People's Choice Voting: Queensland Regional Art Awards 2021
Event Details
Place your vote to help your favourite Queensland Regional Art Awards 2021 entry win a People’s Choice Award. Selected artists will also be in the running to win judges’ prizes.
Voting Process
You may vote once for an Adult Category artwork, and once for a Youth Category artwork.
- Click on the individual images below to view an artwork, read the artist statement, and reveal their voting link.
- To vote you must fill out the form and provide your real name and email address for confirmation.
- A confirmation email will be sent to your nominated email address to confirm your vote. You will need to click ‘confirm vote’ to validate and confirm your submission. If you do not confirm your vote through this email your vote will not be valid.
Adult Category
Gunna Need A Bigger Brush
Artist: Grant Quinn
Artist Location: Bundamba
Medium: Photography, 2021
Dimensions: 50 x 1 x 70 cm
Artist Statement:
When you respect and preserve a towns history, you are preserving and respecting it’s personality, the very thing that gives it character, and brings new residents and new life. When most people think of preserving history, they envision painting the town, restoring old buildings and historical sites, and beautifying our urban landscape. But preserving the history of our town is so much more. Preserving our history has many benefits, from improving economy to becoming more environmentally conscious. Having pride and celebrating where we come from, improves connection to community, to neighbours, and a strong community makes for a strong town. Historic preservation is proven to provide jobs and increase tourism. Our history is the heart and soul of our town, and it is vital to our future success that we work to protect it and with preservation comes rejuvenation. In our beautiful town, our history has been our heartbeat, and we need to continue to work tirelessly to respect our town’s history and continue to work to embrace it.
Photographer: Grant Quinn
White Rock Blue Sky
Artist: Cynthia Copley
Artist Location: East Ipswich
Medium: Oil, 2021
Dimensions: 50 x 1.5 x 50 cm
Artist Statement:
I explored the concept of ‘Paint the Town’ through my celebration of White Rock; a magnificent landmark of cultural significance located at the Spring Mountain Conservation Park in Ipswich. The short walk to this rock, for me, musters feelings of excitement and anticipation, enlivened by the surrounding scrub, the sounds of bustling birds, scurrying lizards and the watchful gaze of kangaroos. Ascending slowly, climbing stair after stair, I finally stand in the presence of this enormous rock that has stood for eons of time. A feeling of amazement and history washes over me. It’s a humbling experience; I realise I am here for just a short time. I celebrate my feet on the land. I run my hand over the warm sandstone. I am here.
Photographer: Cynthia Copley
Painting Aaron
Artist: Catherine Boreham
Artist Location: Yeppoon
Medium: Acrylic and Oils, 2020
Dimensions: 120 x 5 x 77 cm
Artist Statement:
Whilst getting to know Aaron in the last few years I reaslised he gives everything 100% effort. Much later I discovered that his skill set includes actor, writer, director and he has performed in numerous Australian and American stage and screen productions. Aaron is a graduate of QUT’s Acting Strand and some of his roles were in sea Patrol, Harrow and Hobson’s Choice just to name a few.
He wrote, produced, directed and starred in an Australian film Talking Back at Thunder. His outstanding achievements go further than I have space to mention here.
In this portrait there are no balloons, no confetti, no festivities. There is however, a lot of quiet gratitude, reflection and sentiment.
For me painitng a portrait is a joyous activity and a special opportunity that has the potential of bringing a whole community together to celebrate alongside me. It may be an achivement, or a person’s admirable character, a life that was well lived, or a life full of generosity, but also the forgotten, or the poorly esteemed.
In an age that vaidates fame, fortune and followers, what a blessing it is to bring people together, to “paint the town with the colours of an “ordinary, or an “extrordinary” person’s life. Not always necessarily for what they have done, but for who they are.
Photographer: Catherine Boreham
This Won’t Hurt A Bit, Vote Now
Artist: Grant Quinn
Artist Location: Bundamba
Medium: Photography, 2021
Dimensions: 50 x 1 x 70 cm
Artist Statement:
Tattooing, the art of painting our town’s people, yesterday today and tomorrow. The history of tattooing goes back for thousands of years, and the reasons for getting tattooed are many. With the markings being personal, they can be plain, or elaborate, and they serve as amulets, healing and status symbols, dedications of love, signs of religion, adornments and even forms of punishments. The fascination of acquiring a tattoo may fall into four main groups, namely healing, affiliation, art and fashion. For many, tattoos are art, similar to a piece of jewellery for others to admire. People allow themselves to get tattooed simply because it’s beautiful. Previously, tattooing at galleries was mainly considered performance art in the form of live tattooing, but recently, tattoos, like graffiti, have gone from cult to art status and have been adopted by the art industry, especially in areas where art and fashion meet.
Photographer: Grant Quinn
Underground Creek, Girraween, Vote Now
Artist: Zela Bissett
Artist Location: Gympie
Medium: watercolour on Arches paper, 2020
Dimensions: 30 x 1 x 40 cm
Artist Statement:
The rugged rocky outcrops of Girraween National Park are a continual source of inspiration. Painting the town is not easy in out in nature, but every rocky outcrop and hidden spring is the home of many creatures, all of which exist and thrive far from the eyes of humans. They live in biotic communities which are suitably represented by the liquid flow of watercolour.
Photographer: Zela Bissett
MY HAPPY PLACE, Vote Now
Artist: Christine Holden
Artist Location: Boyne Island
Medium: Marine debris rope, twine and fishing line, 2021
Dimensions: 16 x 25 x 26 cm
Artist Statement:
Life is full of highs and lows and the challenges we face can be overwhelming at times, so for me, creating art helps me to maintain a healthy balance. Simply put, weaving makes me happy. The process of gathering materials from the environment, recycling and reusing what is around me is a very healing activity that quietens the mind and replenishes the sole. Through this journey I have become increasingly aware of the need for everyone to reduce their waste and protect our beautiful planet. This basket reflects my love of the ocean and our unique Australian reef systems that need our help to remain a happy place for future generations.
Photographer: Christine Holden
A Gentle Sway
Artist: Nicole Jakins
Artist Location: Glenwood
Medium: Stoneware clay, brass, eucalypt pigment, 2021
Dimensions: 50 x 21 x 93 cm
Artist Statement:
The winter light filters through the wattle as they sway gently in the breeze. Cradled in between soft mountain peaks, their blooms slowly turn into a burnt golden hue as the sun lowers in the sky. I breath in the rich, heady scents of the bush, listening to the slow-flowing trickle of tannin stained water as it meanders around me.
This is how I celebrate life – by switching off and quietly reflecting on the incredible diversity of the surrounding environment, and observing the flow of things. A simple, solitary act that fills my cup so profoundly that I am completely restored, feeling blessed that I have been able to share this celebratory moment with nature itself.
Photographer: Nicole Jakins
Bird on a wire,
Artist: Andrea Baumert Howard
Artist Location: Ipswich
Medium: Digital Print on Handmade Paper, 2021
Dimensions: 29.8 x 0.1 x 21 cm
Artist Statement:
For me celebrations are an everyday thing. Finding quiet moments to celebrate the beauty of an ordinary life.
The joy when you witness a magpie serenading the sun and, for a moment, you are the one being serenaded. Listening with closed eyes to their incredible and haunting songs.
Remembering that there are a million reasons to smile throughout the day and opening your heart to finding them.
This piece is a further exploration into my experimenting with handmade paper. The image is a digital photograph printed onto a sheet of handmade paper. The multilayered paper is made from the pulp of junk mail, hand dyed office discards and cartridge paper.
As a small-batch artist I am constantly trying new things and I am celebrating the joy that working with paper can offer me.
Photographer: Andrea Baumert Howard
Peepshow-a-go-go, Vote Now
Artist: Lisa Ashcroft
Artist Location: Townsville
Medium: Handstitched sequins, beads and kitsch, glitter on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 50 x 6 x 60 cm
Artist Statement:
This textile artwork addresses the seedy underbelly of our society. It pokes fun at brothels and prostitution, Tinder and other dating platforms. I have constructed the canvas to have a viewing recess area to simulate that of viewing a porn peepshow. This is to make the viewer question what they are viewing and why. The artworks surface and colour patina camouflage the manipulation of Disney characters (to deconstruct our childhood memories of fairy tale characters). I wanted to use hand stitching as a method of production outside of my traditional abstract landscape oil paintings. Hand stitching is an inherent female hobby and fits the representation of the piece: showcasing gender inequality that still exists and the placing of kitsch objects represent our plastic, self-absorbed society.
Photographer: Lisa Ashcroft
Girl Paints Town, Vote Now
Artist: Milynda Rogers
Artist Location: Barcaldine
Medium: Recycled steel and plastic, 2021
Dimensions: 25 x 25 x 10 cm
Artist Statement:
Girl Paints Town was created in response to the theme “Paint the Town” after I had been experimenting with human anatomy in steel. I was able to incorporate the theme in my sculpture of the a female form for two reasons. Firstly I knew that I had red street sweeper brushes that I could recycle perfectly as oversized paint brushes and secondly I had the whole picture vision of the finished sculpture of a lunging women about to express her feelings through painting. Using recycled bolts, wire, steel rod, sockets and street brushes and welding them together then grinding heating and painting to accomplish the finished artwork. I am very happy with my attempt to convey emotional feeling within cold, hard steel.
Photographer: Aaron Skinn
Be Alright, Vote Now
Artist: Benitta Harding
Artist Location: Goodna
Medium: Pastel on Paper, 2021
Dimensions: 40 x 0 x 30 cm
Artist Statement:
“Be Alright” captures getting lost in the moment without any thoughts to either the past or future. It’s being in that beautiful headspace that makes you feel like everything will be alright.
As an artist I work in isolation so for me to Paint the Town is responding to the experience of isolation and how we express our creativity during these time in our own way… It getting lost in the moment while creating – that moment which is free from judgment, criticism or fear of what others might think.
Photographer: Benitta Harding
At the Oak, Vote Now
Artist: Ela Bozek
Artist Location: Healy
Medium: Acrylics on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 77 x 4 x 102 cm
Artist Statement:
The first beats of live music starts the evening at the Oak. Undeniably, there would be no celebration without it. Everyone in the room waited the whole week to come here to the dancefloor. Familiar and unfamiliar faces smile to each other. It always helps to look at that joy.
Visiting the Oak made me feel like me, back home.
Photographer: Ela Bozek
Joie de vivre
Artist: Kerry Wilson
Artist Location: Yandina
Medium: Mixed Media on paper, 2020
Dimensions: 61 x 0 x 45 cm
Artist Statement:
I enjoy the drama of romantic landscapes, and I enjoy mark-making.
I enjoy the calligraphic and floating perspective of Chinese landscapes.
I enjoy automatic drawing and the excitement of chance.
All of these things are distilled into my own personal iconography.
Painting helps me to understand the world, to celebrate the natural world, to see, to feel, and to live in the moment.
My aim is to invoke the spirit and feeling of the natural world.
I invite the viewer to experience and connect with the exuberant enjoyment of life.
Photographer: Kerry Wilson
Flaming Trolley, Vote Now
Artist: Julie Purcell
Artist Location: Kippa-Ring
Medium: Oil on salvaged board, 2020
Dimensions: 42 x 0.29999999999999999 x 47.5 cm
Artist Statement:
My family celebrate by burning things. Most days spent working on our Beebo property south-west of Brisbane conclude with a fire in our ready-made brazier. We warm our feet on “foot rocks” pulled up from the stone ringed cacti garden nearby, crack a bottle or two of home brew and yarn till the stars come out. With the idiosyncrasy of our pastime flickering formally in my plein air brushwork, this painting presents the bush as a backdrop for contemporary family life.
Photographer: Julie Purcell
Marco Della Valle The Wisdom of Times, Vote Now
Artist: Donna Beningfield
Artist Location: Townsville
Medium: Acrylic, Gold leaf and charcoal on canvas, 2020
Dimensions: 100 x 3 x 76 cm
Artist Statement:
The spirit of celebration is something far greater than us mere mortals inhabiting this earth. There is a wisdom and energy that connects all things and beings in this amazing celebration of life. The mystery of our universe gives wonder to the unknown as we contemplate our position in this cosmos of eternity. However, it is in the earthy realm that we witness mankind’s desire to find purpose and meaning to our lives.
My sense of celebration is best felt in the creation of a new body of art work. As a portrait painter I endeavor to find that connection to another which is experienced in our collective consciousness. As I delve more into the area of “Expanded Portraiture” the physical representation of the person dissolves into a sense of who they are in this life and who they may have been in a past or future life.
Photographer: Donna Beningfield
Grasses of Diamantina, Vote Now
Artist: Karen Stephens
Artist Location: Winton
Medium: Acrylic on polyester, 2021
Dimensions: 19.5 x 1 x 80 cm
Artist Statement:
I live in Channel Country and ‘Grasses of Diamantina’ was painted on site at Diamantina National Park. The ‘Diamantina River’ that can be up to fifty kilometres wide when waters flow inward is surrounded with unique grasses and textures of soil. The river was named for the late Lady ‘Diamantina’ Bowen, the wife of Sir George Bowen, the first Governor of Queensland. Because of the areas abundance from life giving water, this region was also a thriving trade route for many First Nations people living in Channel Country.
‘Painting the Town’ conjures up the idea of noisy celebration. Waiting for water, the Diamantina landscape is so quiet it becomes unquiet. I hear myself breathing in and out and find joy spectating and painting little pathways of grasses that gently come to a close. ‘Grasses of Diamantina’ is a window for quiet contemplation and a celebration of remote Queensland landscapes.
Photographer: Mick Richards
Topography, Vote Now
Artist: Barbara Pierce
Artist Location: Townsville
Medium: acrylic & collage on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 76 x 3.5 x 91 cm
Artist Statement:
A celebration can be described – and shaped – by its’ location in the landscape. The landscape where I live has been the inspiration for this painting. Collage and acrylic paint have been used to make reference to a hillside – its’ rocks and pathways – and a celebration at day’s end as night falls.
Every day I connect with the surrounding environment and notice the changes – subtle or dramatic – depending on the time of day, the season or whatever is happening at the time. All sensory stimuli have an effect or leave an impression. Every day I quietly celebrate ‘my’ landscape.
In this painting I have reinterpreted the landscape surroundings and played with the idea of the possible appearance of a celebration at day’s end in the imagined topography of this environment. Every celebration – like every day – is unique. A celebration takes on a life and shape of it’s own.
Photographer: Ed Pierce
Music to the ears, Vote Now
Artist: Katherine Civil
Artist Location: Toowoomba
Medium: watercolour on paper, 2021
Dimensions: 42 x 0.10000000000000001 x 30 cm
Artist Statement:
With music in the background, the subtle tones in this painting, bely the celebration happening
without. In the night air, the notes float and and dance to the rhythm of the occasion. It is a joyous
sound that brings delight to all who hear and celebrate. The character is the pied piper and he
belts out a merry tune. Come dance and sing with me, the colours echo
Photographer: Katherine Civil
Ignite
Artist: Michelle Kurth
Artist Location: Cooran
Medium: Plastic Food Packaging, Metal Fan Case, Cotton Warp, 2021
Dimensions: 54 x 13 x 52 cm
Artist Statement:
My memories of fun and celebration always have a brightness about them. Thoughts
re-ignited and brought back to life with feelings of joy, the images bold and full of colour.
Growing up in an English seaside resort, a special outing was often focused around the fairground. The amusement arcade with it’s coloured lights and brash signs.
The carnival that preceded it with it’s balloons, streamers and everything that sparkled.
With these events there were always treats. Food or novelties that came in bright plastic wrappers. Overwhelmed by the choice as a child, yet wanting to have it all.
In adult years the contents of the event changed. Bright colours came from lights in a nightclub, or behind the band. Later still; the observation that celebration and fun doesn’t always need to be an external source, and learning how to create that sweet sparkle within.
Photographer: Michelle Kurth
I Left My Heart On The Island, Vote Now
Artist: Jay Feather
Artist Location: Qunaba
Medium: Oil and acrylic on cotton linen blend canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 90 x 3 x 70 cm
Artist Statement:
This piece is very special to me, it was created when I was pregnant with my second child. I find it joyful and it reminds me of my son. After having a failed pregnancy, I was able to reflect on the negative space I had come from and into a happy positive space being pregnant. My marks are strong and confident in this piece through the use of thick oil paint and use of a pallet knife. Forever now I will be reminded of the happy island of hope that emerge from the tumultuous sea of despair, of which, I know I will never return.
Photographer: Jay Feather
The Day After, Vote Now
Artist: Kate Douglas
Artist Location: Moores Pocket
Medium: Acrylic on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 91 x 3.5 x 91 cm
Artist Statement:
The old Federal and City View hotels have stood on opposite corner blocks overlooking Ipswich for 114 years. These days the Federal is a pub called the Squealing Pig and the City View is used for accommodation. Ipswich is full of beautiful old architecture and living here often makes me wonder about people and events from the past. This painting is the day after an imaginary celebration from a forgotten time.
Photographer: Kate Douglas
Flying Art, Vote Now
Artist: Christa Coetzee
Artist Location: Clear Mountain
Medium: Mixed Media on Paper, 2021
Dimensions: 87 x 0.20000000000000001 x 64 cm
Artist Statement:
Flying Art
Imagine innocent youth. Combined with silver strands of wisdom.
Flying with whimsical wings of freedom, fuelled with flawless wisdom,
through time on a pendulum suspended from a universe filled with
1010010011101110011000’s and you are one block in the chain…
Knowing nothing yet everything.
In this virtual ‘apple’ world of songs yet to be ‘sung’
Photographer: Christa Coetzee
My Big Red Heart, Vote Now
Artist: Sandra Ross
Artist Location: Gympie
Medium: Mixed Media, 2021
Dimensions: 80 x 0.20000000000000001 x 108 cm
Artist Statement:
I immediately thought of ‘red’, “painting the town RED”. A celebration of love. Our love for each other, our love for those who are no longer with us and the love for those important to us – whether that’s from a distance or together.
My work uses the beauty of the natural world as a springboard for expressing loss, loss of loved ones and loss of our environment.
When I begin the work, I use a large brush on a long stick and watery ink with the work on the floor. Like tears, it drips and flows. I think about how I celebrate those who have gone before me and the marks that are left in my heart.
Turning inwards, I listen closely, feel blessed and celebrate those around me and the love we all share.
Photographer: Sandra Ross
Sunday Morning, Vote Now
Artist: Eva Fritz
Artist Location: Sadliers Crossing
Medium: Oil on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 100 x 1 x 120 cm
Artist Statement:
For myself, ‘Paint the Town’ holds similarities and differences post 2020. Similarities are things like waking up with the sweet evidence of the night before: my discarded clothes and paraphernalia from the evening, and the still-lurking adrenaline from the fond memories of the places I have gone and the people I have been with. Sitting on the edge of my bed the morning after and relishing the recall of the experiences, however simple or subjectively grandiose they were, can often be as rewarding and fulfilling as the night itself. Differences is there is often a whole new sense of organisation and restriction that accompanies these nights, as suggested by the Check in Qld App. Reflecting this is the juxtaposition of spontaneity of brushstrokes and abandonment of objects in this piece with the harsh lines and flat tones of the mobile device.
Photographer: Eva Fritz
Portrait Of An Artist, Vote Now
Artist: Grant Quinn
Artist Location: Bundamba
Medium: Photography, 2021
Dimensions: 50 x 1 x 70 cm
Artist Statement:
As a photographer, I am inspired by the power that photographs hold. I take pleasure in knowing my images invite you to be immersed in what I felt at a particular moment in time. Photography being the true form of social documentation is crucial in providing viewers with meaning of the cultures in which we live, and without this social documentation, we are left with only the spoken and written word, and these two forms of communication alone can not provide us with the full knowledge of the society in which we exist. By capturing Ipswich based artist Jil Nugent, in serene contemplation of what’s next, visualising her passion for colour, and celebrating her love of art through her paintings of local historical buildings and the Urban Landscape, including St Mary’s church and the Ipswich Railway Workshops, allows me share with the viewer a glimpse of her journey. Jil’s artistic accolades include work being commissioned and exhibited throughout Australia and evokes her spirit for celebration of all things iconic. Now residing in Regional SE QLD, Jil is still producing art and painting the town she so proudly now calls home.
Photographer: Grant Quinn
Eungella
Artist: Janet Ambrose
Artist Location: Eungella
Medium: Oil on Canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 90 x 4 x 90 cm
Artist Statement:
This landscape is of Eungella. The view is of the mountain above Pioneer Valley. We are confronted with deep forests to the valley floor. The structural energy of the mountain gives movement as the valley below winds its way to the coast.
There is harmony in the irregularities of twists and turns that we see, the forest is poised and alive with inhabitants calling this the largest sub-tropical. It is my intention to reflect the rawness of this landscape. Broad brush strokes dominate in this work to give the landscape a strong sense of character and strength.
Photographer: Janet Ambrose
Wallum 3
Artist: Joolie Gibbs
Artist Location: Gympie
Medium: Local botanical inks on Arches paper, 2021
Dimensions: 76 x 0 x 56.5 cm
Artist Statement:
A sign of the times, or a sign of my age, means I have revisited what I would term ‘painting the town red’. These days I celebrate more and more my local/regional environment, which gives me bigger thrills than a night on the town.
I can thoroughly feel fulfilled with a day walking, listening and observing nature, in particular the Wallum heathlands. Sighting the new wildflowers each season gives much joy, and the fact that brave women before me, advocated to save the Cooloola National Park from destruction from mining and logging in the 1960’s gives me cause for celebration.
In respecting this fragile but impermanent environment, constantly in a state of transience, I choose to only use botanical inks I have made from my property. Luscious, sepia red colours from Gympie Messmate, Iron Bark, Eucalyptus, Bunya and golden yellow from the Red Kamala, compound my love of my environment.
Photographer: Joolie Gibbs
Celebrating the Colours of Coolum,
Artist: Libby Derham
Artist Location: Peregian Springs
Medium: Watercolour on paint chips, 2021
Dimensions: 40 x 0 x 38 cm
Artist Statement:
I have the best job in the world, celebrating my surrounds every day as a landscape painter and my local town doesn’t disappoint. Its colours are majestic, Stumers Creek golden orange, Tickle Park green and famous golden sands of Coolum Beach. Aqua colours emerge beyond rocky outcrops below Point Perry and boardwalk views take in salt and sand. It is the natural beauty that Coolum is renowned for and many flock from near and far to appreciate these great delights. Mt Coolum even puts on its own water show in monsoonal rain! Come together where the community and tourists meet, at the local surf club, where red represents courage and dedication and raise a cold one for Coolum, a celebration of the unspoilt beauty.
Photographer: Libby Derham
Out and about, Vote Now
Artist: Jennifer Wright (Summers)
Artist Location: Toowoomba
Medium: Woven Chir pine needles, cotton threads, metal ear ring, 2021
Dimensions: 20 x 17 x 17 cm
Artist Statement:
This work reflects the joy of going out on the town to connect with friends or celebrate at a festival. During the past year going out to ‘paint the town’ has become even more precious.
The base of the piece is an urn in which treasures could be placed.
The pine needles are from a heritage Chir pine planted in 1850 at the opening of the first Royal Toowoomba show. The tree stands at the entrance of much beloved Cobb & Co Museum 171 years later.
The cap of this piece is reminiscent of going on the Merry-go-round at a Show in childhood and with friends, children and grandchildren.
The coloured cotton threads were selected by a process similar to dressing up – and thinking a colour theme for an outfit or selecting ear rings that suits a mood.
Photographer: Jennifer Wright (Summers)
The Sacred Tree (Araucaria bidwillii), Vote Now
Artist: Leisa Gunton
Artist Location: Cambroon
Medium: 500m of natural fibre, 4000 knots, handmade porcelain pieces embedded with Bunya, cats claw hoops, strung onto Bunya heartwood, hand shaped and sealed with fire, and 100% biodegradable., 2021
Dimensions: 100 x 2 x 100 cm
Artist Statement:
The sacred tree is better known as the Bunya Pine. Bunyas dominated the landscape of the great subcontinent Gondwanda, 200million years ago. It was lore to never harm these sacred trees, but as early settlers logged the giants of yesteryear, the local indigenous still mourn for their loss.
The great Bunya gathering was an annual tradition that united indigenous peoples of this land, and many would make the pilgrimage to celebrate the abundance that the Bunyi/Bonyi would bring. Due to covid19, the gathering was unable to happen, so I created this 100% biodegradable wall hanging in recognition of The Kabi Kabi people and celebrate the Bunya.
Photographer: Richard Muldoon
Cobb&Co1, Vote Now
Artist: Katherine Civil
Artist Location: Toowoomba
Medium: oil on canvas, 2020
Dimensions: 51 x 4 x 77 cm
Artist Statement:
The town of Toowoomba is painted in this work as the iconic museum. Bringing visitors from far and wide, this part of the world echoes the celebration of town and country. The wind machines
turn for water and the structure is stable in the elements. In this oil the paint is applied quickly and loosely and the colours harmonise to ring in sync with all that is Toowoomba.
Photographer: Katherine Civil
Reconnected To The Self and The Ancestors Through The Act of Washing My Body
Artist: Sammaneh Pourshafighi
Artist Location: Hollywell
Medium: Digital photograph on archival paper, 2021
Dimensions: 120 x 4 x 85 cm
Artist Statement:
My family and I came to Australia as refugees from Iran. As part of a diaspora, I am constantly trying to find a place as a queer, Muslim and Persian person living on unceded, stolen, indigenous land. For as many moments of struggle that exist in this experience, there are moments of joy, quiet introspection and pride. The Covid-19 pandemic has added more layers of complexity to my experience especially around the importance of nurturing and maintaining connections to my social communities, cultural background, traditional rituals, and my family both living and ancestral.
This photograph was taken in my parents’ Gold Coast garden after being reunited with them. Covid-19 restrictions had prevented me seeing them in over 6 months. My mother and her sister are wearing traditional Persian garments and ritualistically washing my body in an Islamic style. The ritual was equal parts celebration, act of love, and spiritual cleansing.
Photographer: Sammaneh Pourshafighi
Purlingbrook Fall, Vote Now
Artist: Paul de Zubicaray
Artist Location: Albany Creek
Medium: Oil on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 102 x 4 x 76 cm
Artist Statement:
For the inaugural Merv award I have painted a picturesque waterfall in the Gold Coast hinterland called Purlingbrook Falls. My family and I have regularly visited this peaceful and tranquil spot over the years so it has nostalgic value. As the Gold Coast is renowned for its nightlife, these days I prefer to paint the town red (and other colours) literally rather than figuratively.
Photographer: Paul de Zubicaray
Poona Lake Ghosts
Artist: Nicole Harper
Artist Location: Gympie
Medium: Oil on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 91 x 4 x 120 cm
Artist Statement:
Poona Lake is unique perched lake in Butchulla country near Rainbow Beach. Sketching in situ, absorbing the landscape and connecting to the place, as a plein air artist, this gathering of information and feeling is the basis for undertaking this larger work in oil paint in the studio. The ghosts, or remanets, of much and many are present in this work. I acknowledge the Traditional Owners, the Butchulla, their elders past, present and future and the value this place holds for them, gathering. I remember a group of women seeking connection, with place and each other, evoking a spirit of festivity. I reflect on times I have sought solace here, found gratitude, and depart with a feeling of celebration that nature provides in being part of it, even if just for a short time. I dwell upon the future, and the achievements that will be celebrated by the next generations.
Photographer: Nicole Harper
Going in Cycles, Vote Now
Artist: Glen Smith
Artist Location: Bundamba
Medium: Mix Media, 2021
Dimensions: 66 x 4 x 50 cm
Artist Statement:
For me the joy I get from being involved with our art community gives me a sense of belonging and fulfilment. One of the ways I achieve this is by hosting or partaking in workshops. As a member of a local art group we come together to share ideas, food, good company, the love of art and a little gossip. Our workshops are simple affairs that all are welcome regards of skills and abilities and we get to take home a little memento of the day. In this small way we are painting a town that is inclusive, accepting, joyous and known as an artist hub. I have created this piece of mini artworks showcasing some of the many workshops I have attended or tutored, from book folding, drawing, painting, eco dying to felting just to name a few.
Photographer: Glen Smith
Jumping for Joy, Vote Now
Artist: Jenny Neubecker
Artist Location: Waterloo
Medium: Pencil and graphite on paper, 2021
Dimensions: 41 x 2 x 58 cm
Artist Statement:
No matter the weather or time of day, our working dogs jump for joy when they are released from their pens. Sometimes that’s for work or sometimes just for play; either way their joyful enthusiasm is contagious. Whatever my days’ circumstances or the mood I might be in they bring instant joy and pleasure. Without any worries about the past or anxiety about the future they live completely in the present and celebrate in leaps and bounds without a hint of self-consciousness. Being with them when they play, or work the cows, brings joy to my soul and reminds me to enjoy and to celebrate the small pleasures of life.
Photographer: Jenny Neubecker
Paint the town red, Vote Now
Artist: Angela Heffer
Artist Location: Cooktown
Medium: Acrylic on board, 2021
Dimensions: 46 x 0.40000000000000002 x 62 cm
Artist Statement:
ARTIST STATEMENT
Paint the town red
by Angela Heffer, 2021
In the first week of May 2021, Rockhampton was abuzz with all the excitement of its triennial Beef Week. The Showgrounds hosted thousands of cows, farmers, exhibitors, visitors and locals. Never had so many Akubra hats gathered in one place!
My acrylic painting captures Wednesday night during Beef Week when I donned my jeans and boots and went out to paint the town red. The lights were bright, the music was loud and a huge crowd of likeminded people were making the most of this unique regional event. It was a night of celebrating life and catching up with friends old and new.
Photographer: Angela Heffer
Unabashed Bliss, Vote Now
Artist: Josie Bennett
Artist Location: Mount Coolum
Medium: Archival ink on 300gsm cotton rag, 2021
Dimensions: 20.32 x 0 x 30.48 cm
Artist Statement:
Children remind us of the exquisiteness of every moment, and a playful readiness for anything allows us to feel the joy of such moments and celebrate them entirely.
While walking with a friend and her daughter, I managed to capture her daughter in a moment of unabashed bliss. After the two of them had spent the day apart, they were thrilled to be in each other’s presence once again. Their satisfaction and happiness were palpable and contagious.
Despite familiarity with the subject, my approach was similar to that of street photography in that it was an unplanned, quick response to a candid moment.
This photo serves as a reminder to be playful, to ‘Paint the Town’ and celebrate life’s joyful moments, both big and small.
Photographer: Josie Bennett
A Covid Birthday, Vote Now
Artist: Emma Thorp
Artist Location: Dundowran Beach
Medium: Digital Drawing Print, 2021
Dimensions: 70 x 0.29999999999999999 x 50 cm
Artist Statement:
During an early period of Covid lockdown, my daughter turned 11.
Unwilling to leave the house for trivial items, we ordered her gifts online and had them delivered. I did not do the careful, deliberate shopping for decorations of years gone past. What is her favourite colour? What is the best theme? These were questions I did not ask.
We still decorated for our family dinner, she had a miss matched array of plates and napkins and wrappings from past celebrations. She still had a wonderful birthday. It was actually one of the best, since during Covid we have become more aware of what is important and how much we value experiences with our loved ones.
Photographer: Emma Thorp
Drought Rain
Artist: Jasna Spiranovic
Artist Location: Hollywell
Medium: Watercolour on paper, 2021
Dimensions: 30 x 2 x 42 cm
Artist Statement:
In summer 2021 I was bushwalking in the Giirraween National Park where the local town was buying in tank water because of the extended drought. One day it rained and I couldn’t believe my eyes . The colours changed immediately .
I celebrated the breaking of the drought by drawing and painting in the rain.
Photographer: Jasna Spiranovic
Shoe Show, Vote Now
Artist: Therese Foley
Artist Location: Frenchville
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 30.5 x 3.5 x 40.5 cm
Artist Statement:
Paint the town says celebration to me so if it’s time to celebrate, for me that means grab a great pair of shoes and matching outfit and ready myself for a fantastic time out! These heels and being dressed up says nothing but party! Spending most of my life in the small town of Blackwater, that could mean a day followed by night at the races, a night out with my besties or a special night out with my man. I love shoes and browsing the shop windows at Camden in London inspired me to create my own shop window of interesting shoes!
Photographer: Therese Foley
The Hug, Vote Now
Artist: Karen Wiz SMITH
Artist Location: Gold Coast
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 91 x 4 x 91 cm
Artist Statement:
As an introverted artistic type, I prefer to keep celebrations low key, no rabble rousing about town for this individual. Hence, this work conceptualises the importance of being grounded and connected to place and loved ones, to either celebrate or commiserate, where the simple hug (although almost taboo) is a favoured means of emotional expression.
Photographer: Karen Wiz SMITH
Pandanas Curtain
Artist: Lyn Laver-Ahmat
Artist Location: Mackay
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas, 2020
Dimensions: 90 x 4 x 120 cm
Artist Statement:
I made this painting after drawing the Pandanus Grove up at Slade Point where I live. I had attempted it many times, and disliked the heavy forms, I used colour to get a feeling for the quiet coolness and breeze of the beautiful morning and the gentle noise of the waving Pandanus fronds, to look through them like a curtain to the sea below and beyond.
Photographer: Lyn Laver-Ahmat
Bouquet, Vote Now
Artist: Sonja Parsonage
Artist Location: Highvale
Medium: acrylic ink and watercolour on awagami paper, 2021
Dimensions: 37.5 x 0 x 55 cm
Artist Statement:
The theme “Paint the town” evoked vibrant colours and a party, a celebratory bouquet, a shared moment of joy. Flowers are natures celebration of the cycle of life and they are used to mark special occasions in our lives. A big bouquet of flowers makes my heart melt! I am known to my local florist for selecting my favourite flowers to make a haphazard bouquet just for myself. It motivates me to make my space beautiful. I use Awagami paper as I enjoy exploring ways to manage how media bleed into the paper. This property of the paper gives my line drawings energy and movement.
Photographer: Sonja Parsonage
Mangos Are On, Vote Now
Artist: Colleen Gardener
Artist Location: Harrisville
Medium: Oil, 2021
Dimensions: 47 x 5.0000000000000003E-2 x 63 cm
Artist Statement:
I wouldn’t call it simple or elegant, but certainly a riotous explosion of the teasing of the senses…..the just right colour and aromas, the passing of the pinch test,.. the expectancy, that comes with the year long wait for Mango Season. Friends and family arriving to feast and share the many ways to enjoy their annual arrival and of course my visual senses awakened to paint them, celebrating their gorgeous plump form and colour.
Photographer: Colleen Gardener
Charlie’s Party, Vote Now
Artist: Susan Dryden
Artist Location: Lockyer Valley
Medium: Oil on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 45 x 5 x 55 cm
Artist Statement:
Charlie’s party was a celebration that brought friends from as far away as Boonah, The Lockyer Valley and Brisbane to Maleny. It was an occasion for old friends to gather and celebrate our long friendships and to meet new ones. We may not be 20 again but we dined and laughed and felt 20. The painting captures just a moment at the party.
Photographer: Susan Dryden
Only Pink in Here! (2021), Vote Now
Artist: Lee Fullarton and Sue Hammond
Artist Location: Ipswich
Medium: Photographic Print, 2021
Dimensions: 29 x 5 x 30 cm
Artist Statement:
Through their collaboration FullARTon and Hammond intentionally wander into the narratives of the creative, mythical and adventurous woman. Together they create the work as an installation searching iconic Queensland environments and moments, detailing costumes and evoking the mood of the space. In Only Pink in Here! FullARTon and Hammond capture the preparation for Painting the Town Pink! Beauty is always at the forefront of their making; they explore and play – and Hammond captures ‘that’ moment through the eye of the lens.
Photographer: Lee Fullarton
West, Vote Now
View Digital Artwork Artist: Renee Yates
Artist Location: East Ipswich
Medium: Mixed media animation, 2021
Dimensions: 0 x 0 x 0 cm
Artist Statement:
West is a moving-image landscape that captures a familiar scene west of the city: the coal trains rumbling through the Queensland countryside as an afternoon storm rolls in down the range. As an artist who works in the Lockyer Valley, I see coal trains as both living relics exisiting on borrowed time and as a symbol of Queensland’s city-country connection. This connection is evident with the economic function of the coal industry (mining in Western Queensland provides city workers and the economy with the expendable income that allows them to figuratively “paint the town”) and with the juxtaposition of the colourful stylised urban street art that adorns the trains with the natural palette of the countryside. West was created with mixed media craft processes (graphite drawings and painted paper collage) that were digitised and brought to life with animation and audio field recordings and footage.
Photographer: Renee Yates
Come Share my Moon with Me, Vote Now
Artist: Lindsay-Jane Conroy
Artist Location: Maroochydore
Medium: Acrylic and pen, 2020
Dimensions: 46 x 2.5 x 61 cm
Artist Statement:
Statement by Lindsay-Jane Conroy
Title: Come Share my Moon with Me
“Come Share my Moon with Me” is a fun quirky look at the little bird called the “Egret” which are often seen following cattle around the paddocks. The work is full of playful things such as houses nestled in a large tree and a magical moon peeking through in which the Egret ask his loved ones to come share his moon. It is just a imaginary take the essence of painting the town can be the Joy of simple things that can give an explosion of happiness when sharing something special with others.
My inspiration of art comes from both farm and family coastal lifestyle which have given me a broad gathering of inspiration. With the last drought of 7 years on our farm followed by the hit, to the family Sunshine coast business, like so many with the arrival of Covid19. It has been important to keep a light hearted attitude to my work. As such I have taken a non-tradition approach to my work being drawn to fantasy with a touch of quirk hoping to leave the viewer with a light-hearted feeling.
Photographer: Lindsay-Jane Conroy
Throw It To Me! Throw It To Me!, Vote Now
Artist: Judi Parkinson
Artist Location: Bald Knob
Medium: Acrylic Paint on Stretched Canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 100.3 x 3 x 100.3 cm
Artist Statement:
The picturesque hillsides, views, and rain forests of the Sunshine Coast Hinterland make our countryside and community idyllic for wedding celebrations. Hence, I’m painting our town with bouquets instead of firecrackers as I explore our relationships with traditional bridal bouquets, primarily, The Bouquet Toss.
Current culture celebrates The Toss as an interaction between brides and single female guests. From the delight of brides sharing their flowers that signify joy and future wishes for guests, to the anticipation those guests might experience as the bouquet is thrown. The excitement, the dream to become reality, the eagerness to catch the bouquet as it appears suspended in time.
The diagonal design supports this social interaction like an invisible garden trellis. The tradition remains but the participants may change. These bouquets have been created with reference to simple homegrown flowers, mostly grown in our country garden at Maleny. They symbolize love and innocence.
Photographer: Judi Parkinson
Dance Like Nobody’s Watching, Vote Now
Artist: Katie Whyte
Artist Location: South Toowoomba
Medium: Gouache on Cotton Rag Paper, 2021
Dimensions: 25.5 x 0.20000000000000001 x 35 cm
Artist Statement:
I dance like nobody’s watching.
I use all the colours.
I paint the town as a mural artist travelling across Queensland.
I employ others to embrace their weirdness.
I give silent permission to find joy in expressing our true selves.
I celebrate our uniqueness and celebrate our wonderful differences,
in all shapes, sizes and details,
as individuals, cultures and communities.
Photographer: Katie Whyte
Celebrating at Sunset, Vote Now
Artist: Debbie Chilton
Artist Location: North Ipswich
Medium: 3D Artbook / Watercolour, 2021
Dimensions: 10 x 1 x 64 cm
Artist Statement:
My idea of celebrating is to indulge in natural beauty. And what is more beautiful than the picture the sunset paints across the sky? The scenic rim is just a short drive from my hometown of Ipswich. Hot air balloon flights over the scenic rim may be booked to celebrate special events such as engagements, wedding, anniversaries, and birthdays. My artwork Celebrating at Sunset takes audiences on this magical journey.
Photographer: Debbie Chilton
A Woman’s Work Is Never Done, Vote Now
Artist: Laurie McLeod
Artist Location: Bundamba
Medium: Digital created image on Paper or screen, 2021
Dimensions: 39 x 2 x 66 cm
Artist Statement:
Pick yourself up, put yourself together and start over again. In a dystopian world, many feel discarded. No longer competent. Their former beliefs are no longer useful. Only hope reignites former talents in new ways and the struggle to survive begins again. The recovery road can be barren, but small joys bring delight. As the spiritual path and friends provide sustenance a true reason to celebrate a better triumphant life presents itself.
Photographer: Laurie McLeod
CELEBRATION, Vote Now
Artist: BRUCE GRIFFITHS
Artist Location: KLEINTON
Medium: WATERCOLOUR, 2021
Dimensions: 35 x 5 x 54 cm
Artist Statement:
CELEBRATION – 35X44 – Watercolour – BRUCE GRIFFITHS
I reviewed history for an event that had impressed me. The Sydney Tall Ships Regatta came to mind, but it would not be any old seascape. “It is not the subject that makes a painting work, it is the interpretation of the subject by the artist that lifts it out of the ordinary.” So, I merged a number of my own images with history and placed the “viewing point” on top of the midmast of one of these majestic vessels. All below is secondary, even the Opera House & Sydney Harbour Bridge. So, against tradition I placed the viewer & some of the crew in the upper foreground. The only things above them; the soaring birds & fleeing balloons before the wind. All other are simply supports & my focus is the cavalcade of celebratory flags tied to the foremast. It is all about CELEBRATION
Photographer: BRUCE GRIFFITHS
Dinner Date, Vote Now
Artist: Katherine Civil
Artist Location: Toowoomba
Medium: watercolour on paper, 2021
Dimensions: 42 x 0.10000000000000001 x 30 cm
Artist Statement:
What a joy to celebrate dinner and show with someone. However over dinner there is a vase of
flowers set in front of the happy couple. Executed in watercolour these flowers are a living symbol
of their love. With watercolours melting into one another, they display time passing and the end
of life. There is a painting that is pre-empting the night of fun and laughter, together.
Photographer: Katherine Civil
Talchum (The Mask Dance), Vote Now
Artist: Jooyun Lim
Artist Location: broadwater
Medium: clay, 2020
Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 15 cm
Artist Statement:
This work uses slip casting to create plates and bowls using moulds. I chose the Korean traditional dance called Tal-chum (mask dance) as a pattern. There are many different types and colors of Tal (mask) to represent different themes, also different costumes and dance moves. There are tears, laughter, happiness, sadness, jokes, love, anger, wisdom and life in the performance. When my ancestors hoping and celebrating for something or console people, they gathered together in the ceremony and danced. I used traditional rhythmical humming in the Korean language to maximize the dance movement. I also wanted to give texture by carving patterns and then inlaying colour on the surface and I wished to show the five traditional colours of Korean patterns: red, yellow, blue, black and white.
This remote peaceful town is quite different to where I was born and raised .
This town has unique environment which you get to meet people from all over the world for traveling and farm work.
I was hoping to share my culture in this diverse town through my work .
Photographer: Jooyun Lim
Liberation, Vote Now
Artist: Liz Celegato
Artist Location: Eatons Hill
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas, 2020
Dimensions: 91 x 4 x 91 cm
Artist Statement:
As an artist, utilising bright, exciting colours definately evoke feelings within me of enjoyment, euphoria, contentment, optimism, and celebration. They often conjure a sense of pure and utmost joy! I have attempted to combine free flowing bright colour along with stylised, patterned birds in order to seek the true meaning of the title of this work, ‘Liberation’. Liberation is the action of setting someone or something free – it is a release – and that is what I felt when I created this artwork during this new era of Covid. Our modern world, right now, can often feel so negative, strange and daunting but we all need to keep the positivity happening. Everyone should be encouraged to ‘paint the town’……however they see fit. To live in the moment and appreciate the good things that life still has to offer. To be reminded of feelings of happiness, joy & contentment. To feel liberated and to be thankful…..
Photographer: Liz Celegato
Place, Time and Country, Vote Now
Artist: Rhondda Scott
Artist Location: Tambo
Medium: Oil on Canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 50 x 4 x 40 cm
Artist Statement:
The ochre fields in Tambo are a very spiritual place to paint. The big sky. The travelled earth. Her stories are found in abundance and the colours of the earth release in me something that makes my heart sing. There is a music in the outback that touches everything. I have started using ochre gathered from here to create my own paints and incorporate them into my work to create the truth that is the outback. The effort to crush and mix rocks to create paint here places me even closer to the subjects I paint. This helps me release the song in her soil. It puts the earth into my work and pulls my work back to its origins.
Photographer: Rhondda Scott
Festival Of Colours, Vote Now
Artist: Elise Higginson
Artist Location: Ayr
Medium: Acrylic Paints With gold cardboard on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 0 x 0 x 0 cm
Artist Statement:
Colour The Town means As The Artist means festival of colours, fireworks explosions of colour & joyful moments of reflection and making memories, traditions, creativity, ceremonies, feasts, rituals, expressed through dancing & signing around a full moon drumming circle with family, friends, the whole community occasionally festival. Celebrating milestones of community spirit, pride Representing your Town, State or Country of Origin. Reflection and remembering where you come from and what you went through to get to what you have achieved in life. My Artwork is called Festival of Joyful Colour. The paintings has Gold throughout and represents celebration, uniting as one nation. Celebration, spirit of the universe soul, mind & body. And loving each other in harmony. Respecting the land and elders past and present among us. Standing tall and proud to be a Queensland.
Photographer: Quinten Swaffield
Lost but now found, Vote Now
Artist: Ronelle Reid
Artist Location: Cedar Vale
Medium: oil on wood panel, 2021
Dimensions: 60 x 2 x 50 cm
Artist Statement:
Inspired by my love of animals, I create detailed works that explore the relationships between species and their changing habitats.
By combining my naturalist style, quirky compositions and pairing animals who don’t coexist, I invite people to learn more about vulnerable species and to do more to protect them.
When considering the theme of the award “Paint the town” and the question -“ How do you celebrate?” I really had to think about what I celebrate, which led to the composition of my entry for the award.
With Australia leading the way for extinction the rediscovery of thought to be extinct species has to be an event that makes you stop and celebrate. My painting “Lost but now found” depicts two Queensland species listed as extinct and recently rediscovered. The bridled nail-tailed wallaby and the night parrot. Still alive and not relegated to the dusty museum shelves just yet!
Photographer: Ronelle Reid
Millennium Esplanade, Vote Now
Artist: Wendy Bache
Artist Location: Tannum Sands
Medium: Oil on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 90 x 3.5 x 120 cm
Artist Statement:
The beach here in Tannum Sands is just the most gorgeous place. I love to hang out around here. The gardens are lush and tropical, there are so many places for picnics and bbq’s. How lucky we are, to have this in our back yard. I think the Highlight of Tannum Sands is definitely this place, if you haven’t been here, then you haven’t been to Tannum.
Photographer: Wendy Bache
My Country
Artist: Netta Loogatha
Artist Location: Gununa, Mornington Island
Medium: Acrylic on Belgian linen, 2021
Dimensions: 91 x 5 x 91 cm
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. This is the place where the Dingo came on his journey from island to island, we saw him with our own very eyes, half man and half dog. It’s also a place where the love stones are found. They bring lasting and faithful love to the one who owns them.
Photographer: Mornington Island Art MIART
LET’S PAINT THE TOWN RED, Vote Now
Artist: BRUCE GRIFFITHS
Artist Location: KLEINTON
Medium: WATERCOLOUR, 2021
Dimensions: 39 x 5 x 27 cm
Artist Statement:
LET’S PAINT THE TOWN RED – 39X27 – Watercolour Bruce Griffiths
As a watercolourist, I paint traditional realism leaning towards impressionism. I paint what I see but more importantly I paint what I feel about what I see. Another detour on another journey, but I concluded that as all roads eventually head in the one far off distance, I put brush aside & sat down to ponder my contribution.
Looking upon my watercolour palette and its permanence of pigments in arrays of warm & cool it had to be an exploration of reds. With a background of wet in wet warms, I teased up paints of deferring ilk to drip off the painting but not from brushes but rather from celebratory flags. It seemed logical & the flags would drip colour like waxing apples oozing over mellow. They align but differ in their strength & vibrance. A celebration of the colour red.
Photographer: BRUCE GRIFFITHS
Garden celebration, Vote Now
Artist: Ilona Demecs
Artist Location: Imbil
Medium: Handwoven tapestry, 2021
Dimensions: 56 x 1.5 x 68 cm
Artist Statement:
Through the notion of going around the weft with coloured wool, this work honours the craft of tapestry weaving both as a technique as well as an expression. Exploring the possibilities of painting with wool, I crafted a picture that captures a celebration of the land which nurtures us with its prospects in the Mary Valley. The renaissance tapestry design frames the image with a native passionfruit vine border and invites the viewer to come to the party and enjoy the celebration.
Photographer: Fine-line Photography Fine-line Photography
Number Cakes, Vote Now
Artist: Emma Thorp
Artist Location: Dundowran Beach
Medium: Coloured Pencil over Acrylic on Paper, 2021
Dimensions: 69 x 0.29999999999999999 x 47 cm
Artist Statement:
I love to make cards and cakes for my children on their birthdays. Nothing too tricky, I am no great baker. The kids tell me what colour and flavour they would like and are often involved in the decoration. This image shows an assortment of the cakes I have made for my children over the years. Because my son was born very prematurely, I made him a zero cake on the day he should have been born and went on from there. Some were for my son, some were for my daughter. The last ones were almost identical once they realised that chocolate cake is the best type of cake. They don’t much care for the number cakes anymore, but I miss them. It is so much easier to identify how old they were in old birthday photos!
Photographer: Emma Thorp
Inside Adventure 1
Artist: Kym Barrett
Artist Location: Chatsworth
Medium: oils and cold wax medium on board, 2021
Dimensions: 55 x 4 x 55 cm
Artist Statement:
INSIDE ADVENTURE emerged organically out of the painting process of building up and breaking down layers using oils, oilsticks and other drawing media. It was an exciting adventure, (a celebration even!) with rapid gestural mark-making, quick paint applications.
Not the usual way a person might celebrate but during Covid 19 restrictions in 2020, the studio solitude was the perfect place to have fun!
I’m not a party girl. Never have been. No painting the town red for me!
This work can be seen as an internal landscape, while tethered to memories of my creek at the bottom of my property, where I regularly sit and draw. That I can do this, is cause for daily gratitude and honouring.
My abstract vocabulary of colour, texture and mark expresses my lively connection to place, as well as a traversing of the mysterious, ambiguous terrain in the process of both painting and living.
Photographer: Kym Barrett
River Town, Vote Now
Artist: Kylie Stevens
Artist Location: Pine Mountain
Medium: Bremer River water, copper leaf, charcoal, earth and acrylic paint on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 92 x 3.5 x 92 cm
Artist Statement:
River Town is a celebration of my hometown and the river it is built around. Creating artworks is how I celebrate, in River Town I have I have painted the town, by incorporating the major streets and bridges into the work, and by celebrating my town in paint.
River water thins my paint, allowing it to pool and travel across the canvas. With the addition of hand ground ochres and charcoal the canvas is marked; then, I map the river in copper leaf. Using the natural elements of river water and earth, the work contains the essence of the place it represents.
I am an Ipswich-based artist working with and within the environment. It is my aim to showcase the beauty and alchemy of nature, inspiring in the viewer a deeper respect for and desire to protect our precious natural spaces.
Photographer: Kylie Stevens
Litorally, Vote Now
Artist: Zela Bissett
Artist Location: Gympie
Medium: Wool felt and embroidery thread on cotton, 2020
Dimensions: 120 x 38 x 65 cm
Artist Statement:
Literally refers to the mission of this wearable garment, as it is designed to be an article of Armour for the warrior who defends the litoral zone, the section of the sea shore between the high and low tide. This is a area which is regularly painted by the salt waters of the ocean. The salty waters nurture a range of squishy juicy life forms which constantly party in the damp sand.
Photographer: Zela Bissett
Tallulah, Vote Now
Artist: Gayle Fleming
Artist Location: GOODNA
Medium: Acrylic on Paper, 2021
Dimensions: 29 x 0 x 21.5 cm
Artist Statement:
I am the vase on the table.
My name is Tallulah and I have a wild side.
Much like the flowers in me.
By day I am content, quietly reflecting on my role to display myself.
Tonight I dance on the table, celebrating my freedom.
I don’t need an audience, I am totally me.
When I put on my dancing shoes, I am the total surprise package.
Again energised, I dance till exhausted.
Happy to slip into my vase, secretly content.
This ritual I love and wait till darkness approaches.
To again be, wild Tallulah.
Photographer: Gayle Fleming
Ode to Victorious II, Vote Now
Artist: Rachel Wolfe
Artist Location: Redlynch
Medium: Watercolour on paper, 2021
Dimensions: 76 x 0.10000000000000001 x 56 cm
Artist Statement:
I am a survivor of domestic violence and a post traumatic stress disorder warrior. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, ‘Ode to Victorious II’ is a symbolic celebration of my new beginning. For I am a wolf who cannot be tamed or controlled and I embrace my life transformation. I will no longer hide in shame or fear as I now celebrate every day of my beautiful and peaceful life.
Photographer: Rachel Wolfe
Eucalpytian Glad Rags
Artist: Anne Mossman
Artist Location: Elanora
Medium: Coloured Porcelain, 2021
Dimensions: 26 x 22 x 22 cm
Artist Statement:
Mossman’s inspiration is drawn from the disparate colours on some of the eucalypt tree trunks that surround her hinterland environment. In the summer the eucalyptus bark peels off in sheaths to reveal nude like patches of new ‘skin’ which is invariably smooth and lighter coloured than other parts of the bark. The contrast in colours and tones is wondrous and provides an ever changing visual feast. This vessel purposely exaggerates the colour palette as a celebration of Australia’s iconic trees.
Photographer: Anne Mossman
Recognition, Vote Now
Artist: Ann White
Artist Location: Pomona
Medium: Acrylic and collage on board, 2021
Dimensions: 45.5 x 2 x 61 cm
Artist Statement:
Many regional towns are competing to be on the map, drawing attention to an identity enhanced through public art. Murals and street art flourish to celebrate events, mark occasions, unite residents with local themes and attract appreciative visitors. This sanctioned art has been agreed by those who commission and those who make it, arguably a celebration in itself that they collaborate on an image to grace a location. Then there are others who paint public statements – bold, shadowy creatives or malcontents with textas and spraycans, demanding to be noticed, expressing their ‘voice’ in a world where being ‘heard’ can be difficult. Across this visual spectrum, all are seeking recognition. Throughout the sanctioned and guerrilla mark-making, marvellous art can be found amongst the less-than and the dross. Categorising which is which is contentious. I wish to credit the guerrilla mark-makers of Nambour and other towns for those elements referenced in ‘Recognition’.
Photographer: Ann White
David Invited a Few Friends Over (after lockdown ended), Vote Now
Artist: Marlies Oakley
Artist Location: BUNDABERG
Medium: 3D Hancut Collage, 2020
Dimensions: 82 x 4 x 62 cm
Artist Statement:
How we dream of flying to Europe to party with our overseas friends and families, but we know the reality. Parties and celebrations have been planned, rearranged and cancelled, all at short notice. Social responsibility is the mantra of the new normal, as we try to do the right thing, with its confusing and sometimes conflicting messages.
It started as a quite get together as David invited a few of his fellow artistic friends over (after lockdown had ended of course), but things got a bit out of hand when JD was invited, which was hardly a big surprise.
You can see for yourself where it ended up, but I guess these things can happen to those who have remained still and silent for a few hundred years.
I just hope we’re free again soon and David invites us to his next “get together”.
Photographer: Marlies Oakley
Birthday fun at St Helens Beach, Vote Now
Artist: Charlene Attard
Artist Location: Mackay North
Medium: Collograph print on watercolour paper, 2021
Dimensions: 62 x 0.29999999999999999 x 42 cm
Artist Statement:
To say that my daughter loves the beach would be an understatement; in her eyes, a family celebration coupled with a beautiful beach on a sunny day; nothing beats this in North Queensland. Digitally capturing this moment becomes a fond bitter-sweet memory that resembles but can never be as true as it was; removed from time and place. Traditionally printed, the artwork itself becomes a memory of the collograph plate, nostalgically rustic and appealing of times past. Precious moments such as my daughter’s 4th birthday though fondly remembered, capturing the experience is elusive – the created image will always be a memory of a time that can never be again.
Photographer: Charlene Attard
The Royal
Artist: LeAnne Vincent
Artist Location: Sadliers Crossing
Medium: Pigment print on Photo Rag, 2021
Dimensions: 52 x 0.2 x 75 cm
Artist Statement:
The outback town of Winton asserts a festive atmosphere ideal for celebration, with a main street lined with carnival lights, lively hotels, and The Royal theatre, Australia’s most iconic open-air cinema, and one of only two still operating.
Constructed in 1938 and still standing triumphantly, this building has largely escaped graffiti, bar a solitary, roughly painted face, aptly reminiscent of the Greek theatre masks of comedy and tragedy. The simple architecture of this shed-like structure of corrugated iron walls without a roof, adds to the quirky ambiance that serves to recreate the excitement of the silver screen era in the outback.
A chance moment led me to this experience on a recent road trip from Ipswich to Winton. On a cold evening, with freshly cooked popcorn in hand, I celebrated being in the outback, with John Wayne in The Desert Trail, set against the Winton evening sky.
Photographer: LeAnne Vincent
Give Me Gidgee, Vote Now
Artist: Rhondda Scott
Artist Location: Tambo
Medium: oil on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 48 x 4 x 22 cm
Artist Statement:
The road to our local dump is one of my favourite painting places. The contrast of the tree colours to the earth excite me. I have started using ochre gathered from Tambo’s ochre fields to create my own paints and incorporate them into my work to create the truth that is the outback. The effort to crush and mix rocks to create paint places me even closer to the subjects I paint. It puts the earth into my work and pulls my work back to its origins.
Photographer: Rhondda Scott
Everywhere, Vote Now
Artist: Jasna Spiranovic
Artist Location: Hollywell
Medium: Acrylic and oil on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 90 x 2 x 70 cm
Artist Statement:
When the Annual Music Festival
Occurs each year in the village of my art studio there is music everywhere.
This painting depicts the excitement of community, nature and musicians coming together celebrating the sounds on the streets, gardens and community hall , hence , ” Everywhere” .
Photographer: Jasna Spiranovic
Happiness
Artist: Vicki Buttrose
Artist Location: Warwick
Medium: Acrylic, 2021
Dimensions: 40 x 3 x 50 cm
Artist Statement:
Using colour rather than painting the town, I have painted the emotion you feel when you celebrate. The happy glow with bubbles of excitement and whisps of freedom that you experience in those moments of elation and celebration.
Photographer: Vicki Buttrose
Festival Fever, Vote Now
Artist: Kym Tabulo
Artist Location: MOOLOOLAH VALLEY
Medium: Digital, 2021
Dimensions: 64 x 1 x 46 cm
Artist Statement:
Woodforida is a party town for the week-long festival, that once was and will be again. This artwork captures the energy of the celebration, which climaxes with a New Year’s Eve party. My digital collage combines photographs I took at the festival with digital drawing. I use an XP-Pen drawing tablet, Photoshop, and filters to blend several layers into a final image. The process enables me to generate art that reflects the excitement of the event in all its glorious colours, especially red.
Photographer: Kym Tabulo
TOWN AND COUNTRY
Artist: Brian Hatch
Artist Location: Cleveland
Medium: OIL on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 76 x 4 x 100 cm
Artist Statement:
The theme ‘Paint the Town’ leaves an artist with many options. My interpretation is to do just that, namely paint a town as perched on a hill in the countryside using a contemporary approach. The blocks of colour represent shops and buildings stretched along a ridge with fields suggested by the larger yellow shapes below. The theme suggests painting the town red but instead I painted what can be interpreted as sky in orange/red to indicate the heat of an Australian summer.
The painting had three stages. Firstly blocking in the shapes of the town, then altering the colours to free up the image. The last stage was to modify the colours by scumbling lighter tones over the previous colours to unify the whole painting. The under painting was blocked in using acrylics and then overpainting with oils to secure a more intense paint effect.
This then is my version of “Paint the Town”.
Photographer: Brian Hatch
Sandbeach songlines
Artist: Samantha Hobson
Artist Location: Lockhart River
Medium: acrylic on canvas, 2020
Dimensions: 61 x 3 x 106 cm
Artist Statement:
Songline’ is a term that is often used to define relationships between stories, ceremony and sacred sites; the knowledge that is passed down through oral tradition, song, dance and more recently, fine art painting. Sharing these stories brings the community together in celebration.
‘Sandbeach Songlines’ captures a contemplative mood. For Samantha, this begins with a creamy white background representing the pristine sands of the Great Barrier Reef, north of Lockhart River where the artist lives. Fractured lines bleed into this tranquil background. The artist often reflects how such opposing forces echo her own turbulent life, delicately balanced between a sense of apprehension and acceptance. ‘Sandbeach Songlines’ is a gestural landscape which epitomises the inseparable dualities of land and sea, culture and identity, time and healing.
Photographer: Mick Richards
Ephemeral Lagoon, Branch Creek, Chinchilla
Artist: HELEN DENNIS
Artist Location: CHINCHILLA
Medium: Acrylic on canvas, 2020
Dimensions: 61 x 3 x 91 cm
Artist Statement:
Celebrations for those who choose the rural pathway are centred around the whimsy of Mother Nature. One season may be abundant, the next woefully lacking. When she chooses to be indulgent her generosity is shown in the abundant blooming of the land. When she chooses to be frugal, there are cataclysmic consequences for all.
The ephemeral lagoons which fill from our property’s creek are witness to celebrations of life enduring. Indigenous ‘Trade Tracks’ followed the watercourses and lagoons, providing substance, trade goods, tools and shelter. Early European settlers used the waters for irrigation and livestock. Today the ephemeral lagoon is a refugee for weary feathered travellers; animals foraging for succulent grasses and mussels; insects and frogs which add to the night-time chorus. It is our place of quiet contemplation and celebration, our grandchildren’s playground and gateway to the Natural world, and finally, our refuge from an ever increasingly confusing world.
Photographer: HELEN DENNIS
Off The Wall, Vote Now
Artist: Cathy Condon
Artist Location: Gympie
Medium: mixed media on plasterboard, 2021
Dimensions: 94 x 3 x 90 cm
Artist Statement:
I created a temporary walk-in canvas in a former office space the owners gave me for three months. The permission to paint on the walls, gave me the freedom to develop an immersive canvas experience. I installed 12 large stretched blank canvases, then worked right to left, painting the entire room stenciling with vintage lace and using paint. The canvases were included as part of the wall. These works sat immersed in the space yet remained individual works. There was no frame, there was no single look, just complete immersion. It was a pure celebration of painting.
Off The Wall is a piece of the wall that was cut down when the three months ended.
“There is a beautiful freedom and a joy to express yourself as an artist in the entirety of a room. I absolutely loved the scale of this project and celebrated it by painting my heart out.”
Photographer: Cathy Condon
Celebration of the bridge, Vote Now
Artist: Tarja Ahokas
Artist Location: Ninderry
Medium: Acrylic on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 45.200000000000003 x 3.7000000000000002 x 45.700000000000003 cm
Artist Statement:
Artwork is often projected onto bridges for various celebrations.
My new bridge, built over a ditch, leading to my studio is not as grand as the Brisbane Story Bridge but it also has its own story and I wanted to “paint the town” by celebrating my bridge with my own colours and imagery.
Photographer: Tarja Ahokas
Maleny, Vote Now
Artist: Sophie Thyer
Artist Location: Caloundra
Medium: Watercolour and Gouache, 2021
Dimensions: 30 x 1 x 45 cm
Artist Statement:
My family and I relocated to Sunshine Coast during the Covid-19 pandemic period. Lockdowns and snap border closures mean that we needed to stay local and appreciate everyday life without travelling overseas, or even interstate. I was inspired to paint this work to capture a glimpse of natural beauty in my town. I can’t help but wonder, why is nature so therapeutic? Beaches, Hinterland, mountains, and subtropical rainforest- Thank you. You have made my memory during the pandemic much more beautiful!
Photographer: Sophie Thyer
Summer Clover
Artist: CAITLIN BRODERICK
Artist Location: Ironpot
Medium: Acrylic on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 61 x 3.5 x 61 cm
Artist Statement:
Where I live, there are many black cockatoos that fly around. They are a beautiful, graceful bird, with a distinct call that can be heard echoing in the coastal breeze. They glide effortlessly in the salty ocean air, calling to each other. They bring an energy that tends to be celebratory, as if they are celebrating their home and their free spirit. I think they perfectly represent our coastal home and the happiness and contentment felt near the beach. I brought in vibrant pops of pinks and blues to bring forth their wild and celebratory energy. Her name reflects her energy and the empowerment she brings. Summer Clover.
Photographer: CAITLIN BRODERICK
I Bring You Gifts,
Artist: Maharlina Gorospe-Lockie
Artist Location: Palm Cove
Medium: Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 88.5 x 3.5 x 48.600000000000001 cm
Artist Statement:
Maharlina Gorospe-Lockie’s work expresses the beauty of landscape while exploring tensions between stasis and change, nostalgia and threat, celebration and despoilment. “I Bring You Gifts” invites the viewer to immerse themselves in water, forest and sky, to find their own sense of scale, time, and joy.
Photographer: Daniela Vavrova
Jaded Landscape 2, Vote Now
Artist: Robert Natoli
Artist Location: Kureelpa
Medium: Oil on Board, 2020
Dimensions: 35 x 10 x 118 cm
Artist Statement:
Places, as much as people; reflect the activity, care and interactions in which they exist. Everything is interconnected and reliant on the other for survival.
Our landscapes often bear the brunt of human activity. It’s our choice if that activity harms or enhances the sacred grounds on which we walk.
Photographer: Robert Natoli
Looking Forward, Vote Now
Artist: Margaret Goldsmith
Artist Location: Mt. Tambourine
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 64 x 64 x 5 cm
Artist Statement:
Margaret’s preferred painting style is abstract expressionism using acrylic and oils, also mixed media and collage with drawing. Her studies included Ceramics, Sculpture , Bachelor of Arts at Queensland University Technology. in the early 1980’s
She is fully professional and had set up her studio on Tamborine Mt over thirty years ago, her name is very familiar on the catalogues of prestigious galleries around Queensland and New South Wales. Her works are included through Australia, New Zealand and many countries
Through my paintings and glass work I attempt to capture a language that does not know stillness, only motion. ”
“My work is full of happy predictions, vital paint colours, refreshing and vibrant moments of intense pleasure,
The uncontrollable happiness of a dance on canvas or paper. My aim is to simplify the figure further. I paint series of many different subject matter.
Photographer: Margaret Goldsmith
Reflecting on Family, Vote Now
Artist: Colleen Helmore
Artist Location: Burnett Heads
Medium: Watercolour, 2021
Dimensions: 54 x 0 x 34 cm
Artist Statement:
Covid has interrupted many family gatherings and when your only granddaughter who lives in Perth comes to visit for the first time in nearly two years the joy is indescribable. My ‘Paint the Town’ moment comes with a quiet reflection on the joy of having nurtured a family who want to visit us and share the joy of their family. Every single moment with them is a celebration and when they leave and go back to their own lives, I can quietly glance at this painting and smile at the memories.
Photographer: Colleen Helmore
Bushwalk
Artist: Jasna Spiranovic
Artist Location: Hollywell
Medium: Oil on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 93 x 4 x 77 cm
Artist Statement:
I celebrate the little things in life by going for walks in nature.
This painting depicts a walk I did one morning where I felt I was walking in clouds one moment and then the forest the next moments. These Spaces of nature not only calm my mind but make me feel appreciate nature .
Photographer: Jasna Spiranovic
Gateway
Artist: Kym Barrett
Artist Location: Chatsworth
Medium: oils, mixed media on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 120 x 4 x 120 cm
Artist Statement:
I’m not a party girl. Never have been. What makes me feel most alive and uplifted is the simplicity of being in Nature, alone. No painting the town red for me.
I live in open hilly bushland beside a rainforested creek. That fact is cause for daily celebration, and especially during Covid 19 restrictions, it was a source of emotional and spiritual sustenance.
GATEWAY emerged as an abstract expression of the animating and sustaining life-force that flows at my place, and in all of Nature. In all our busyness and distractions, it is a reminder of our need to connect with and celebrate the green places. When we pay attention, listen and just be there, it can be a portal to slowing down, breathing deeply and feeling joy. Our hard edges soften and our difficulties subside.
Photographer: Kym Barrett
Human to Humas, Vote Now
Artist: Kuweni Dias Mendis
Artist Location: Beechmont
Medium: Pastel and Gouache on Hahnemuhle Paper, 2021
Dimensions: 106 x 1 x 77 cm
Artist Statement:
The words Humus ( soil) and Human ( earthly beings) comes from the same source, the Latin origins meaning from the earth. We eventually return to the soil, the earth and to the ground. Death is that humble moment of returning back to the Soil, the pregnant void and the untapped potential.
Celebrating and bidding farewell to a dearly departed in my Sri Lankan culture is to finally take the cremation Ashes to the river. Ashes are taken to that place in the river where the fresh water meets salt water. The spirit of the river takes the soul home to its source. In this ritual these ashes become the sediment of the river, its a beautiful celebration of human becoming the humus. It’s is a sacred moment where we witness the soul weaving its way to the beginning of time, the interconnectedness and interdependerbility between death and birth
Photographer: Kuweni Dias Mendis
Fa La La La, La La La La, Vote Now
Artist: Kym Tabulo
Artist Location: MOOLOOLAH VALLEY
Medium: Digital Photograph, 2021
Dimensions: 16.5 x 2 x 11.699999999999999 cm
Artist Statement:
It’s the season to be jolly, and the decorations are ready to deck the halls. Boughs of holly, Tiggers, stars and feathers will festoon the house, and the Christmas tree will be laden with gifts. Our Christmas is always a family event full of laughter and love. With the focus on Tigger’s nose and then the explosion of colours and textures, I took this photograph because it represents the fun and joy generated every year.
Photographer: Kym Tabulo
Lets have music and dance, Vote Now
Artist: Tarja Ahokas
Artist Location: Ninderry
Medium: Acrylic on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 40 x 3.5 x 50 cm
Artist Statement:
I grew up with dancing being part of celebrations whether it was birthdays, weddings, New Year Eve or Midsummer Eve…
Always music and dancing…..
Lets celebrate Life…lets paint the town by having music and dancing…..
Photographer: Tarja Ahokas
Reflections of Anticipation, Vote Now
Artist: Stacey Bennett
Artist Location: Jimboomba
Medium: Pastels, 2021
Dimensions: 60 x 0.01 x 89 cm
Artist Statement:
When I think about celebration it encompasses a night out on the town. The suspense of the lead-up as excitement fills the air. Envisaging what awaits. Getting dolled up and feeling on top of the world.
“Paint the Town” was taken symbolically and literally. The focal point of this piece showcases a gigantic woman towering upon her city. The city is represented in grey tones to highlight how they are typically seen as concrete jungles, yet she is vivid and bold in colour. Speckles of this colour represent how the city is reflective of self and she is reflected in the city. In her anticipation, she is literally on top of her world, applying her war paint of the night while painting the town.
She has the light in her eye and the street at her feet. She looks to the now and the wonder of what comes next.
Photographer: Stacey Bennett
Granite Country
Artist: Jennifer Redmond
Artist Location: Highvale
Medium: Acrylic on board, 2021
Dimensions: 70 x 100 cm
Artist Statement:
The Tablelands and the Granite Belt portray a ‘sense of silence’ a ‘sense of beauty’ and a ‘sense of place’ where the trees and boulders stand before you reaching for the sky.
There is an essence which is magic.
Photographer: Jennifer Redmond
A Reason to Celebrate
Artist: Pamela Finlay
Artist Location: Bowen
Medium: Mixed Media on Watercolour Paper, 2021
Dimensions: 56 x 2 x 76 cm
Artist Statement:
Art is a process of exploration. Today I might see something fresh and new in the landscape that I didn’t see yesterday. Every day is a reason to celebrate the diversity of what I see. Today might be windy, tomorrow may be calm and these elements can affect the natural world immensely. Leaves can be blown off trees and tomorrow sees a new cycle of growth emerging. The Scrub Almond Tree comes to mind when I think of this, the colour, size and shape of the different leaves on the same tree. The Red Tailed Cockatoos enjoy devouring fruit from this tree and set about leaving litter from their munchings on the local beachfront avenue of trees. To see them flying across the sky is a sight to behold. The ground throughout Bowen is a carpet of red leaves after their onslaught and afterwards fresh new growth of bright green leaves appear.
Photographer: Pamela Finlay
The Eye of The Heart, Vote Now
Artist: India Collins
Artist Location: Edge Hill
Medium: Textiles new and recycled, PVC, 2021
Dimensions: 120 x 5 x 105 cm
Artist Statement:
The Eye of The Heart
This woven work speaks to the notion that we must learn to see, think and speak from our heart.
This work is a celebration of letting go, following our dreams, believing in ourselves, taking care of our bodies, learning to say NO when it feels right, learning to say YES even when we’re fearful, questioning our self- doubt and reveling in the knowledge that if we live intuitively, we can achieve a more spiritually fulfilled life. There should be nothing stopping us from reaching our full potential and embarking on a path towards self- actualization. Go for Gold.
Photographer: India Collins
No. 79 (The hummingbird cake), Vote Now
Artist: Majeeda Cox
Artist Location: Cooroy
Medium: Acrylic on stretched canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 40.600000000000001 x 4 x 50.799999999999997 cm
Artist Statement:
I had a huge party for my last birthday and I have great memories of it. Most years I like to celebrate on a smaller scale, though – calm, simple and manageable. A usual birthday involves me and a few loved ones sharing a cake. My favourite cakes are Hummingbird and red velvet, and I like to make them myself.
Photographer: Majeeda Cox
Abuzz
Artist: Jasna Spiranovic
Artist Location: Hollywell
Medium: Acrylic and oil on canvas, 2020
Dimensions: 90 x 2 x 70 cm
Artist Statement:
Where I have my art studio the village becomes “Abuzz” each year for weeks before the annual Music Festival.
This painting depicts the energy
Before the festival in the community combining all sounds of nature and everyday life before the musicians and crowds enter the space.
Photographer: Jasna Spiranovic
Dark Skies
Artist: Donna Glass
Artist Location: Bunya Mountains
Medium: Digital Print In Frame, 2020
Dimensions: 100 x 15 x 75 cm
Artist Statement:
Living In The Beautiful Dark Skies Of The Bunya Mountains Is An Absolute Privilege
Home Of The Wakka Wakka people With Huge Towering Ancient Bunya Trees
With Owls Hooting And Dingoes Howling Makes Foer A surreal Setting For Night Shots.
Photographer: Donna Glass
Pink Sky Delight, Vote Now
Artist: Jassy watson
Artist Location: Innes Park
Medium: Ink, Acrylic & Oil on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 95 x 4 x 95 cm
Artist Statement:
This painting created with inks, acrylics and a splash of oils is inspired by one of the many vantage points of the only hill in Bundaberg – ‘The Hummock’, otherwise known as ‘Burning Mountain’ by the Tarilbelung people – it was also once an active volcano. The hill is now dotted with houses and communication towers. One of the most stunning views is the hot pink sky as the sun sets behind the Hummock, the old of the landscape and the new of technology and modern life set against each other. This location is such an iconic spot in our regional town of Bundaberg and is steeped in ancient history. I felt to paint the town was to paint the only vantage point that offers a 360 degree in FULL colour – as iridiscent as the landscape itself. Merv Moriarty taught me that the ‘Landscape was our greatest teacher on colour’, I took this to the canvas.
Photographer: Jassy watson
Birthday celebration of 2021, Vote Now
Artist: Tarja Ahokas
Artist Location: Ninderry
Medium: Acrylic on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 30.5 x 3.7000000000000002 x 25 cm
Artist Statement:
I celebrate my Birthday each year by producing an Artwork.
I like to be inspired by something I see or experience that day usually by going on a day trip somewhere.
This year due to the lockdown I went to the far corner or our 8000m2 property and pulled out lot of weeds in the pouring rain. I could have danced in the rain but the ground was too muddy and soft, so I let the weeds dance on my canvas instead.
This was the way I “painted the town”…celebrating those weeds that inspired me.
Photographer: Tarja Ahokas
You Beauty!
Artist: Gail Meyer
Artist Location: FRENCHVILLE
Medium: Acrylic on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 40 x 1 x 40 cm
Artist Statement:
You Beauty !
Hoo roo to the big dry. Send her down Hughie! Farmers, graziers, gemstone fossickers and country folk alike toss away their laid back manner and feel uplifted and celebrate the arrival of the rain with a huge shindig or maybe a private celebration.
Rock up, raise a glass, have a cold one.
Here is the rain, the refreshment to the land; seeds sprouting, crops growing, wild flowers exploding, and gem stones gleaming on the wet ground. The big wet.
Party time, true gold, good times – time to paint the town!
Woop it up, acknowlegde and honour the good times.
Photographer: Gail Meyer
Tree Poem – II,
Artist: Katie Harris-MacLeod
Artist Location: Diddillibah
Medium: Bloodwood Tree Sap on 300gsm Watercolour Paper., 2021
Dimensions: 76 x 0 x 56 cm
Artist Statement:
Tree Poem – II is one of a series of works from an on-going project entitled, Sap Works.
Sap Works is an intimate study of the interwoven connectivities between bodies of trees and human beings, specifically the female body.
This work intricately studies Bloodwood trees and the sap that they excrete by mapping
stressed Bloodwood trees across the Sunshine Coast region and stress within my own body.
These ‘stress exchanges’ become a series of intimate durational and ritualistic performances, derived from my ancestral lineage to Celtic/ Gaelic culture, landscape and language. Enigmatic sap pigment drawings are captured on
tra handmade paper, a poetic exchange between body and tree.
Ogham, is the ancient Celtic language of the trees, and it is this ancestral knowledge that has been the conduit connecting me to this landscape.
Sap Worksis a process of re-connecting and understanding. Cross cultural narratives give meaning to my transitory belonging.
Photographer: Katie Harris-MacLeod
Sedimentary, Vote Now
View Digital Artwork Artist: Jason Nelson
Artist Location: Witheren
Medium: Interactive Digital Artwork, 2021
Dimensions: 80 x 10 x 120 cm
Artist Statement:
After bushfires swept through the Illinbah Valley, new layers of geology and geometry were revealed. Layers of blue-tinted rock, red volcanic soil, burned grass trees, green shooting eucalyptus, yellowed grass lining the mountain slopes. The Coomera river snaking across the landscape. And while the fires themselves were devastating to many, including those closest to us, there is a beauty in the regeneration of nature, a celebration of creatures and wildlife returning, layering the valley with newly born narratives. Sedimentary is an interactive digital artwork replicating our region’s post-bushfire landscapes. This artwork uses generative coding, and forever changing sediments of color and geometry, surfaces and lines to create a journey through our valley. To us, the notion of a “town” isn’t built from streets and houses. Instead our town is born from the soil and geology, the trees and grasses and rivers. It’s a many layered place, painted by erosion and sediment, fire and growth. The artwork is here: http://dpoetry.com/sedimentary/ Use your mouse to move and adjust and rethink the generative valley.
Photographer: Jason Nelson
THE WHITSUNDAYS – FULL OF COLOURS, Vote Now
Artist: Claudia Gray
Artist Location: Airlie Beach
Medium: MIXED MEDIA, 2020
Dimensions: 43.299999999999997 x 1.5 x 36 cm
Artist Statement:
The theme ‘Paint The Town’, in my art piece, I have managed to capture a joyous, happy artwork where I am expressing the beauty of my town.
This painting is bursting with a plethora of colours.
Enjoy viewing my art work.
Photographer: Claudia Gray
To the Citizens of Paradise
View Digital Artwork Artist: Bianca Tainsh
Artist Location: WEYBA DOWNS
Medium: Digital print on Hahnemühle Bamboo paper, graphite, frame made from sustainable timber, wood chips from land cleared for a shopping mall expansion, online video 1:46min., 2021
Dimensions: 65 x 3.5 x 58 cm
Artist Statement:
With a practice grounded in social change, open-disciplinary artist Bianca Tainsh generates spaces for reflection on social dilemma, with suggestive cues to self-evolve. Her work To the Citizens of Paradise was conceptualised as a response to the exodus of urban inhabitants to idyllic rural locations, in the wake of COVID-19. As towns swell, commercial development is accelerated. And this multidimensional work is an entreaty to these new neighbours to discard urban penchants for convenient consumerism and celebrate a life elevated by locality – our beautiful biosphere and village culture. As a development of her own recent return to ‘paradise’ Tainsh’s more current works seek to reframe the magnificence of the wilderness. At the same time, she avoids romantic and empirical approaches, and comes from a place where primal connections become fundamental for the individual to identify with our true nature, as part of the whole.
Photographer: Bianca Tainsh
The Prose, Vote Now
Artist: Luisa Manea
Artist Location: Mount Sheridan
Medium: Clay/Pottery, 2021
Dimensions: 30 x 15 x 18 cm
Artist Statement:
The Prose is my method of turning a sculpture into a painting using paint on a 3D form. Where the person is the party and script dances all over the form, starting to document a life as they progress through ageing. We are all born as a blank canvas, no markings or history, silky smooth, sweet smelling skin made of soft rolls to cuddle, with age we start to unfurled and our skin starts to tell a story of life we lead. From the injuries, scars, piercing, and the tattoos we can’t live with out, that blank canvas starts to become our original painting. When we walk past someone we don’t know, we see a body but we don’t see the life they have live, here in my sculpture I bring the two together. “The Prose” the party of life.
Photographer: Luisa Manea
medicinae crescente de terra I (medicine growing from our earth I)
Artist: Cara-Ann Simpson
Artist Location: Haden
Medium: ink infused metal, 2021
Dimensions: 76.2 x 0.5 x 76.2 cm
Artist Statement:
medicinae crescente de terra I’ celebrates returning to my heart’s home: the joy, fulfilment and healing nature of place. Here I am grounded, deeply connected to the earth and sky.
The specimen is gumbi gumbi (Pittosporum angustifolium) from my family’s farm located on the lands of the Jarowair people of the Wakka Wakka nation. Gumbi gumbi is a beautiful weeping tree – lyrical, medicinal and a peacock within the bush.
In the title, seen within the image as a spectrograph (soundwave), I remind myself that all medicine comes from our earth in some form or another. This work is part of “Furari Flores” (Stealing Flowers) is a vanitas series of one-on-one plant interviews. The titles are spoken in Latin and translated into spectrographs. There is an irony of speaking a dead language to plucked flowers/fruits, now also dying, and leaving only the visual representation, the movement of sound left behind.
Photographer: Cara-Ann Simpson
Seeds of creativity, Vote Now
Artist: Shelley Pisani
Artist Location: Avenell Heights
Medium: gel plate printing, screen printing, hand stitching, acrylic and gold leaf on paper, 2021
Dimensions: 56 x 0 x 38 cm
Artist Statement:
Over the last 2 years I have been delivering a project across Central Queensland that has been building the capacity of visual artists, encouraging new ways of thinking. As I travelled for this project I saw the seed pods of the Illawarra Flame Tree regularly and to me it became a symbol of the fertile collaborations being created. I started drawing the pods in March 2020 at a residency near Baralaba and have continued to explore their shapes through printmaking.
As this project nears its end, I have been reflecting on the joy that the moments of seeing artists thrive has given me. The 7 seed pods represent the 7 regions in Central Queensland where I have been working. They are stitched together embodying the bonds created between artists and regions. Glints of golden moments that have seeded new work, new collaborations and inspiration – a cause for celebration.
Photographer: Shelley Pisani
Self-Portrait, Vote Now
Artist: Elizabeth Graetz
Artist Location: Dalby
Medium: Textile, 2020
Dimensions: 88 x 1 x 64 cm
Artist Statement:
Celebrating the colour of life- the effervescent highs and the dispiriting lows make me who I am today. Over the past few years, I have battled demons no-one else can see and still hold my head high, colouring my perspective on life. I live in a small town of limited views and understanding and look to reflect a sense that today is all we have- tomorrow is never a promise. So live in the here and now, celebrate what we have and reflect light and wonder on the world around us!
Photographer: Elizabeth Graetz
Precious, Vote Now
Artist: Gabi Sturman
Artist Location: Yungaburra
Medium: Ceramic, timber, 2020
Dimensions: 17 x 35 x 42 cm
Artist Statement:
Two squirrel gliders are waking up from their sleep to embrace the night with their antics that will paint the town – or forest in this case.
Squirrel gliders are the party animals of the forest at night, aerobatic flashes of grey dart in between the trees as their big, beautiful eyes glisten like the celestial sky.
Their night club of choice are gnarly big old trees that they can glide between, and hollows they can sleep off the excesses of the night.
Unlike the squirrel gliders, I am not a party animal, but I do enjoy quiet moments of reflection and gratitude in the bush. Moments that celebrate the amazing diversity of our wild landscapes with all its creatures. Even though rarely seen, when spotted, there is such delight in knowing that the gliders are still there, in their natural habitat, doing their thing. Truly precious.
Photographer: Sarah Scragg
Subtle Celebrations, Vote Now
Artist: Edwin Hamill
Artist Location: Buderim
Medium: oil and acrylic on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 80 x 3 x 100 cm
Artist Statement:
We all celebrate in different ways, be it a wild jubilation or a reserved get together the beauty of the human condition is that we are all individuals. However, the common factor in a lot of these forms of celebration is that we choose to do them with the ones we love or appreciate. In my work “Subtle Celebrations” I’ve chosen to share with you my preferred form of celebration, a relaxed gathering of those who are close to me in a camping setting. Being able to appreciate my loved ones in a group with no one around for miles with no distractions allows me to take into perspective how lucky I am to have these people in my life, and for that I am grateful so lets party!
Photographer: Edwin Hamill
Flicker Sparkle Shimmer Glint, Vote Now
Artist: Sharon McKenzie
Artist Location: One Mile
Medium: Beading and mixed media on linen, 2021
Dimensions: 27 x 3 x 27 cm
Artist Statement:
Celebrations are precious and can happen anytime of the day or night but I always associate them with the sensory experience of light. We effectively “paint the town” with light: the flash of a phone camera, the sparkle of sequinned, beaded dresses, bags and jewellery, the flickering of candle light, small fairy lights twinkling on at tree, colored light bulbs and bright diamond like lights. The clusters of colorfully dressed people that breaks up and reforms during the festivities moving and reflecting light like water.
Photographer: Sharon McKenzie
From the Bird Hide, Maroom, Vote Now
Artist: Zela Bissett
Artist Location: Gympie
Medium: watercolour on Arches paper, 2021
Dimensions: 48 x 1 x 53 cm
Artist Statement:
From the bird hide at Maroom, on the mainland coast of the Sandy Strait, it is possible to see large flocks of spoonbills feeding on the mudflats and it is a remarkable spectacle when they take to the sky in large flocks. This work paints the town of the Spoonbills, where they live in splendid isolation except for the little red flying foxes, with whom they share roost trees along the salty shore. This work uses wet on wet watercolour and a restrained palette as a suitable medium to paint to the subtle beauty of the biotic communities of the coastal plain. Zela Bissett was born and lived her early years on Butchulla Country along the Sandy Strait. She is endlessly fascinated by its biodiversity and seasonal visual effects. She has been drawing and painting the wildlife of the area since her early teens.
Photographer: Zela Bissett
Desert Rose
Artist: Donna Glass
Artist Location: Bunya Mountains
Medium: Digital Print In Frame, 2021
Dimensions: 100 x 25 x 100 cm
Artist Statement:
Surrounded But Still Alone
We are Surrounded by Billions Of Galaxies But We Alone Are The Only Biological Life That Has Been Found As Yet
We Indeed Are Rare And Special
Photographer: Donna Glass
Celebrate the World, Vote Now
Artist: Rachel Wolfe
Artist Location: Cairns
Medium: Watercolour, collage and thread on paper, 2021
Dimensions: 76 x 0.10000000000000001 x 56 cm
Artist Statement:
I am an emerging artist in Far North Qld. ‘Celebrate the World’ is my response to the question – How do you celebrate? This artwork is a portrait of my fiancé and his younger sister as children who remain best friends to this day. Together they have supported each other through life and have had many adventures travelling the world together. In this artwork I wanted to celebrate their relationship, their determination to live life to the fullest and their continuing love of travelling. Every day is a celebration for this brother and sister travelling through life together.
Photographer: Rachel Wolfe
PAINT IT YOURS, Vote Now
Artist: Jodi Bowen
Artist Location: Ipswich
Medium: FREE-STANDING CERAMIC- hand built and painted with 18 carat gold detail. Works are finished with either a gloss or matte finish, 2021
Dimensions: 40 x 20 x 20 cm
Artist Statement:
Everyone likes to celebrate differently. Whether it’s partying, picnicking or a pot of tea- celebration is a personal experience. PAINT IT YOURS invites the viewer to make their own experience. You mix and match from the following ‘pots of colour’ to design your own celebration.
‘Paint it red colour pot’ : champagne, a new party dress, heels, handbag, some long lashes, sparkly jewellery and a red lippy (followed by a taxi home and a few Panadol before bed)
‘Paint it yellow colour pot’ : a day at the beach, a picnic, a sun-bath, a ball game and a spot of surfing
‘Paint it blue colour pot : ’ a cosy night in, a good read, a pot of tea and a comfortable chair or bed.
Select your options from the 20 available and add to the ‘Paint it Yours’ pot to create your ultimate personal celebratory experience.
THIS WORK IS MADE UP OF 4 ‘POTS’ AND 20 OPTIONS. ALL PIECES ARE HAND BUILT AND PAINTED CERAMICS- SOME WITH 18 CARAT DETAIL. The second photo is an example of the options available.
Photographer: Jodi Bowen
When hippies choose the colour scheme, Vote Now
Artist: Caralyn Wiles
Artist Location: Welcome Creek
Medium: Acrylic on canvas board, 2021
Dimensions: 25 x 0.5 x 51 cm
Artist Statement:
Celebrating to me revolves around colour. We dress up in colour and adorn ourselves with colourful pieces. This piece takes the viewer to the extreme of celbrating by painting the town vibrant colours
Photographer: Caralyn Wiles
Golden Days, Vote Now
Artist: Kym Tabulo
Artist Location: MOOLOOLAH VALLEY
Medium: Mixed, 2021
Dimensions: 11.699999999999999 x 2 x 16.5 cm
Artist Statement:
Celebrating a family birthday with a day at the beach is simply perfect. Especially when it ends in beachcombing at sunset on Bulcock Beach with a Golden Beach skyline. It is a special place where the land meets the sea, and the buildings frame the vista. To create this artwork, I blend my abstract watercolour painting with my photographs and digital drawing techniques. This process allows me to express the theme of a delightful, calm celebration that creates long lasting memories.
Photographer: Kym Tabulo
Pathways of joy, Vote Now
Artist: Anitha Menon
Artist Location: Rockhampton
Medium: Oil on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 40 x 1 x 30 cm
Artist Statement:
This year the art of celebrating has come with quiet gratitude, reflection and fleeting memories of loved ones stuck in a different time zone. Sitting in my cosy home I adore the precious ring on my fingers and feel the safety of the place I’m living in. Waiting for more colours to fill my senses, I celebrate the joy of life in the mundane coziness of my house.
Sometimes inanimate objects speak through their silence. They can be symbols of a cultural past or moments of a time or sometimes, a realisation for me that time has stood still without progress. My identity as a homemaker, my house and the objects associated with it have been a major influence in my art so far. I am drawn towards symbolism and concepts and find textures fascinating to paint.
Photographer: Anitha Menon
High Tea, Vote Now
Artist: Wayne Boyle
Artist Location: Silkstone
Medium: Acrylic on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 61 x 4 x 61 cm
Artist Statement:
High Tea, a time to unwind, laugh, eat cake, drink tea with friends and family, forget about our troubles. We have suffered through the isolation, paper cups and takeaway. At the end of Covid lockdown Queenslanders have emerged better off than most, now we can enjoy a new normal with the freedom we have missed so much.
With bold brushstrokes I strive to capture the opulence, social engagement, the eccentric and the ordinary, flamboyant relationships, joyous occasions, outpouring of emotions, lively conversation, laughter, and tears.
Our support networks have never been more valuable, we have probably come to take for granted the simple pleasures such as getting out and sharing cake and a cuppa, enjoying each other’s company and conversation, meeting face to face, listening to the highs and lows, laughing till we cry.
Time to get out of the house, what better way to celebrate than with high tea.
Photographer: Wayne Boyle
Mardi Gras, Vote Now
Artist: Richard Ranson
Artist Location: Charleville
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 76 x 4 x 76 cm
Artist Statement:
Mardi Gras. In your face, loud, confronting, and oh so good. It is the perfect vehicle for painting the town red!
For me, whether it’s Sydney or Rio de Janeiro, the essence is the same. A relentless underlying beat that carries performers high on a wave of emotion and excitement.
I am drawn to the way a Mardi Gras is not about one person. It’s a living writhing thing, moving through the crowds like a serpent or a Chinese dragon. I have tried to reflect this with performers painted in the minimalist style.
Photographer: Richard Ranson
Scared, Vote Now
Artist: Donna Glass
Artist Location: Bunya Mountains
Medium: Digital Print In Frame, 2020
Dimensions: 100 x 25 x 100 cm
Artist Statement:
Scared Of What You Don’t Show Me.
Our Universe is Made Up Of 25 percent Dark Matter 70 percent Dark Energy And The Rest Is Normal Matter And A small
Percentage If this is Us.
We Are So Small Yet So Important To The Stream Of Things.
Photographer: Donna Glass
‘By the Shoreline We Gather’, Vote Now
Artist: Jacqueline Sanderson
Artist Location: Sunshin Coast
Medium: Buff raku clays, mid-fire glazes, gold porcelain paint, 2021
Dimensions: 44 x 18 x 41 cm
Artist Statement:
By the Shoreline We Gather’ originate from the vessel shapes which are the foundation of my pottery practice. Vessels embody the cultural union of my Sri Lankan-Australian heritage where sharing food is central to any gathering. The vessels vary in shape, size and purpose, and their glazed colours pay homage to the Gubbi Gubbi land and sea where I have lived for over 10 years. Transforming the vessels into the shell-shape was a beautiful, organic process that extended my practice by combining my love of food and food sharing with symbols of the sea. This artwork acknowledges the significance of cultural sharing through celebration, food, and meaningful relationships.
And so, as the ritual moon rises, by the shoreline we gather to celebrate the natural world, friendship, and diversity through food, music, and stories and to honour the shells and other gifts bestowed by the sea.
Photographer: Christine Hall
Palm Cove
Artist: Mark Skelcher
Artist Location: Cairns
Medium: Oil on canvas, 2020
Dimensions: 40.6 x 2 x 50.7 cm
Artist Statement:
How do you celebrate? Simple, I visit Palm Cove! It is the most beautiful beach village I have painted time and time again in an attempt to capture its beauty, tranquility and natural vibrancy, its warm tropical light that is so fresh and bright.
It is such a special place for me and my family. From our Wedding Day here to the simple pleasures of playing with our children on the beach, it holds past times of joy and memories of connection and togetherness. Warm summer days, walking the esplanade and jetty, the sea breeze, palm fringed shoreline, sound of birds gently singing and conversations in the busy cafes and restaurants, celebrations of birth and remembrance of those gone.
For some time, I have been capturing the mesmerizing landscape of Cairns and the Northern Beaches that I am honoured to now call home, I celebrate and ‘Paint the Town’.
Photographer: Mark Skelcher
Gathered Thoughts, Precious Memories, Vote Now
Artist: Pamela Finlay
Artist Location: BOWEN
Medium: Mixed media and Stitch on Textile and Paper, 2021
Dimensions: 30 x 8 x 23 cm
Artist Statement:
The Red Tailed Black Cockatoos are renowned to arrive preceding the rain and they’re a wonderful sight to see, they’re so hyper and exuberant when you hear them screeching. They also arrive in town to eat the fruit of the Terminalia Tree, also known as the Scrub Almond. They literally paint the town red with their red tails flying across the sky. The Terminalia is a carpet of red too in August when it drops its gigantic red leaves which are the source of reference for this collection of Artist Books that I have created. The different colours of the leaves intrigue me as does the variety in the colours and patterns of the feathers of the Cockatoo. It’s a special part of nature we get to experience and it makes my heart sing.
Photographer: Pamela Finlay
Kickin Up Ya Heels, Vote Now
Artist: Donna Rivers
Artist Location: Jundah
Medium: Acrylic on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 60 x 3.5 x 60 cm
Artist Statement:
My preference is to explore with acrylic mediums and textures in a free style to bring my art pieces to life.
Kicking Up Ya Heels has been created with bold colours, textures and evolving brush strokes. With feelings that bring joy of having fun, a connection to country, family and friends and elevates life in our town.
My artwork captures the sense of excitement of the ‘paint the town’ theme as it represents the atmosphere, culture and people of my town, Jundah, during times of celebration. It has a strong visual appetite for colours in my outback surrounding at festive times.
Photographer: Donna Rivers
A Nature in the Self., Vote Now
Artist: Julia Skye Higgs
Artist Location: Bowen
Medium: Canvas Print, 2021
Dimensions: 30 x 5 x 100 cm
Artist Statement:
This work is a series of puppets and body extensions that evoke the spirit of celebration through colour and self-expression as sculptural forms on the body. 9 people stand in one frame, each wearing a different body piece. Each of these are different from the other and express aspects of a bush turkey, a pet dog, and human elements in both recognisable and abstracted ways through their disproportions, amalgamation of human and animal and use of colour. They are bright and bold and combine papier-mache, wire, recycling, acrylic paint, and second-hand fabrics to create a series that celebrates and evokes play, the body, and self-expression by recreating and altering familiar forms into vibrant wearable art.
Photographer: Brooke Miles
Waiting for go, Vote Now
Artist: Alison McDonald
Artist Location: Jensen
Medium: Reused anodised aluminium etched, copper, sterling silver, titanium, stainless steel, brass & wood – kinetic sculpture., 2020
Dimensions: 20 x 46 x 47 cm
Artist Statement:
Waking me at night was a list of COVID-19 related words, I wrote them down. I was not sure why, but I wanted to utilise them for an artwork about this current time. Perhaps I was trying to find order amongst the disorder in our current lives. We were waiting for the lockdown to finish, then the distance allowed to travel to be extended and my husband’s cancer treatment to finish. It seemed like forever. All we wanted, was to escape and go camping and celebrate simply amongst the outback bush and birds, where there was no COVID and no clinical hospital reminders.During my ‘lockdown’ clean-up of the studio, I rediscovered some green anodised aluminium that I purchased years ago from my metal recycler as ‘builders’ leftovers’. I combined this with jewellery materials; silver and titanium to reveal our story as we waited for that green light to go.
Photographer: Alison McDonald
LCS.2
Artist: Petalia Humphreys
Artist Location: Peregian Beach
Medium: Acrylic on plywood, 2021
Dimensions: 90 x 5 x 90 cm
Artist Statement:
I revel and indulge in the act of looking at and exploring architecture.
“LCS.2” is a celebration of architecture, and of colour. What is at once a sunburnt roofline sitting beneath a glorious and intense ocean sky is also a homage to Johannes Itten’s formulaic ratios and fields of colour. A window of white creates a void – a respite – from the hazy midday heat.
Pushed into the corner the square folds into its rigid setting whilst the works manifests itself in a space beyond its physicality. The folded painting discloses contrasts and dichotomies, exploring ideas of playfulness and interplay – mapping both movement and stillness. Although hard-edge and geometric the work reveals itself and the inherent gestural traces left from the painting process. Marking an interplay between site and possible pathways, lines and spaces upon the surface shift, crease, flatten and straighten out and then fold again as the viewer passes by.
Photographer: Petalia Humphreys
My Town, Vote Now
Artist: Carmen Beezley-Drake
Artist Location: Rockhampton
Medium: acrylic, collage on paper, 2021
Dimensions: 90 x 12 x 66 cm
Artist Statement:
Community has never been more important than ever the last 18 months of this Covid 19 pandemic. It has not deterred our communities and towns from trying to continue with the daily activities and celebrate by coming together for local events. Beef 21, Super Nats, Barra Fishing Competition, and Open Gardens are just some of the events that Rockhampton has enthusiastically embraced during this difficult period.
Addressing the theme of Painting the Town, I have taken these events as my subject and placed them into a created ‘Town’, trying to create the colourfulness of regional towns where these occasions effect and invigorate the whole region.
Working with collage and acrylic on paper, I have incorporated special events into the fabric of everyday community life, there by creating a town where my works echo how these events bring our communities together.
Photographer: Carmen Beezley-Drake
The final meal, Vote Now
Artist: Katie Hooper
Artist Location: Tamborine Mountain
Medium: Digital photograph, 2020
Dimensions: 50 x 0.5 x 50 cm
Artist Statement:
The final meal. With friends, a lover, a community, with life.
The final meal. No matter the reason to say goodbye, it is a time to celebrate.
The final meal. A reflection of what was and is no more.
The final meal. A time to remember the laughter, the love, the learning.
The final meal. All the favourites, all at once.
Photographer: Katie Hooper
Stolen
Artist: Darren Blackman
Artist Location: Nambour
Medium: Acrylic, enamel on linen, 2021
Dimensions: 97 x 30 x 120 cm
Artist Statement:
Stolen’ is an indigenous perspective of ‘Paint the Town’. Stolen isn’t a controversial subject or a resistance statement but a simple truth.
Australia is a young, immature nation that is coming to terms with history in all its entirety. Pre Native Title, Australian history was politically worded, hand picked articles that ignored indigenous sovereignty while reinforcing Eurocentric conquest. As the nation matured, and global human rights evolved, the less heroic stories of genocide, separation, deprivation and survival were recognised, as accounted by First Nation people’s, early pioneers, explorers, government officials, missionaries alike. These were presented to a whole new generation, as well as those Australians willing to acknowledge and reconcile with Australia’s past.
True history supports reconciliation and a harmonious relationship between contrasting cultures.
As every town in Australia has a story of settlement, every ‘traditional owner’ has a story of loss an dispossession. Discovery is a partisan story, while stolen is a shared truth.
Photographer: Darren Blackman
Sundae Night, Vote Now
Artist: Charlotte Wensley
Artist Location: Peregian Beach
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 76 x 4 x 76 cm
Artist Statement:
We ‘paint the town’ with a family tradition that can be traced back to my childhood; a time when growing up on farming country left little time for celebrations and visiting the ice cream parlour in town was a grand and poignant affair. This ‘treat’ inheritance lives on today as part of our family’s story about how we celebrate special occasions. Gatherings big or small, loud or quiet, with friends or kith and kin, our festivities are incomplete without ice cream sundaes, crafted with care and ceremony. ‘Sundae Night’ is inspired by our familial devotion to all things sweet and sugary. In this painting I wanted to convey a sense of layers of indulgence and the feeling of gravitas evoked by special celebratory moments. This humble confection, dolloped, drizzled and steeped in family folklore, symbolises abundance, joy in our togetherness, gratitude for family and sweet moments in time.
Photographer: mark Lutz
Family Colour, Vote Now
Artist: Tricia Reust
Artist Location: Clontarf
Medium: Mixed Media on Canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 76 x 3 x 76 cm
Artist Statement:
Artist Statement – Tricia Reust
FAMILY COLOUR
Mixed Media on Canvas
76 sq cms
Joy and undaunted application abound every time we create together – how better to celebrate being an artist than to share art with my grandchildren? They bring me closer to the primary reasons I draw each day.
Here, a portrait of Nanna (me!), a portrait of Rudolph and an ice cream melting in the sun – all gifts – are collaged around my jar drawing, full to the brim with rediscovery of my life work.
When we make art together we “paint the town” in family colour.
Photographer: mark Lutz
Goes to my head, Vote Now
Artist: John Ashall
Artist Location: Townsville
Medium: Oils on board, 2021
Dimensions: 60 x 0.5 x 45 cm
Artist Statement:
At my age I like to celebrate with friends over good wine and good food.
I feel my painting reflects that mood.
Photographer: John Ashall
Private Party, Vote Now
Artist: Anne Pyle
Artist Location: Edge Hill
Medium: mixed media on board, 2020
Dimensions: 60 x 0.5 x 90 cm
Artist Statement:
The challenge for this work was to create an ‘inexplicable world’. I found myself with Chagall as I utilised my own style….abstract lyrical minimilist story places.
The uplifting scene provides unexpected interractions which celebrate the theme, painting the town.
Photographer: Anne Pyle
21st Century Aphrodite, Vote Now
Artist: Ange Venardos
Artist Location: Woorim
Medium: Watercolour, 2021
Dimensions: 80 x 5 x 80 cm
Artist Statement:
21st Century Aphrodite is a simple elegant response to celebrating everything it takes to being a female in today’s world. It evokes a spirit of sensuality, (tulips are said to refer to the perfect lover), fertility, and grace (signified by the magnolia) with a focus on quiet moments of reflection and gratitude, ceremony, tradition and ritual through the choice of Eastern composition and colour.
This is a work rich in metaphor and symbolism. The female form, at one with the landscape, rises from adversity and pain depicted by the thorns embedded in her lower limbs. The Carline Thistle (an ancient remedy for pestilence and plague) to the bottom left, references hope for a natural Covid cure. The traditional shell of Venus has diminished. Today’s female has outgrown the embellishments of history’s expectations. She looks down serenely upon the lily which was once used to enhance natural beauty but often killed more women in the process of pleasing and attracting a mate. This lily recognises the woman’s responsibility to ‘keep it hot’ deferring to the importance of inner beauty and natural glow.
Aphrodite – goddess of love – celebrates the awakening feminine in all mankind.
Photographer: Ange Venardos
Jimmy and Denis – its in his jeans
Artist: Melaine Doheny
Artist Location: Blackbutt North
Medium: Photographic work, 2021
Dimensions: 45 x 3 x 30 cm
Artist Statement:
Isolation, long work days, climate change and globalization are just some of the many pressures that make farming a vulnerable occupation in addition to stock gates.
There is a bond that is made through the love of horses that can be a way of connecting members of community who otherwise would not meet through social events, meetings or networking programs.
From as far back as the human memory reaches, people and horses have always had a special relationship. People form an inexplicable bond with their horses, built on trust, loyalty and love.
Dennis is a paint horse. Jimmy is the custodian of Dennis – or is it the other way around.
Photographer: Melaine Doheny
Walking with friends
Artist: Jasna Spiranovic
Artist Location: Hollywell
Medium: Digital photograph, 2020
Dimensions: 90 x 0.5 x 75 cm
Artist Statement:
During Covid lockdowns I like many people in the world was unable to see some friends. This photograph depicts me feeling happy to have seen some friends and celebrating by going for an early morning walk .
Photographer: Jasna Spiranovic
Meet Lenny, Vote Now
Artist: Suzanne Furness
Artist Location: MONS
Medium: Handwoven with wool and silk, 2020
Dimensions: 120 x 0.59999999999999998 x 72.5 cm
Artist Statement:
I’d like you to meet Lenny. During the day he is Leonard, a CEO wearing a full business suit and highly polished brogues for his ZOOM meetings. At night he transforms into Lenny – freewheeling and colourful.
This weaving was my response to the dismal news cycles about Covid 19
Photographer: Suzanne Furness
Bunya, Vote Now
Artist: Naomi Hatt
Artist Location: PALMTREE
Medium: Graphite on cotton paper, 2020
Dimensions: 76 x 0.29999999999999999 x 56 cm
Artist Statement:
Summer is Bunya season. The nuts are eaten with family and friends, their starchy texture when fully ripe tastes very much like chestnuts. There is a wildlife carer who lives nearby. Bunya Pines grow on her property and when the cones fall, she collects them and places them in a wheelbarrow beside her front gate. Passers-by pay $5 for a cone, and she uses the money to fund her work saving sick and injured koalas.
Inspired by the open eucalypt woodland surrounding her studio, Naomi Hatt depicts native plant species through drawing works. Her subjects are carefully selected by way of personal encounters. The works are reminiscent of scientific studies and reflect the artists interest in natural history.
Naomi uses drawing to learn about and celebrate the place where she lives. Learning about the physical properties of her subjects, and their historical and cultural significance locally and across Queensland.
Photographer: Martin Barry
Celebration of colour, Vote Now
Artist: Jeanie MacNamara
Artist Location: Benaraby
Medium: Acrylic on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 60 x 3.2999999999999998 x 80 cm
Artist Statement:
Border closures, lock-downs and social distancing were terms found in science fiction novels until COVID hit. My joy until then was to go out into this beautiful world that we share and paint it in all its glory, especially when I was able to do so with my friend Gayle – another passionate artist, who showed me the joy of painting landscapes. To my delight, in between lockdowns, my friend and I stole an afternoon at Newstead House when the Poincianna trees were in riotous flower. While this painting most certainly celebrates the vivid colours of the river and the trees, what it celebrates more is the time I managed to spend with Gayle. When artists come together to paint the wonders of this glorious land, either in silent contemplation or joyous laughter, the world is a better place.
Photographer: Jeanie MacNamara
Palette-able, Vote Now
Artist: Warren Richardson
Artist Location: Kuranda
Medium: Photograph, 2021
Dimensions: 38 x 3 x 60 cm
Artist Statement:
I live in the rainforest in Kuranda. On the morning side of the mountain. 90% of my palette is green in all of its variability. However, I have travelled all over tropical Queensland with my entomological mate, photographing the night life of the insect world. One of my favourite locations is Talaroo station, now being developed as a hot springs tourist destination by the Ewamian native-title holders. Not only are the insects great but the sunsets over the dam are to-dye-for. Here the palette holds all the colours of the spectrum to ‘Paint the Town’ with tranquility and reflection. Truly Palette-able.
Photographer: Warren Richardson
Sanctuary, Vote Now
Artist: Ann Russell
Artist Location: Cashmere
Medium: Mixed Media Assemblage, 2021
Dimensions: 30 x 45 x 45 cm
Artist Statement:
Celebration for me happens with and in nature. It is also the reason for celebration, especially when I have encounters like the one that inspired this work, where I came across a nesting swamp hen in the middle of a suburban lagoon. The lagoon is surrounded by houses, but the trees around the lagoon create a quiet sanctuary, within the busyness of suburban life. The work features a sanctuary for the swamp hen’s nest made by ‘painting the town’ on an outer wall, and the trees within. The work is presented in a glass cake dome – cakes are associated with celebration.
Photographer: Ann Russell
The Ville
Artist: Gabriel Smith
Artist Location: Townsville
Medium: Cold Wax and oil, 2020
Dimensions: 120 x 3 x 92 cm
Artist Statement:
I have a love for patterns, colour and how the land looks from the sky. This work explores my home of Townsville and how the built up areas interact with the wild spaces. Castle Hill has always been my special place and I wanted to explore is delicate wildness through pattern and colour juxtaposed with the more structured pattern created by our built environment to paint the town.
Photographer: Gabriel Smith
Ode To Streetart, Vote Now
Artist: Kate Roberts
Artist Location: IPSWICH
Medium: 3D – cardboard, copper, acrylic paint, timber and found objects, 2021
Dimensions: 20 x 20 x 20 cm
Artist Statement:
Paying homage to those artists who help us celebrate our town as a blank canvas, and taking so many forms from full wall murals to paste ups and everything in between, adding a splash of colour or an image that stops and makes us take a moment to ponder, on a random wall or a hidden laneway.
From now famous rebel works of Banksy, working in the stealth of darkness, to the graffiti artist who do incredible things with a spray can, to now the very sort after mural artist. Acknowledging my fellow artist in my genre of small scale, this storage shed near my workplace changes often with additions and makes me smile.
I absolutely love and appreciate the effort and toil of our street artist and finally getting the accolades they deserve as they celebrate by literally painting our towns.
Photographer: Kate Roberts
Corroboree, Vote Now
Artist: Cholena Hughes
Artist Location: Mt Mellum
Medium: Cyanotype with Jinibara ochre, Jinibarra clay, Jini (lawyer cane) and raffia, 2021
Dimensions: 80 x 9 x 80 cm
Artist Statement:
My artwork is symbolic of corroboree. Depicting our strong connection to country and celebrating all that Country provides. The cyanotype was made exposing plants from Jinibara Country and the ochres which decorate the cyanotype are from Jinibara Country. The figures are made of clay from Jinibara Country. The weaving on Jini (Lawyer Cane) depicts time, creation and connection to Country. The shape of the work depicts the bora ring where ceremony took place. Celebrating our land, our people, our spirit – Corroboree.
“Paint the Town” I believe is a celebration – to celebrate with community.
A corroboree is a generic word for a meeting of Australian Aboriginal peoples. It may be a sacred ceremony, a festive celebration or an event of cultural importance.
Photographer: Cholena Hughes
In the garden, Vote Now
Artist: Caralyn Wiles
Artist Location: Welcome Creek
Medium: Alcohol Ink on Yupo paper, 2021
Dimensions: 29.5 x 0.10000000000000001 x 25 cm
Artist Statement:
This piece reminds us that it is not only people who celebrate with a splash of colour but also the plant life in our gardens, parks and nature reserves. These areas provide colour to our towns in their own form of painting.
Photographer: Caralyn Wiles
Hiraeth, Vote Now
Artist: Bernadine Anning
Artist Location: Nanum
Medium: Mixed media Acrylic and oil, 2021
Dimensions: 90 x 2 x 90 cm
Artist Statement:
Hiraeth is Welsh for a spiritual longing for a home which maybe never was. Nostalgia for ancient places to which we cannot return. This work explores the magic and longing for a natural landscape that we should exist. We cannot return to this place and therefore deep nostalgia is prominent in our dreams.
Photographer: Bernadine Anning
Youth Category
Memory Box – A Celebration Of Life and Friendship, Vote Now
Artist: Georgia Farlow
Artist Location: Mackay
Medium: Assemblage – recycled timber, prints on transparent film, paint and cotton thread, 2021
Dimensions: 3 x 20 x 30 cm
Artist Statement:
Photographs are one of the best ways to preserve memories of things we celebrate in life. They capture these special moments that serve to remind us of the joy of living.
This assemblage contains timber blocks within a box. Each block is covered in images which are memories of things I celebrate in life: a birthday, a formal, a community event, an achievement and time with my friends. I celebrate with the people I love.
Some blocks are left blank to symbolise celebrations yet to be experienced. Each block is a tiny vessel of individual memories, but at the same time is connected to those around it. Some are tied with cotton as though preserving a memory. Each cube has an image on each face which invites the viewer to interact with the piece and arrange the blocks in different combinations, bringing different memories to the surface.
Photographer: Georgia Farlow
Botanical Picnic
Artist: Mikayla Parrotta
Artist Location: Mackay
Medium: Acrylic on canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 61 x 4 x 51 cm
Artist Statement:
This piece depicts two close friends while on a picnic at Mackay’s Botanical Gardens. As we are in the last two years of high school, when the term comes to an end and after the stress of assignments and examinations, we are in desperate need to celebrate. Food and friends are the best way to do so. We went on a picnic together with abundant platters of food, much more than we could eat. Although it was not an extravagant party, spending quality time to laugh and talk while eating is the best way to celebrate. As an artist, my aim is create an artwork that captures a moment that holds significant value to myself and close ones, while also being aesthetically pleasing.
Photographer: Mikayla Parrotta
Paint the town Red, Vote Now
Artist: Stephanie Hook
Artist Location: Cooktown
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas, 2021
Dimensions: 35.5 x 2.5 x 40.600000000000001 cm
Artist Statement:
Upon reading this years theme, The saying “Paint the town Red” and a vision of a painting immediately came to mind. I live Cooktown FNQ. I love the tranquility and slowness that comes with a small town. Sometimes the smallest mundane things shouldn’t be taken for granted and SHOULD be CELEBRATED regularly. I used the Main Street of our town 1971 as my inspiration. The black and white represents the quiet, slow and sometimes lonely lifestyle of a small town. As the lady is passing through the town her presence, love and passion for life, is bringing the town alive, transforming it as she walks into a vibrant red. This represents how I believe no matter where you are, who you are, or who is surrounding you, and although sometimes hard to find, there is always a reason to celebrate life and “Paint the town Red”.
Photographer: Stephanie Hook
Peacock feathers, Vote Now
Artist: Suzanna Shakeshaft
Artist Location: Boronia Heights
Medium: Oil and acrylic, 2021
Dimensions: 61 x 3.5 x 61 cm
Artist Statement:
I created this artwork to display the peacocks array of beautiful colourful feathers, it celebrates its feathers as it shows them off arrogantly in the picture. Peacocks come in many colours, bronze, white,indigo, magenta. It’s a beautiful bird.
Photographer: Suzanna Shakeshaft
Town Meets Town
Artist: Weston Campbell
Artist Location: Charleville
Medium: Photograph, 2021
Dimensions: 40 x 1 x 60 cm
Artist Statement:
This photograph captures a high energy moment from a polocrosse event, held at the Charleville Polocrosse Grounds, during the game of Charleville (green) VS Roma (red). The team colours aggressively clash and contrast against the endless blue sky and soft red soil. The sport of polocrosse and the rural clubs that organise these events certainly build upon the unique atmospheres surrounding these outback towns, bringing people of all sorts together to compete, celebrate and ultimately have fun. The colours of each team’s jersey bring the community together, vividly painting whichever town the events occur, as entertainment flourishes through the sport and the mingling of outback communities.
Photographer: Weston Campbell
Fluffy Flower Power, Vote Now
Artist: Harrison Taylor
Artist Location: Maleny
Medium: Digital, 2021
Dimensions: 42 x 3 x 29.699999999999999 cm
Artist Statement:
When I think about celebrations, the Maleny Show comes to mind.
The energetic character in my work represents the feelings that arise when attending this event.
The local community come together to celebrate our uniqueness.
Photographer: Harrison Taylor
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.
The 2021 QRAA coincides with Flying Arts’ 50th year anniversary, half a century of connecting artists, educators and communities.
Theme: Paint the Town
Evoking the spirit of celebration, of all things jubilant, artists are invited to respond to the question – How do you celebrate? Is it a party, a big bash or a simple elegant affair, serene or riotous, extended explosions of joy or quiet moments reflection and gratitude, ceremony, tradition or ritual, expressed in dance or song, full of sentiment or tears, an anniversary, a farewell or a whim, with family, friends, a whole community or alone, a sense of occasion, a festival or just because? Whatever the reason or season, whatever your medium or practice, we invite you to Paint the Town.