MEMBER’S MARKETPLACE
Artists of the Mary Valley
The members’ marketplace brings together our creative collective for easy networking and to assist with promotion. Share your information here with images of your work, Facebook and website links or look for someone who could help you with your next event or project. You can even offer a commission to one of our artists!
Kym Barrett has lived and worked in Chatsworth, SE Queensland for over 45 years. She graduated in Fine Arts (painting and drawing) from the Brisbane College of Art (now QCA) in 1975 and has held twenty-two solo exhibitions.
Barrett was the 2022 Bundaberg Art Prize winner, 2021 Flying Arts Queensland Regional Arts Award winner and has won sixteen other Queensland Art Awards.
She has been a finalist in twenty Queensland prizes and a finalist in five national awards since 2015. Her work is in the Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery Landscape Collection, Greenslopes Private Hospital, Sunshine Coast Regional Council Art Collection and Moreton Bay Regional Council Art Collection as well as in numerous private collections.
Barrett currently creates abstract paintings that are process driven and which whilst exhibiting rich luminosity and depth are intentionally open-ended describing something out of reach but also the artist’s journey to a deeper ground.
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Susan Zela Bissett (Zela) is an artist, environmental educator, author and advocate for sustainable futures. Zela was born on Butchulla Country and has experience in education, arts practice and consultancy, academic and popular writing. Zela received a Master of Environmental Education degree in 2010 for her research on engaging Indigenous learners and was seconded by the Education Department to work with schools in the Wide Bay -Burnett region on science, sustainability and social justice projects.
Zela, grew up on Butchulla Country in Maryborough and Hervey Bay and has a long association with the Great Sandy National Park beginning with a series of paintings of Lake Poona in 1992, through delivering Professional development to teachers at local schools with Maree Prior in 2010 and more recently as part of the Women Walking Wallum exhibition is 2020 when she was one of 12 invited artists contributing to a Wild/flower Women exhibition in Gympie Regional Gallery curated by Dr Sue Davis .
In 2019 Zela left Education Queensland to devote herself to her arts practice and doctoral research. Her artworks have been shortlisted for National prizes including the 2023 National Capital Art Prize and are represented in public and private collections. In her visual artwork, Zela combines a scientific eye with a sensitivity to place, reflecting both the outward beauty of Butchulla Country and a depth of feeling for the subtle sentience which enlivens it. Zela is currently a PhD candidate with Sunshine Coast University. She has contributed to scholarly journals and her work can be read at https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3752-6896.
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I am a professional Artist and Art Tutor with approximately 30 years experience as both.
Originally from Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, I have lived in many places around Australia and I now live at Mudjimba Beach, on the Sunshine Coast.
I have won many awards in South East Queensland, and to date have held approximately 24 solo exhibitions and a number of joint exhibitions.
My art tutoring has taken me to many places including the Greek Islands, Norfolk Island and a regular annual week of drawing and painting in Fiji, as well as working and completing residencies interstate.
My studio is well equipped , people tell me that it’s a ‘she shed’, but it’s more than that. It’s where I create my work, and run workshops, and much more – my quiet space, my creative space, that sits close to nature which most of my ideas stem from.
My works are created from the natural world and particularly the ocean and beach environment where I have spent all my life, and I have spent many years creating methods that now have become instinct. Different trends come and go, and I hope my work will stand the test of time and remain as relevant to it’s source as the day it was created and I hope the work evokes some wonderful emotions for the people viewing it.
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Fiona Groom’s creative journey started with a selection of art courses which included Diploma of Visual Arts (Fine Arts), and concluded with a BA Double Major Fine Arts, Visual Culture. Professionally Fiona’s activities have included exhibitions in a variety of State, National and International events as well as Group and Solo Shows. Fiona has exhibited, sold and donated various works worldwide and was also featured in a TV episode of Put Some Colour in Your Life, resulting in her episode being sent to the moon as part of a cultural library being setup in three different areas of the moon by NASA & SpaceX. The Lunar Lander touched down successfully in February 2025. Ms. Groom is very active in the local artistic community and works/volunteers for various local Art Groups/ Galleries. Ms groom has also been involved in an assortment of local community events, including Noosa Open Studios and does facilitate art projects, painting workshops, plus art group tutoring. Furthermore, Fiona has also had the chance to make her Animal Art large scale with the creation of a variety of murals that can be found on the Sunshine Coast and its surrounds.
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I have been making art for over four decades and full time since 1996 from my studio in an old one teacher school inTandur about twenty minutes south of Gympie.
After three years art training at The Cleveland college of Art in England I completed three more years in Australia here on the Sunshine Coast.
My primary medium is painting in acrylics but I have also painted using encaustic and oils over my career. More recently I have returned to ceramics which I make in between painting.
The main subject matter in my work is the landscape and this manifests in imagined, English and Australian.
I am constantly experimenting with different mediums, effects and ways to apply paint to a surface which keeps me excited about painting but subject matter always has a landscape subject wether abstract or realism or sometimes a combination in the same work.
My creative process generally is to start with an already wet surface and I only work with transparent colours and build layer upon layer. Once the initial layers are dry the painting “tells” me what to do with the next layers and the adding and removing begins until I feel it is complete.
I have been fortunate to have over fifty exhibitions around Australia and my work is held in many private collections here and overseas. I have work in public collections and have been the finalist and winner of several major art prizes.
I will continue to paint as it gives me such enormous pleasure.
Ian Gunn 2021
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Heather is an Australian/Canadian born contemporary impressionist painter who enjoys capturing the story of the setting she is painting. Trying to capture the atmosphere of the scene is very important to her. Throughout her life, she has always been an artist at heart, drawing and painting when time permitted between raising children and a full-time job. Life has slowed down a bit in the past few years, which has allowed her to focus on art more closely.
Heather has studied with local Brisbane artists Ray Coffey and Colley Whisson and more recently, attended workshops given by Kasey Sealey an Australian Impressionist painter. In addition, she has studied online with international artists Ian Roberts, James Swanson and Joe Paquet.
More of Heather’s art HeatherHaywoodArt – Etsy Australia
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Nicole Harper has always had art in her life, however did not pursue art seriously until living on a remote cattle station with her family where she felt the desire to create something for herself. It was the landscape that instigated the return journey into art and is still the inspiration for her work.
She is influenced by the landscape that surrounds her and extensively explores the theme of the ongoing vista in her work. Landscapes without human interference are her preference and she paints these in a spontaneous execution, primarily en plein air and from memory. Artists that Nicole take inspiration from are those who interpret the landscape in their own way, finding a unique code or calligraphy that captures the scene.
Nicole prefers a loose approach to the subject and ideally the scene is created wet in wet, striving to quickly capturing the emotions and feeling of the landscape.
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Barb Hart is always inspired by her natural surroundings; she is interested in nature’s patterns of colour and shape – those shapes repeated time and time again around our magnificent planet. She likes to think her work will inspire others to look a little harder and see the uniqueness in the minute and insignificant. Whether it involves creating prints, baskets, weavings, books or assemblages there will always be a connection to the importance of preserving and admiring nature’s diversity. Her work often includes recycled manmade objects, supporting her idea that there is beauty in any object, it just has to be given new light, and shine for the one it was meant for.
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Holly Hughes is an airbrush artist who has been making a statement in the industry since 2010. From body painting to custom automotive art, everything is a canvas and fine detail is her speciality. Her skills have expanded exponentially since then with the experimentation of mixed mediums and techniques that have been on display at galleries and competitions across Queensland.
Her inspiration is driven from the ocean and everything it entails; the big the small, the obscure and the colour. She believes it is a beauty unmatched by anything else and hopes to bring that into her own work
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As an artist I work in many mediums…I graduated from Art School majoring in textiles, so fibre-based artworks often reappear. These past years I have concentrated on a number of printmaking styles, those more environmentally friendly, but I do love to paint – always inspired by nature, loving the patterns, colour and textures. When I am asked where my artistic expertise lies I find it hard to answer. I usually start with a subject matter that I am passionate about, once I have an image I want to portray I decide what material best suits what I am trying to say…If it is corrugated iron, I learn how to manipulate it…if it is wood from an old piano, I try to make it vibrate on a visual level or it could be a discarded piece of junk that tells my story …I don’t disregard any material as a possible paint for my palette.
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I took up ‘ART’ after I retired from teaching in 2005. It was so exciting to learn about a new way of expressing myself, and to try to learn how the great artists I saw in so many famous galleries created their works. I aimed to be ‘the next Picasso’ and managed to enrol in the new College of Arts in Tewantin in 2005 to attempt a Diploma of Visual Arts.
Now 16 years later I am not so obsessed but still love and enjoy the world of art. I try anything and now most enjoy drawing, painting and printmaking.
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Sandra Ross is a visual artist who primarily works in 2D media. Her paintings and mixed media works examine the feeling of loss and grief, by inviting the viewer into a landscape that is both transcendent and mystical. She uses the natural world as a metaphor to express this in a poetic and lyrical way.
Sandra believes drawing from life is fundamental to her art practice and maintains this through studying nature. Her many small sketch books are filled with snippets of places she has visited and speak to her dedication to her art practice.
As an educator for over 35 years, Sandra encourages others to develop their own art practice by offering short courses and workshops in various subjects and media.
Currently living in Gympie, Sandra completed a Bachelor of Education (Art) from City Art
Institute (formerly Alexander Mackie CAE) Sydney in 1982, and a Masters of Art Visual Art from Queensland College of Art, Brisbane in 2002.
Sandra has exhibited throughout Australia and has won numerous awards both locally and regionally. She maintains her studio practice while working part time at the Gympie Regional Gallery in Education and Public Programs.
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Kerrie Atkins’ career of over 40 years spans many facets of creativity from being a community artist, book illustrator, teacher, mentor, curator, judging, festivals and public and mural artist, and her work is represented in private and corporate collections throughout Australia and overseas. Kerrie won the Queensland Government Ministry of the Arts award, and the Maroochy Mayor’s Prize in 2007 and has won many prizes in the Gold Rush Art Competition over the years and other places.
Kerrie has exhibited regionally and some of her major exhibitions were held at the Gympie Regional Gallery – ‘Colours of Sandy Creek’, ‘Inskip and Beyond’, A Step Further’, ‘Norfolk Island’, and more recently ‘Reflections’, a retrospective of 40 years of her artmaking.
Her work ranges from realistic renderings of local buildings, interpretative landscapes, portraiture to more experimental, abstract and creative work.
Anna Howard is a visual artist, based in the Mary Valley. She completed Drawing at the Brisbane institute of Art followed by a diploma in Visual Art Gateway at the Sunshine Institute of TARE and a Diploma of Fina Art (painting) at the Sunshine Coast Institute of TAFE.
She has exhibited widely both solo and individual. Exhibitions included spaces such as the Judith Wright Centre in Brisbane, Gallery 107 Dalby, Cooloola, Roma, Tablelands, Banana Shire, Roma, Warwick Regional Art Galleries and the Butter Factory Cooroy as well as the KARI Gallery in Kenilworth.
Anna is a practising artist who immerses herself in depicting the nature in which she finds herself surrounded.
Jaine is a primarily self-taught artist whose creative journey began after a life-changing health event. During recovery, a two-day workshop on portraiture in pastels in 2011 sparked a passion for art that has continued to grow.
Her studio is an immersive, energizing space where she creates intuitively, often working on several pieces at once. Jaine works across multiple mediums, blending techniques to allow spontaneity and fluid expression. This experimental approach enables her to explore themes deeply and evolve with each new piece.
Jaine aims to “sculpt the subject” — painting in a way that brings not just the illusion of depth but an emotional presence. In her portraiture, the eyes are a focal point, capturing the sitter’s soul, personality, and life story.
In 2013, Jaine received early recognition for her work. Her pastel portrait Son of a Rat earned a High Commendation from the Pastel Society of Australia, and Scarlet won the Emerging Artist Award at the Kenilworth Art Festival.
Her art continues to reflect a strong connection to emotion, intuition, and the healing power of creativity.
Today, Jaine’s work is held in private collections across Australia.
Jan has a background in the creative sector including visual arts, photography, and creative design for marketing and advertising. Her reputation for delivering high quality imagery and promotions is extremely well regarded. Favouring rich colours, strong lines and shapes Jan prefers to use oils and pastels in her work visual art work, but also focuses on photography as an art form.
Jan has been involved in Gympie Regional Arts Development Fund as Chairman for 8 years with Gympie Council and has sat on Queensland State Government regional arts bodies advocating for regional Queensland arts practice.
One of the original committee that initiated the Mary Valley Arts Festival in 2000, Jan then managed the festival for the next 13 years. She has also been an entrant to the festival on various occasions and participated in the 1010 project.
Joolie Gibbs is a Queensland artist living and creating in Gympie (Kabi Kabi country), although born in Maryborough and raised mostly in Hervey Bay (Butchulla country), and enjoys being provincial.
Gibbs completed her Master of Art in Visual Art (MAVA) in 2014 at Griffith University Queensland College of Art, while maintaining a full-time position as Director of a regional gallery for 23 years.
As an environmental artist, she is influenced by and documents her natural surroundings through the connections with the Mary River and the region. From insects, her 5-acre property, the Wallum, and the effects of floods as seen in her Flood Language series, she finds meaning and direction for her practice. These subjects contain the stories of her youth through to now. Her aim is to be part of the solution rather than the problem in her own small way.
After decades of making art my primary practice I am wondering how to distribute my finished works which pile up in cupboards and spare rooms!
Now aged 85 my art making has slowed down, but my daily habit of drawing continues along with photography of small life, ink making, and using existing works in creating new collage on paper. I am still experimenting with ways of image making that reflects the place where I live in bush surroundings … my peaceful place!
With my husband John Wright (Jack) a new poetry book is in the pipeline using illustrations from my journals and framed paintings.
My work can be seen on my Facebook page from time to time.
Pat Cale trained in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and has exhibited professionally post family duties from 1986, including commission work and teaching. Her work is in public and private collections around the world and her achievements includes many prizes won in competitions, both nationally and internationally.
Pat Cale has lived in Imbil for a dozen years. She mentors many artists, including a Life Group and remains as in love with the landscape as the first day she set eyes upon it.
Pam Hopkins is a multi award-winning artist who has been painting and drawing all her life. She has become very well known for her depictions of horses and people in everyday life. Collectors throughout the world seek out her action-packed paintings of racehorses. Since entering the gallery scene in 1980, Pam has exhibited in Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, Northern Territory, Singapore and Hong Kong.
When she started to draw and paint, her first subjects were horses. They have continued to fascinate her as subjects. She loves to capture the action of horses in sport and at work.
Pam also likes to capture the human form in the landscape. There are few of her works that do not feature people.
Her work covers subjects ranging from the people of Australia’s outback to bright, happy impressions of the coast. She paints mainly in acrylics but has worked in all media. She has recently produced a series of limited edition and open edition signed prints, and cards, these being the affordable alternative to her originals.
Pam’s work may be viewed at her home studio in Imbil Queensland, in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland.
After some years of creating large, colourful landscapes using pastels, I attended a couple of local weekend workshops in clay. My love of clay was re-ignited. I had studied ceramics at Uni many years ago as part of my teaching training.
I always held a passion for porcelain and slip casting. I make my own moulds. I bought a wheel but still cannot master the basics. I am a hand builder at heart.
I am also re connecting with Raku work and have built a little set up using a venturi burner, nothing flash. Raku is polar opposites of Porcelain but I will try to mix the two for fun.
I attend workshops for fun and inspiration and never stop learning.
I have dabbled with paper making which is fun.
I need a bigger studio,
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Award winning fine artist Meaghan Shelton won the Heritage Art Prize in Gympie last year with Embedded (The Diggers’ Darling), and first place in the Portraiture category of the Kenilworth Trophy Art Prize in 2014.
She exhibits throughout Australia and was shortlisted for the ANL Prize in Victoria as well as the Clayton Utz Prize, in Queensland.
Ms Shelton is a graduate of RMIT majoring in painting, and now works from her Imbil studio.
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Agnès (the A in a&b originals) was born and raised in the region of Brittany, in the west of France and migrated to Australia in 2005. She moved to the Sunshine Coast hinterland with her partner Bernard (the B!) at the beginning of 2019 and started her new venture after many years of working in corporate.
Agnès has always been crafty for as long as she can remember. After trying a range of creative mediums, she found her true calling in the form of felting and more particularly nuno felting which appeal to her love of colours and tactile sensations.
She enjoys working with the soft and colourful superfine Australian merino wool and the (mostly) recycled silk fabrics using the ancient technique of felting as well as its more modern form, nunofelting, combining these materials to create unique and colourful pieces.
She continues to develop her own style while attending felting classes with Australian and international master filters.
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Jan Lawnikanis is a celebrated artist and passionate art educator based in Gympie, Qld. With a career spanning three decades, Jan is mostly known for her detailed floral scenes in watercolour that capture the essence of light and colour. Her teaching philosophy emphasizes creativity and technique, empowering students to discover their unique artistic voice. Jan’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions both locally and internationally, and she conducts many workshops each year in a range of media and styles. She is also currently working on producing a series of colour-aid books for both colour pencil and watercolour artists. Her commitment to her craft and students underscores her dedication to the transformative power of art.
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Born in Sydney and lived throughout regional country NSW and Sydney suburbs. I moved to South-East QLD in the 1990’s, raising my family and pursuing a career in horticulture and natural resources. Currently, I live in the beautiful Mary Valley QLD.
Art has mainly been a hobby, with periods of dabbling in various mediums of graphite, charcoal, oil pastel, soft pastel and acrylic. I enjoy various creative activities of weaving with cats claw and natural fibres, painting wearable art, sign writing and small volunteer projects while encouraging all ages to enjoy the magic of creating.
Recent life events have refocused art as an important aspect of my self-expression. I am greatly influenced by Australian and European Realism and Impressionists including Fred Mc Cubbin, Tom Roberts, Monet, Van Gogh, Albert Namatjira and more recently Chris Postle and Kerri Dixon.
I create for enjoyment, mindfulness and to capture the essence and character of my subject through form, colour and light, with focus on my love of nature, horizons, rustic relics and the Australian landscape in general.
I have completed several small murals which can be viewed at Top Café Kenilworth along with wearable artwork displayed at Wild Pixie in Amamoor on weekends. In 2023 I received highly commended Novice section at Mary Valley Art Festivak for “Bad to the Bone” and highly commended for “Big Red” Gourmay section in Kenilworth Art Show 2025.
Many of my creations are displayed on my Instagram page @Dragonjulzart.
My first solo exhibition “Nature portraits” showcased a selection of freehand original soft pastel paintings, sketches and charcoal creations at Kandanga Country Club, Kandanga.
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I got back into pottery after 35 years. I went to a workshop on the gympie studio trails on a whim as a form of finding me time, and became instantly addicted. Signed up for four different classes and off I went, learning learning.
Its amazing how much your body remembers! People often ask but, I don’t have a “thing” or style yet, I’m still finding my groove. I’m currently creating things on inspiration or request. I’m learning about glazes, which is fascinating, so I’m experimenting with that.
The small eucalyptus fruit bowl was a test to see if i could, so were the faces, the small one i call serenity. The eucalyptus earings, i wanted to show some of the amazing colours of our gum leaves. There’s so many variations. The animals i made for me they’re little memoirs of furry friends lost
I love working on the pottery i get into a peaceful space and just let the clay tell me what it will be. I never really understood that when whittlers and such would say the carving was in the wood just waiting to be revealed. But now i get it!
I am working on a sea scape bowl set, experimenting with glazes to reflect different seas. Wavey deep blue sea, tropical sea, and sunset sea. Can’t wait to see they turn out. The sunset sea is the most difficult to come up with as there’s so many variations on the theme, and I’m looking for a combination that resonates with me like the sunsets over Tin Can Bay do.
