: Colleen Helmore
Artist Location: BURNETT HEADS
Medium: Watercolour on arches paper, 2019
Dimensions: 35 x 55 x 1 cm
Artist Statement:
At any time of day a different bird can be heard in and around my garden. The diversity of their songs is amazing, however it is the magpie that most captures my attention. I wanted to create a watercolour painting, capturing these birds in a diversity of poses to capture their unique character.
I paint mainly with 3 primary colours and don’t use black or white watercolour paint so I have made a great variety of colourful darks to create the illusion of black and white .
Photographer: Colleen Helmore
Red Natal no.1
Artist: Jenny Neubecker
Artist Location: Waterloo
Medium: Graphite, pastel and collage on archers paper, 2019
Dimensions: 80 x 30 x 1 cm
Artist Statement:
Queensland’s varied landscapes lay the foundation for a wide range of grass species. One species, common in coastal areas, is Red Natal. As graziers we value it for the contribution it makes to biodiversity on our property. As an artist I am inspired by the structure of the delicately, fine, feathery seeds that form in clusters on the heads of grass. En masse, paddocks of Red Natal swathe the landscape with rich burgundy reds that provide a striking contrast with neighbouring green pastures. Early stages of seeding produce rich, dark glossy red seed heads that fade to a soft pink as the seed heads mature, then are carried away in the wind.
Photographer: Jenny Neubecker
The Great Barrier Reef Bio-diversity – Pisces (view detail)
Artist: Buck Richardson
Artist Location: Kuranda
Medium: Photography/Digital Art on aluminium composite, 2019
Dimensions: 100 x 120 x 25 cm
Artist Statement:
Tropical North Queensland has two hot spots of bio-diversity, both World Heritage listed: the Wet Tropics and the Great Barrier Reef. In The Great Barrier Reef Bio-diversity – Pisces I have used many of my original images of fish, including sharks, taken at the wonderful Cairns Aquarium to create a 3D wall hanging. The foreground has line and swivels to make the suspended individual fish move with every zephyr of air caused by the viewer moving in front of the work creating the illusion of fish swimming and darting. While the Cairns Aquarium gives a preview of the myriad diversity of the wonders of Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef for able swimmers, for those who must stay out of the water, it provides an exciting and immersive experience. Persistence is the key to achieving presentable images of the fish as they are usually in constant motion. But what an exhilarating challenge!
Photographer: Buck Richardson
Splash
Artist: Grace McClymont
Artist Location: DICKY BEACH
Medium: Mixed media on canvas, 2019
Dimensions: 80 x 118 x 3 cm
Artist Statement:
Places of natural beauty provide a setting for diverse groups of people to gather and embrace life side-by-side. In our area Currimundi Lake is one such location. Throughout the year the lake fills with people from all walks of life enjoying the many activities that it has to offer in the water, on the water, under the water, and around the water. New Australians who are daunted by the surf beaches, families with toddlers exploring sand and salt water for the first time are able to relax while confident swimmers drift on currents near the lake’s inlet. People in twos and threes planted serenely in the landscape talking, playing, building, resting. A beautiful oasis bursting with life and still peaceful. A place to be ourselves. Together.
Photographer: Grace McClymont
BFF
Artist: Craig James
Artist Location: GLADSTONE
Medium: Digital pigment photograph on Chromajet Centurion Metallic Pearl Photo Paper, 2019
Dimensions: 89 x 61 x 0 cm
Artist Statement:
My Gladstone based arts practice explores a close human-animal and technological relationship between a service/assistance dog named Ruby and myself. Diversity has reached into every facet of our lives as we learn how to care for each other in unusual circumstances. Examples of this human-animal and technological relationship include Ruby adopting digital strategies to stream her own YouTube clips or partake in video calls, support networks that are contactable 24/7, an online university degree, robotic surgery, medical appointments using Skype, the list is endless.
Instead of isolating us from the Central Queensland Region, a diverse digital realm has allowed us to slowly but surely begin to connect with others, not only locally but throughout the entire state. “Best Friends Forever” (BFF) offers not a dysfunctional life but one that is enriched by thinking outside the box – we both have embraced diversity and found a contemporary way of wellbeing. WOOF!
Photographer: Craig James
Parrot #1
Artist: Liz Celegato
Artist Location: EATONS HILL
Medium: Acrylic on canvas, 2019
Dimensions: 76 x 38 x 3.5 cm
Artist Statement:
The application of texture onto the canvas has created layers within the surface to evolve naturally producing an organic and interesting background that was then able to be incorporated into the foreground of the work. This technique has allowed me to generate a colourful and textured representation of one of the bird species that frequents our backyards within the Moreton Bay area. The late winter has encouraged them to hang around a little longer this year and although it’s a pleasure to have them around, I have to ask, is the warmer weather of late an indication of global warming so close to home?
My artwork is intended to be a visual reminder of nature’s beauty that exists within our ‘state of diversity’ reminding us of our responsibility to care for it now and into the future.
Photographer: Liz Celegato
Rubric
Artist: Ann Fitzgerald
Artist Location: CROWS NEST
Medium: Acrylic on canvas, 2019
Dimensions: 61 x 61 x 3.5 cm
Artist Statement:
My artistic goal is to create intellectually, fascinating and visually, stimulating art that challenges the viewer perception. Rubric is a conceptual, geometric abstraction and has a historical context of Australian, post-colonialism. The title is derived from the square constructs that cover most of the painting. The individual squares with their own colour identity connect to create a regenerating oneness. These central open-ended forms have less chroma intensity as they overlap in the mid-ground, metaphoric of a mellowing, maturing culture and the hard edge, its resilience. The land of the first nation is the brown monochrome ground and imposed colonisation the coloured squares invading the balance of the ground. The blue denim glaze for universality and unity, the unglazed triangles, remnants of the past and the brown ground a constant. The foreground’s layered, blue denim, glazed triangles are metaphoric for leafing through pages of time creating a State of Diversity.
Photographer: Ann-Maree Fitzgerald
Crying Art
Artist: Hediyeh Soleiman
Artist Location: HERVEY BAY
Medium: Gouache & watercolour, 2019
Dimensions: 38 x 38 x 0 cm
Artist Statement:
Queensland, the state of diversity
A blend of the rich ancient Persian art mixed with the beauty and assortment of colours in majestic Australia’s landscape inspired me to introduce Persian illumination art. This form of ancient painting born in the early 15th century is now fading away from young modern memories. The diversity of our beautiful red soil, the deep blue ocean and the turquoise sky are united around the golden values at the core of our nation. This Crying Art is hoping to be seen by the younger generation and find its place once more in the eyes of art lovers.
Photographer: Hediyeh Soleiman
Memories of Sadako
Artist: Scarlet Burke
Artist Location: BRASSALL
Medium: Digital photograph of acrylic sheet, baking paper, plaster wall, 2018
Dimensions: 30 x 30 x 0 cm
Artist Statement:
I recently went on a research trip to the Old Woollen Mills in North Ipswich as part of an exploration of local architecture, a place of rich history, cultural diversity, What was once a bustling mill, producing wool for Australian and allied troops for blankets and uniforms, providing income for local working-class people, is now reduced to crumbling decay. The decay is reflective of the war in which the wool was utilised most effectively. Interestingly, there is a lot of high-quality graffiti and street art covering walls, some of which include origami paper cranes. These paper cranes reminded me of Sadako, the little girl who developed Leukemia after the bombing of Hiroshima in WWII and whose mission was to make 1000 paper cranes as a symbol of peace. This artwork is a reflection on the diversity of people utilising the Mills over time and the impact of war.
Photographer: Scarlet Burke
Somerset Dam Wall, Birds Eye View
Artist: Shirley Henderson
Artist Location: CROSSDALE
Medium: Acrylic, graphite, ochre on board, 2019
Dimensions: 40 x 50.5 x 0.3 cm
Artist Statement:
I live in a place of natural beauty. I’m surrounded by trees, rivers and mountain ranges. Most local artists use this natural beauty as their muse. I wanted to show our landscape is more diverse than that.
The Somerset region has massive, intrusive, manmade structures that interrupt the natural beauty. Somerset Dam wall is one of those structures. A prominent reminder that man is powerful and can control the delicate nature of The Earth.
I used Somerset Dam water and soil from the banks of Somerset Dam, which I live on, to create the ochre.
Photographer: Shirley Henderson
Afternoon Sonata
Artist: Leanne Cole
Artist Location: TANNUM SANDS
Medium: Watercolour, 2019
Dimensions: 50 x 32.5 x 0 cm
Artist Statement:
I live in Central Qld and recently cruised the Queensland coast from Brisbane to Cairns and back. While I witnessed the diverse range of landscape, the coast line, the ocean and the islands I also witnessed the diversity of the people aboard the ship. Different ages, different nationalities, all there to enjoy the Queensland weather and hospitality. Some happy to take part in all activities, others happy to enjoy quiet interludes, hidden in small nooks and crannies. I found this young girl playing the piano tucked away in a cocktail bar during the day with no-one there but me.
Photographer: Leanne Cole
Snap Shots
Artist: Kym Tabulo
Artist Location: MOOLOOLAH VALLEY
Medium: gicle print on paper, 2019
Dimensions: 40 x 80 x 1 cm
Artist Statement:
The Sunshine Coast’s scenic diversity is a microcosmic likeness of the wider state of Queensland. It is abundant with a variety of unique natural and built curiosities that draw people to live or visit here. This work, Snap Shots, transforms several iconic landmarks of the region into hypnotic images, as a way to entice others to look into the work and appreciate the array of attractions in the area. The forty-five panels capture local emblems in a moment of time, from the bunya pines and Glasshouse Mountains, to the beachside pandanus palms and the Caloundra lighthouse. And last but not least, the Big Pineapple, presented in the final panel as if it is the punch-line joke of a comic book story, because it always makes me smile. Viewers are invited to create their own stories about the region or perhaps relive memories of a Sunshine Coast holiday.
Photographer: Kym Tabulo
Little fishy mandala
Artist: Susan Lhamo
Artist Location: TAMBORINE MOUNTAIN
Medium: Digital photograph on matte enhanced photographic paper, 2018
Dimensions: 30 x 30 x 0.1 cm
Artist Statement:
The digital image “Little fishy mandala” reveals a contrast between the transparent waters of Currumbin Creek and a delicate mandala of vegetation and fish created from various photographs I’ve taken. The expression of diversity is seen in this contrast, through viewing these aspects of the same place seen in dissimilar ways. The image of the fish mandala encapsulates the mood and intricacy of small water habitats found in these tidal creek locations and is like a mirror on this tiny world while the Currumbin Creek background image shows the bigger picture…one that we’re most familiar with, in everyday form.
Photographer: Susan Lhamo
Same, Same but Different (view detail)
Artist: Kate Roberts
Artist Location: IPSWICH
Medium: Perspex,copper, timber, resin, clay, plaster, concrete, 2019
Dimensions: 10 x 15 x 15 cm
Artist Statement:
Diversity – a range of different elements, materials, ideas and interpretations.
We, as people, are all the same on the inside yet so different on the outside, the same can be said for each of our own communities – same basic structure yet so diverse in what can be found in each town, city and community. Without the different people, groups and activities, which meet our unique needs and interests – there is no complete and harmonious state.
This work has a simple message, we are the same yet different: represented here by the same shape each made from different materials sitting harmoniously together.
The ideal state to be – same but different – the simplicity is in acceptance!
Photographer: Berlin Photography
Garden Party
Artist: Kristen Flynn
Artist Location: Chinchilla
Medium: Oil on fabriano paper, 2019
Dimensions: 27 x 43 x 0 cm
Artist Statement:
Garden Party celebrates the women of Chinchilla. Our community hosts an array of highly educated women and mothers that help our community run at all levels. Although a regional town, women here redefine their roles just like their city-living counterparts. The three women in Garden Party are all at different stages in their life and they have all individually defined what it means to be a woman in this time and location. They flip the male gaze on its head as their female stares pierce through their floral masks- symbolising their power, presence and importance to community. The three prints were created using digital photography, solar plate and traditional intaglio printing methods. My work pays tribute to all of the wonderful women in my small community and their contributions to make this a true state of diversity.
Photographer: Kristen Flynn
Their Story, My Story (view video)
Artist: Belinda McGrath
Artist Location: ROCKHAMPTON
Medium: Carbon paper monoprint animation, 2019
Dimensions: 0 x 0 x 0 cm
Artist Statement:
Their story, My Story is the account of how my grandparents met.
My grandmother was the daughter of a Scottish illegal immigrant who served in the British Army in WW1, and for Australia in WW2. In her early years she lived with her parents in a tent in a small Queensland town called The Willows. When times were more financially stable, they moved to a house in North Rockhampton- next to a train line.
In 1942 my grandfather, the son of an English immigrant mother whose bank book listed her occupation as ‘married’ and listed no financial transactions, just recipes, travelled by train to his training after his enlistment in the Australian Army.
As the troops were transported by rail, the nearby residents would throw them books to occupy them on their journey. My grandmother threw in a book with her name and address inside, my grandfather caught it.
Photographer: Belinda McGrath
Yarrun
Artist: Gertie Deeral
Artist Location: HOPE VALE
Medium: Screen printed ink on dupion silx, 2018
Dimensions: 120 x 100 x 0 cm
Artist Statement:
This is my fabric of “Yarun” which means “wattle” in my Guugu Ymithirr language. When you see that the wattle seeds are in bloom in this area, it is a special time of year. You know that the sea foods are ready to go – the crabs and the prawns are fully grown and ready to catch. The fish, sea urchin, oysters, even the turtle are fat and really yummy. We don’t know what time of year it is but we just look at the wattle in bloom, then we know!
Photographer: Melanie Gibson
The Teachers
Artist: Dale Leach
Artist Location: Doonan
Medium: Acrylic on canvas, 2019
Dimensions: 91 x 91 x 3.5 cm
Artist Statement:
This painting was inspired by two art groups I was tutoring.They were a wonderfully diverse lot of characters who had lived extraordinary lives both overseas and here in Australia, and they brought that richness of experience into their artwork. They had a range of skills from advertising, farm business and life experiences and also a great desire and curiosity to learn more. They were generous with their encouragement of one another and were willing to share their expertise. I came to learn a lot from them. I also ate some wonderful home made cakes and slices and drank the odd cup of tea. I loved their good humour and the room was always full of laughter.
Photographer: Dale Leach
Gloria Arrow
Artist: Janet Ambrose
Artist Location: SARINA
Medium: Charcoal on linen, 2019
Dimensions: 80 x 80 x 4 cm
Artist Statement:
This is a portrait of Gloria Arrow who is a descendant of Natafilinga (Katie Marlla). Natafilinga was blackbirded from her island home of Oba, Vanuatu to Queensland in 1875. Katie, as she was later known, was put to work in the cane fields at age 15.
I explore the human face of the South Sea Islander community, identifying and understanding the unique differences of their culture and of adaptation in the removal from their homelands and life in their new land.
South Sea Islanders are part of the Australian cultural landscape.
Rendered in charcoal on linen, Gloria’s portrait shows her strength and resilience which I believe has been handed down from her great grandmother’s philosophy of, “Never look back, always forward.”
Photographer: Janet Ambrose
Resource Removal (view detail)
Artist: Rose Rigley and Pamela Kusabs
Artist Location: WHITFIELD
Medium: Sculptural assemblage (paper, mixed media, copper wire), 2019
Dimensions: 14 x 68 x 12 cm
Artist Statement:
The artist considered the theme ‘State of Diversity’ both geographically and psychologically. The resulting artwork was an exchange between two different individuals, with empathy, trust and an understanding of another’s location, the key to the collaborative outcome. Destruction or preservation became an integral part of creation, as each artist contributed to the beginning or end of the structure. Strategies of how to respond to ‘the object’, to letting go of concrete connections to place, and to the production of a’cohesive’ visual language were explored in the undertaking. Collaboration – a quite wonderful and intriguing process – has, at its foundation, the ideas of diversity and compassion.
Resource Removal focuses on the environment and the impact of human inhabitation.
Photographer: Michael Marzik
Bluefaced honey eaters
Artist: Debbie Dieckmann
Artist Location: MILLMERRAN
Medium: Watercolour, 2019
Dimensions: 55 x 45 x 0 cm
Artist Statement:
I have been a creator all my life being raised in the bush by my mother who was an artist. I began my artist endeavours by painting and then created using different mediums for several years .In the last 6 years I have returned to painting and mixed media but in the last 10 months I have found a passion for watercolour and the wildlife in my bush community. For me watercolor best illustrates the fragility and subtly diversity of the bush, be it’s colours, delicacy of birds or fauna. Bush diversity is everywhere and is often overlooked as its subtle and changes with the seasons.
I am intrigued with my co inhabitants and try to record glimpses of their lives in my paintings. There’s over 238 birds, numerous marsupials and reptiles here so it’s going to be a long interesting journey without leaving home.
Photographer: Debbie Dieckmann
Brigalow Creek
Artist: Marvene Ash
Artist Location: MALENY
Medium: Oil on belgium linen, 2018
Dimensions: 100 x 80 x 3 cm
Artist Statement:
My present home in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland is situated within a landscape of bold greens and rolling hills whilst my original home on the Southern Darling Downs is characterised by nuanced colours and vast horizons.
As a painter of both these environments I am drawn, not only to the climatic and topographical differences of these diverse landscapes, but also to the differing psychological and emotional reactions that they effect.
Between the dark, powerful trees of the coastal rainforest and the ragged, enduring gums along Brigalow Creek an opportunity arises to explore the ways in which the painting of landscape can also be an exploration of one’s self in relation to the natural world.
Photographer: Jonathan Davies
Meganoton rufescens
Artist: Therese Flynn-Clarke
Artist Location: BANNOCKBURN
Medium: Mixed media, hand stitching, eco dyeing, 2018
Dimensions: 75 x 55 x 0.02 cm
Artist Statement:
I have long had a moth obsession creating named species in 2D and 3D form for many years. Meganoton rufescens is a moth from the north Queensland region and references the story of the first 6 years of married life living in the Cairns region and the birth of our first child. I loved the diversity of the plants and insects so different from anything I’d known growing up in NSW. I had also taught on Thursday Island and the children introduced me to the native almond and its’ edible seeds. Today I have a native almond growing in my backyard in Logan. The leaves have been eco-dyed and hand stitched onto the mixed media background. 30 years of marriage this year and a long connection to the diversity of plants and insects in Queensland symbolised in many layers within this artwork.
Photographer: Therese Flynn-Clarke
The rich and the poor
Artist: Jenny Foxton
Artist Location: HIGHFIELDS
Medium: Oil on canvas, 2019
Dimensions: 61 x 92 x 25 cm
Artist Statement:
My semi-abstract work reflects very diverse Queensland landscapes. ‘The rich and the poor’ symbolises the layers of complexity within any environment – conflict between nature and humans, between conserving and consuming.
I have used colour and horizontal layers to symbolise the verdant rich farming lands and rainforests close to the Queensland coastline, juxtaposed with the ochre and red soils found inland in the South Burnett and Darling Downs.
My works reflect not only the rich colours of our diverse environment but the deep layers of human’s relationship with our landscape, both in harmony and in conflict with nature.
Photographer: Jenny Foxton
SWEET LOVE AND THE BULLOAK JEWEL 2019
Artist: Lee FullARTon
Artist Location: BLACKSTONE IPSWICH
Medium: Acrylic and collage on wood panel, 2019
Dimensions: 25 x 25 x 2 cm
Artist Statement:
Near the Darling Downs town of Leyburn is Ellengowan Nature Reserve a fragile habitat for the ancient Bulloak and the endangered Bulloak Jewel Butterfly Hypochrysops piceata.
It is a nature story of complex relationships of diverse and endangered species only found in Queensland. My favourite part of this ecological story is the exchange of sugary delights for protection and guidance between the Bulloak Jewel Caterpillar and an undescribed ant, Anonychomyrma sp.
Reviewing the work of Entomologist, Dr Don Sands in conservation of this rare and tiny butterfly, led me to an artists expedition to discover the last place of the Bulloak Jewel in paint and paper.
Photographer: Lee FullARTon
The Tale Ends (view detail)
Artist: Rose Rigley and Lorraine Lamothe
Artist Location: WHITFIELD
Medium: Concertina book, 2019
Dimensions: 12 x 40 x 16 cm
Artist Statement:
The artist considered the theme ‘State of Diversity’ both geographically and psychologically. The resulting artwork was an exchange between two different individuals, with empathy, trust and an understanding of another’s location, the key to the collaborative outcome. Destruction or preservation became an integral part of creation, as each artist contributed to the beginning or end of the structure. Strategies of how to respond to ‘the object’, to letting go of concrete connections to place, and to the production of a’cohesive’ visual language were explored in the undertaking. Collaboration has, at its foundation, the idea of bringing diversity together through compassion.
‘The Tale Ends’ is a reminder that our diversity is reversed through our mortality.
Photographer: Rose Rigley
Terra
Artist: Hayley Groves George
Artist Location: MARYBOROUGH
Medium: Mixed media on stretched canvas, 2019
Dimensions: 100 x 75 x 3.8 cm
Artist Statement:
“Terra” is the Roman Goddess of Earth. She lays upon the drought stricken land to release fertility and fruitfulness to end the suffering that once was. Unfortunately I have seen this harsh country become dust too often over the years and with no food or water for native animals and live stock await death. However, once the storm clouds start building and roll in from the distance with the rain, the nutrients in the ground activates with the moisture and then there is life again. That sweet smell of the first few droplets that hit the dirt, is the smell of Terra.
Photographer: Hayley Groves George
Rayan Isme
Artist: Paul (Zoob) de Zubicaray
Artist Location: Albany Creek
Medium: Acrylic and gold leaf on canvas, 2019
Dimensions: 51 x 40 x 4 cm
Artist Statement:
Adding to Queensland’s diversity are the five Queensland local government area refugee welcome zones including Ipswich, Logan, Mackay, Toowoomba and Townsville. It was in Toowoomba that my family first met Rayan and her beautiful family. Rayan is grateful for the part time work in the family small business and university options available to her in her much loved adopted Country of Australia. I wanted to portray her optimism shining through for her future, where anything is possible.
Photographer: Paul de Zubicaray
Wetlands Dry
Artist: Abramo Papp
Artist Location: RUSSELL ISLAND
Medium: Digital photograph, 2018
Dimensions: 22 x 36 x 0 cm
Artist Statement:
It took me a few years of living on Russell Island to realise that wetlands are not always wet, sometimes they can actually dry out. These pictures of the wetlands at Burrows Street on Russell island were taken in September 2018 (wet – on left) and June 2017 (dry – right – mirror reverse). The two images were taken at about the same time of day an roughly from the same position (without stepping into the water 🙂 ).
Photographer: Abramo Papp
The Alice Hart Portrait
Artist: Joshua Lamb
Artist Location: KARRAGARRA ISLAND
Medium: Acrylic on canvas, 2018
Dimensions: 91 x 72 x 2 cm
Artist Statement:
As a regional artist living on an island without a bridge, I risk being stranded by missing ferries.
At a mainland portrait workshop last year, a Mother and daughter rushed in just as I was exiting for my homeward bound ferry. My sessions include live portrait drawing. Mum explained that her daughter Alice had sacrificed hockey, and especially dressed for almost four hours making her portrait outfit just right. The sophisticated and complex colour choices of the ‘wardrobe crisis’ further enhanced a compelling subject. Meanwhile, juggling my island life required me to leave almost immediately. I felt terrible!
Quickly taking reference photos, and apologizing profusely as I left, I only just caught my ferry home. Back home in my island studio, the extra reference material presented a special opportunity for developing a detailed, finished portrait that aims to capture the spirit of a lively and creative young person.
Photographer: Joshua Lamb
Wild Panorama 1
Artist: Andrea Baumert Howard
Artist Location: IPSWICH
Medium: Junk mail, newspaper, egg carton, office paper and recycled children’s craft paper pulp, 2019
Dimensions: 20 x 40 x 0.3 cm
Artist Statement:
When I think of Queensland’s diversity, I am immediately reminded of the huge variety of landscapes we have to explore. It is something intangible, it’s sort of a feeling, a memory, it is extremely difficult to depict in a 2-dimensional piece.
The gorgeous coastlines, rainforests, dry sclerophyll forests, deserts, mountain ranges, grasslands, and big skies. And of course, the farm lands, cattle property, cities, small country towns and tiny communities dotting these landscapes.
I have used a variety of recycled papers to create my landscape in paper pulp. Junk mail, newspaper, egg carton, office paper and recycled children’s craft paper make up the body of the scene. The fragility of the paper helps to convey the beauty and fragility of our environments and express the vastness of our state of diversity.
Photographer: Andrea Baumert Howard
Mystical Night in Paronella Park (North Queensland)
Artist: Elena Suto
Artist Location: Regents Park
Medium: Oil on canvas, 2019
Dimensions: 51 x 76 x 4 cm
Artist Statement:
Paronella Park comes alive in the evening with floodlit lights and waterfalls, and beautiful mysterious music.
Paronella Park was built by Jose Paronella in 1930 and was open to the public in 1935. A visit to this lovely place located in Germantown (the Cairns region), will earn you an insight into the story behind the castle-like buildings, the family history of the past owners, an adventure around the park at night, a chance to feed and view all of the fish in the lake and a piece of the building as a keepsake of your visit. Paronella Park is a one of a kind magical location with a rich past which deserves to be seen and heard. Regular cyclones and floods may one day totally destroy this piece of history to ensure that you visit it before it disappears forever.
Photographer: Elena Suto
Hedlow Creek, west – grazed wetlands
Artist: Veronika Zeil
Artist Location: ROCKYVIEW
Medium: Acrylic onboard, 2019
Dimensions: 47 x 91 x 1 cm
Artist Statement:
This painting depicts the aerial view from Mt Hedlow north of Rockhampton, documenting the highly fractured and extensively grazed nature of that landscape in minimal, expressive style emphasizing diversity of this ecosystem as well as extensive land-use. This marine plane consists of Hedlow Creek, tiny remnants of original melaleuca and blue gum woodlands, areas of ponded pasture and isolated islands of volcanic plug-mountains.
The Hedlow Creek wetlands are essential for bird breeding, provide a nursery area for fish species and freshwater and marine life, are recharging the water table, and are a cattle-grazing area.
Wetlands are vital for capturing freshwater flows and recycling sediments and nutrients before they enter estuarine systems, inshore waters and the Reef. The future prospects for the Fitzroy basin depend on the ability of people to ensure finding a balance between land and water use, and ecosystem health.
Photographer: Veronika Zeil
Five Shells (view detail)
Artist: Michelle Gray
Artist Location: EMERALD
Medium: Handblown glass, displayed on beach sand., 2019
Dimensions: 20 x 20 x 8 cm
Artist Statement:
Our beautiful state presents us with a wonderous diversity of natural treasures. I have chosen to represent the delicacy and diversity of nature in our sunshine state by creating these hand blown glass shells. No two are identically duplicated – such is the cleverness of diversity in nature. There are so many different species of shells in our waters, of which we are lucky enough to be offered a few precious samples onto our stunning and various beaches.
Photographer: Michelle Gray
Anthe (view detail)
Artist: Jo Male
Artist Location: Mt Mellum
Medium: Mixed medium, 2019
Dimensions: 22 x 17 x 2.5 cm
Artist Statement:
Anthe gets her name from the scientific name for corals, Anthozoa.
Though a piece of wearable art, she also represents the diversity of the Sunshine Coast.
Recycled fishing line, netting and a single tarpon scale represent commercial and recreational fishing industries.
A small piece of pumice stone collected off Shelly Beach stands in for the Glasshouse Mountains and the long history of the area.
Banana fibre twine symbolizes our local farming industries.
Twisted and coloured recycled fishing twine represents the foam and surf along the coastline as well as our tourist industry.
A small shell and driftwood represent our sea life and reefs.
Pale blue plastic and seed beads represent all the people who live, work and play here.
Tendrils of fine, twisted fishing line are reminiscent of the hidden dangers in our seas. In this case, the small and difficult to see Irukandji jellyfish.
Photographer: Jo Male
Community Contrast
Artist: Linda Forrester
Artist Location: STRATHDICKIE
Medium: Acrylic on canvas, 2019
Dimensions: 45 x 60 x 1.8 cm
Artist Statement:
Our suburbs and houses can take on a familiarity that can become monotonous, yet each home is subtly different and each house contains unique individuals. Unique in race, ethnicity, skill base, socio-economic status, physical abilities, age, religious and political beliefs, or ideologies. Each person surrounds themselves with others who compliment them and share their culture, creating their own unique jewel within their community.
Each culture is deserving of understanding, acceptance and respect and can be shared, encouraged and celebrated. We are the diverse communities of Queensland.
Photographer: Linda Forrester
A Thousand Flowers
Artist: Lee Berryman
Artist Location: YANDINA CREEK
Medium: Coloured porcelain, 2019
Dimensions: 10 x 12 x 12 cm
Artist Statement:
My work is made from small coloured and patterned pieces of porcelain clay which are joined together. The colour and patterns are not surface decoration, rather, they are an integral part of the form.
In this way my pieces are very much like the diversity to be found in regional Queensland – an integral part of the people, lifestyles, plants and environments; and a blending and joining of all these elements to create complex, colourful and exciting communities and surrounds.
My work also reflects the diversity of my personal background. I have Australian Chinese heritage, grew up in multi-cultural Darwin, lived in several Aust States/Territories and travelled extensively; providing a diverse range of experiences, understandings and different perspectives from which to draw inspiration – and leading me to the integration of colour and patterns in my current work.
Photographer: Lee Berryman
Cactus Garden
Artist: Wendy Bache
Artist Location: MOUNT LOUISA
Medium: Acrylic on canvas, 2019
Dimensions: 60 x 90 x 4 cm
Artist Statement:
Painted in a park in Townsville, I was captivated by the funky shapes and colours of the cactus garden and how at home they are in the park, just a stones throw away from some rain forest within the same park.
I really think Townsville has the best of both worlds. It’s dry at times and lush, abundant and green other times.
I painted this en plein air, using acrylic paint in lots of layers. I feel that when you paint like this the energy of the area enters the art.
Photographer: Wendy Bache
Baby Lady Apple
Artist: Esmae Bowen
Artist Location: HOPE VALE
Medium: Screen printed ink onlinen, 2019
Dimensions: 120 x 100 x 0 cm
Artist Statement:
My artwork is inspired by the forms and colours I see in the environment and my love of plants. When you see plants and you’re so down and out the beauty of that plant can lighten your day. A flower can put a smile on my face for the whole day. My favourite flower to paint is the baby lady apples (also called bush apples) at the time just before the flower grows into fruit. Lady apples only fruit in the early part of the wet season, and I love to paint them so much because they remind me of my childhood Christmases spent down at the beach with my family, where we used to like to eat them with salt.
Photographer: Melanie Gibson
Wild Fire Legacy
Artist: Lesley Kane
Artist Location: MACKAY
Medium: Charcoal, 2019
Dimensions: 48 x 68 x 0 cm
Artist Statement:
Few blackened tree trunks were evidence of a shocking wild bush fire which devastated parts of the Pioneer Valley west of Mackay late last year. Previously a lush green sugarcane farming and rainforest landscape, the loss was felt throughout the community. Two weeks later, after rain, the scene changed again into a translucent lime green regrowth with only the remaining charred tree trunks as a reminder of the diversity of the elements.
Photographer: Artspace Mackay
Mangrove Mafia
Artist: Fiona Groom
Artist Location: Ninderry
Medium: Acrylic, 2019
Dimensions: 120 x 120 x 3 cm
Artist Statement:
Life on the Noosa River is always changing, so taking a rest, soaking up the warm sun and just hanging out with your friends is not only traditional with us humans, but very much enjoyed by the local bird inhabitants. This painting conveys a sense of River life, a sense of comradery, peacefulness and a feeling of the river flowing, rising and falling weaving its way out to sea… River life is in constant flux as these birds go about their daily lives we the viewers get to witness the beauty and diversity that life on the Noosa River gives us every day…
Mangrove Mafia… Noosa River Locals
Photographer: Fiona Groom
Shute Harbour: A Stunning View
Artist: Claudia Gray
Artist Location: AIRLIE BEACH
Medium: Acrylic on canvas board, 2019
Dimensions: 25.4 x 20.3 x 3 cm
Artist Statement:
My “State Of Diversity” art piece, I painted three things:
*Seaview of Shute Harbour, Queensland
*Long-Fruited Bloodwood Tree
*Pretty Watty
Shute Harbour is one of most icon views in the Whitsunday, being a dead end street: I see a place of pure beauty.
Long-fruited bloodwood tree has a straight trunk. The outside of the bark is grey and the inside is red-brown. Interestingly, the grey bark is crumbly!
I choose to paint the wattle sticking out of the tree overlooking Shute Harbour. This is an ‘imaginary view of three items’ which I tried to capture (to me), it is the most beautiful view in the world.
The star of this painting is the wattle flower. It is very tiny around 3 cm in diameter. The flower is the most stunning bright golden-yellow round heads. Being so tiny, I think many people who visit Shute Harbour will not even notice it.
Photographer: Claudia Gray
Grevillea – New Blossoms
Artist: Julie Hollis
Artist Location: Highland Park
Medium: Acrylics on double thick gallery wrapped canvas, 2019
Dimensions: 61 x 61 x 4 cm
Artist Statement:
Julie has totally fallen in love with the Australian native flora in her area of the Gold Coast. She frequents the Botanical Gardens in Benowa and loves to take lots of photos of the amazing and diverse collection of flowers.
This particular Grevillea is from her own back yard and Julie loves the fact that this plant attracts Bees, Lorikeets,Parrots, Honeyeaters and various other bird life as well as Butterflies.
Julie considers herself so lucky to live in an area where such a diverse range of flora and fauna exists happily together and she has easy access to them to record their beauty on canvas.
Photographer: Julie Hollis
Maramaka
Artist: Madge Bowen
Artist Location: HOPE VALE
Medium: Screen print on linen, 2019
Dimensions: 120 x 100 x 0 cm
Artist Statement:
I always like to paint my traditional homeland of Bulgan (Kings Plain). I feel a deep spiritual connection to my land, and the sacred sites on it, including the plants and the animals. Maramaka is a kind of fig tree that grows in Far North Queensland, and there are lots of them on my homeland. I love to paint them, because even though my family no longer live my land, when I see one, I feel that deep connection to Bulgan.
Photographer: Melanie Gibson
Crazy weather we’ve been having
Artist: Nora Hanasy
Artist Location: ZIZLIE
Medium: Digital collage, 2019
Dimensions: 100 x 100 x 2 cm
Artist Statement:
Central Queensland is a land of constant change. One thing that really makes this place I call home extra unique is the weather.’Crazy weather we’ve been having’ is a phrase we use often here as a greeting. It binds all of us together. The heat of summer comes with cyclones and floods and when we are not under water the land is arid and dry with blackened trees as far as the eye can see. The winter fog turns everything eerie and white and the short but severe storms that come out of nowhere definitely get the blood pumping. These extreme and often devastating weather patterns are the cause of our ever-changing colors and textures of the CQ landscape. But it is this diversity that makes every moment here, exciting and beautiful.
Photographer: Nora Hanasy
Country girls
Artist: Mary Mackenzie
Artist Location: YUNGABURRA
Medium: Oil on canvas, 2019
Dimensions: 62 x 77 x 3.5 cm
Artist Statement:
Two little country girls dressed in beautiful party dresses appear to grow like flowers out of an unlikely landscape.
Despite the incongruity of their clothing in such a setting, the girls seem happy and relaxed among the spinifex and rocks . . . and does this setting perhaps increase our pleasure in viewing the girls? It does for me, and I recognise how diversity enhances, brings a freshness to an image and to our way of seeing.
“All art is at once surface and symbol . . . It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex and vital”.
Oscar Wilde
Photographer: Murray Anderson Clemence
Representing Fieldwork (no. 1) (view video)
Artist: Alinta Krauth
Artist Location: WITHEREN
Medium: Digital animation, 2018
Dimensions: Variable
Artist Statement:
This digital video artwork represents a culmination of research performed by the artist into how climate change is impacting the diversity of animal life on our planet. Taking a wide series of examples, from wild horses in New Zealand, to bats in Germany, to Alpine Lizards, the artist explored how scientists are recording and analysing the reduction of diversity of nonhuman life due to climate change.
In order to create this video, the artist has made over 1000 hand-drawn images that represent this diversity of life and the struggles they are having. These images were then fed into a digital generative system. What results is a collaborative cacophony between artist and computer that hints at the confusion and struggle that our nonhuman kin face in an era of human monodominance.
Photographer: Alinta Krauth
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
Artist: Vivienne Bryant
Artist Location: NAMBOUR
Medium: Acrylic, 2019
Dimensions: 31 x 91 x 4 cm
Artist Statement:
I first arrived in Queensland from England in 1994.
Everything was so different and I loved it.
One thing that really struck me was the different styles of houses.
In England, large housing estates are filled with houses of only three or four different styles, but in Queensland, the system is totally different.
People buy a block of land and then choose a house to build on it, resulting in a great diversity of house styles made from a range of different materials.
Early settlers built Timber cottages, but in the 1960s, Brick became the building material of choice.
Now, Cement sheet has replaced Weatherboard, and Steel replaced Timber in house frames.
New homes are being built at a great rate, but sadly there still are many people who have no home, and sleep rough each night.
Photographer: Tony Bryant
Lunch Mates
Artist: Mieke den Otter
Artist Location: BELLBIRD PARK, IPSWICH
Medium: Pastel on card and text, 2019
Dimensions: 29 x 41 x 0 cm
Artist Statement:
As a painter and textile artist I am interested in developing ideas in response to new spaces.
In June 2019 as an Artist in Residence in an Ipswich Kindergarden, I spent some time drawing in the outdoor landscape. This sketch is one of my in situ pastel on card works. It is drawn from the playful and interactive spaces offered in kindergardens around the State of Queensland.
The act of drawing informs my art practice but is not always the destination.
Text accompanies the image and opens the ideas of nurturing diversity within an early childhood learning space with respect, freedom and play.
Hungry
hoods
Lunch
in boxes
on the
mat
Hungry
minds
Play
with buds
in the
garden
Growing
shapes
Forming
community
not far
from home
Photographer: Mieke den Otter
Opalus
Artist: Michelle Kennedy
Artist Location: CABARLAH
Medium: Acyrlic and aerisol on canvas, 2018
Dimensions: 76 x 101.5 x 4 cm
Artist Statement:
Having lived in remote western Queensland, Opalus was inspired by the amazing colour of the the western red hills, white gums, pebbled riverbeds & vastness ~ the diversity of environment & landscape of our state. Named Opalus, as much of the opal deposition is a conglomeration of vastly diverse volcanic product, and formed by water, silica from sandstone, decomposing fossil and other earthen sediment, formed over a longtime and deeply affected by wet and dry periods. It strikes me that the opal is a visual metaphor for Queensland, representing the diversity of colourful environments, climates, landscapes & peoples particular to each area of our beautiful state. Each opal, recognisable as such yet unique in its colour, personality and origin, yet non the less a Queenslander.
Photographer: Michelle Kennedy
Moolin Rouge
Artist: Sammy Meurant
Artist Location: Cunnamulla
Medium: Acrylic on canvas, 2019
Dimensions: 100 x 80 x 1.8 cm
Artist Statement:
This painting represents the State of Diversity by using the colourful cow to symbolise the unique and diverse, people and personalities that are within our regional areas. I grew up in a regional city and moved to a small, rural, agricultural town in SW QLD. This very colourful cow represents the fun and colourful personalities I have come across which make Queensland great.
Photographer: Samantha Meurant
Twist (view detail)
Artist: Netty Ferpozzi
Artist Location: BELLBIRD PARK
Medium: Found object sculpture, 2018
Dimensions: 32 x 82 x 12 cm
Artist Statement:
I walk pass the thirty-three brand new homes boxed in behind my house to get to my Ipswich suburban bushland.
The dog needs a walk and I am on the scrounge for dumped stuff.
I admire a rich green prickly pear nestled amongst forest debris, vast verticals of the eucalyptus trees and land galore the developers have yet to gobble up.
I spy a rusty mangled nugget; nature has become entwined with it. What event lead it to become so twisted? A twist in the road? Why did you have to discard it here?
I pluck it from obscurity. A twist of fate.
Photographer: Netty Ferpozzi
Wet Tropics Bio-diversity – The Gift
Artist: Buck Richardson
Artist Location: Kuranda
Medium: Photography/Digital Art on aluminium composite, 2019
Dimensions: 95 x 80 x 5 cm
Artist Statement:
Tropical North Queensland has two hot spots of bio-diversity, both World Heritage listed: the Wet Tropics and the Great Barrier Reef. In Wet Tropics Bio-diversity – The Gift I have used many of my original images of moths, beetles and shield bugs that were captured on countless field trips over the last decade with my friend and colleague, internationally renowned entomologist, Dr David Rentz AM. Our trips have traversed Tropical North Queensland from Cooktown in the north, to Chillagoe in the west, and south to Chartres Towers. My passion is both art and science. I first identify the insects scientifically by family, genus and species and then use them as elements in digital designs. Their astounding colours, shapes and patterns give me endless hours of creative enjoyment. The bio-diversity of the Wet Tropics is truly a gift.
Photographer: Buck Richardson
Ghosts of Forest Fallen
Artist: Shannon Macdonald
Artist Location: BLACK MOUNTAIN
Medium: Acrylic on board, 2019
Dimensions: 60 x 90 x 2 cm
Artist Statement:
Queensland certainly is the State of Diversity and whether I am close to home or exploring places near and far I find myself touched by the limitless beauty to be found in our many and diverse environments. From the “picture perfect” beaches and lush rainforests of the coastal fringes to the vast expanses of the outback – red dirt and blue sky. The greatest shame is to find those spaces where diversity is being lost to development and to witness the degradation and feel the sense of loss in the shadows of what once was.
“Ghosts of Forest Fallen” is a reflection of an area in which I walk daily where huge trees have been cut or fallen leaving ghostly spaces amongst the re-growth – where light filters through the remaining tall Blue Gums to forest floor, creating a mosaic of texture, colour and light.
Photographer: not applicable
Sunset over Canaipa Passage
Artist: Abramo Papp
Artist Location: RUSSELL ISLAND
Medium: Oil on linen, 2018
Dimensions: 106.5 x 76 x 3.5 cm
Artist Statement:
Canaipa Passage is a strait of water separating North Stradbroke island to the top of the painting and Russell Island to the left and in the foreground (where I live). Stradbroke Island is a sand Island while the islands of Southern Moreton Bay are rich red volcanic soils and rock. In the past, many of the islands had sandy beaches, but due to the 1974 Brisbane floods, many of the islands have muddy shorelines washed down from the Brisbane valley and mangroves have taken hold.
Photographer: Abramo Papp
Bucket & Spade
Artist: Shannus O’sullivan
Artist Location: Hivesville
Medium: Acrylic, 2019
Dimensions: 60 x 87 x 0.5 cm
Artist Statement:
This is my experience of beach culture and is based of years of observation. The painting Bucket and Spade is my interpretation of the diverse nature of people who frequent our beaches
Photographer: Shannus O’sullivan
Timepiece (view video)
Artist: Bianca Tainsh
Artist Location: WEYBA DOWNS
Medium: Video, 2019
Dimensions: variable
Artist Statement:
Bianca Tainsh is a socially-engaged artist based on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland. Through a process of research and reflection Bianca’s projects explore the existential and biospherical dilemmas of contemporary life, creating works in a variety of media that often invite interaction, and audience or community participation.
In her video Timepiece Bianca merges the diversity of natural and human histories that weave together to create the unique and captivating cultural landscape of Lake Weyba on the Sunshine Coast. By recounting these histories, and her own experiences, Bianca hopes to inspire people to consider how their lives effect the lives of other current and future Queenslanders, and the incredible diversity of creatures who also inhabit this sacred landscape.
Bianca holds a 1st Class Honours Degree from RMIT University, and studied Arts & Community Engagement at the VCA. She has exhibited in solo and group shows, and participated in international residency programs.
Photographer: Bianca Tainsh
Diffraction (view detail)
Artist: Alinta Krauth
Artist Location: WITHEREN
Medium: Digital mixed-media, 2019
Dimensions: variable
Artist Statement:
Drawing on the artist’s experiences as a digital-practitioner and nocturnal mammal surveyor in rural Queensland, ‘Diffraction’ is an interactive experience for mobile touchscreens that fosters playful aesthetic engagements between the user and nocturnal wilderness environments. In order to interact with the artwork, it requires the user to perform often surrealist, creative, or humorous tasks while outside in the dark, in order to allow for new understandings of nocturnal nonhuman others that they may come into contact with (animal, plant, and dark place).
Through this interactive artwork that includes animation, text, interaction, time, place, light, and sound, the artist hopes to question how we interact with diverse nonhumans in Queensland. Animals/plants in Queensland are currently experiencing an escalating extinction rate, and as such, it seems increasingly important to change our way of thinking about ‘diversity’ from human-centric, towards multi-species sociality, where the diversity of our animal/plant kin is celebrated and protected.
Photographer: Alinta Krauth
Head in the Sky
Artist: Beatrice Prost
Artist Location: TINBEERWAH
Medium: Hand carved unique original print on aluminium ed 1/1, 2019
Dimensions: 76 x 50 x 1 cm
Artist Statement:
I am fascinated by the residual pockets of subtropical rainforest that still exist on the hinterland of the Sunshine coast. Those are so fragile survivors of a distant past now surrounded by Eucalypt forest and grazing lands. Using a monochromatic “Willow Pattern” blue design I hope to infuse a sense of attention to protect those remaining green islands of diversity. But above all, “Head in the Sky” glows and enchants us with its complex patterns of extraordinary generous abundant life.
Bridging the gap between the digital and material world, I design images based on my own photographic material. I carve the physical print by hand creating original bold contemporary artworks. Those irreversible marks vary from deep grooves to shallow etches on the surface. I work on paper or in this case on aluminium exploring a surreal often monochromatic world to transport the onlooker into a dreamlike reality.
Photographer: Beatrice Prost
Pareidolia Landscape
Artist: Carly Sheil
Artist Location: SAUNDERS BEACH
Medium: Ink on paper, 2019
Dimensions: 21.4 x 15.5 x 0 cm
Artist Statement:
Pareidolia is the name of the phenomenon in which we see patterns or human characteristics in inanimate objects. Maps are usually an arrangement of recognisable inanimate objects that can be used to navigate the world. In this piece I’ve merged a traditional pen and ink cartographic style with that of contemporary design and illustration to show this merging of land and people. Surrounding us in Queensland now, in what was once a landscape of natural objects in which we only imagined to see faces, is now a physical-cultural landscape of human characteristics entwined with nature. We all shape and are shaped by it regardless of our wishes by simply being here. We can choose to erode each other and the land, or prop each other up to grow into greater landmarks together – a greater biodiversity of humans to cultivate existing cultures to sprout new and more amazing futures.
Photographer: Carly Sheil
my father grew roses(Download Artivive to activate augmented reality in artwork)
Artist: Rebecca Lewis
Artist Location: EAST IPSWICH
Medium: Mixed Media, 2019
Dimensions: 29 x 21 x 0 cm
Artist Statement:
“My Dad cleared most of the trees on our block, he disliked gums, they were not English. He grew one hundred and thirty five rose bushes, the postman reckoned he could smell them all the way from the corner.”
Every family keeps stories. These tales are diverse and distinct to each family, they filter down through the generations, tales from every day life, tales of childhood discoveries, of loss, of small joys, of love and friendships that have all helped to shape a family but often go untold outside the family home. This piece aims to share some of these little stories from my own family history.
In the creation of the work itself I have employed diverse techniques to build layers into the story, giving the piece context within my family history and more broadly in the history of South East Queensland.
DOWNLOAD ARTIVIVE TO ACTIVATE THE AR ELEMENT
Photographer: Rebecca Lewis
Nasturtium
Artist: Tamlyn Geiger
Artist Location: Canungra
Medium: Watercolour, mixed media, digitisation printed onto lycra, 2019
Dimensions: 100 x 100 x 4 cm
Artist Statement:
“My artwork ‘Nasturtium’ started as a watercolour, incorporated mixed media and comprises digitisation processes. An old-time style handwriting blends to give a worldly charm and continuity.
Canungra’s shared garden and our community of human personalities and interests is as diverse as the natural ecosystem. Withstanding drought and frost our State is like the community garden. To portray the “State of Diversity” in Queensland, did I choose Nasturtium or did Nasturtium choose me? I found the elements, massaged my processes and looked for what brings joy and fulfills purpose.”
Tamlyn Geiger creates artwork that evokes the beauty and organic rawness of Queensland. Artmaking is Tamlyn’s life: From a graphics background, Tamlyn’s full-time devotion to her craft has developed a freedom of expression that is evident in her surface designs.
Photographer: Tamlyn Geiger
