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 is an award-winning painter living and working in open bushland at Chatsworth near Gympie.
This environment, its imagery and ambience, inevitably influences her work both consciously and unconsciously. Barrett is deeply interested in the complex entanglement between the creative process and the spiritual path. Memories of external landscape imagery and internal states of being are entwined in the process of each oil and cold wax painting.
She has had 18 solo exhibitions and her work is contained in numerous public and private collections in Australia and internationally. Her work is published in the comprehensive internationally acclaimed publication, COLD WAX MEDIUM: Techniques and Conversations by Rebecca Crowell and Jerry McLaughlin.
Barrett graduated in Fine Arts (painting and drawing) from Brisbane College of Art in 1975 and more recently has studied with renowned artists and tutors Anneke Silver, Michael Winters, Dr Christine Kirkegard, Peter Griffen, Glen Skien and Geoff Dupree.
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Zela Bissett grew up during the 1950s and 60s on Butchulla Country in Maryborough and Hervey Bay. Her family were somewhat bemused by her inclination towards the visual and word arts but through the intervention of her “Uncle” Gough she was able to attend university, become a teacher and foster similar leanings in other unlikely young people. She makes art works, writes poetry, prose, plays and polemic, occasionally published. She regularly deconstructs her life via speeches for her Toastmasters club, shows work in art galleries and other locations, and as a speaker has taken part in panel discussions, spoken word performances and pecha kucha evenings.
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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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‘Making visual stories to lift and inspire the spirit and heart.’
Victoria’s work explores life from a slightly different angle, using symbol and metaphor for the spiritual stories and memories of life depicted through everyday objects. There is a particular interest in the narrative of the daily ritual use of cups & teapots that connect us to both past and present. A part of which includes revisiting the story of ‘Through the Looking Glass,’ bending the boundaries between dream and reality, in its multiple layers.
Through entering various Art Competitions over 20 plus years, she has enjoyed the honour of being awarded many 1st Prizes for both her Still Life and Portraiture. More recently in 2017, she was selected as a Semi Finalist for the coveted Doug Moran National Portrait Prize.
This year of 2021 has seen the launch of her Children’s Book, ‘WHO ARE YOU? An exploration of identity and value. Now available for purchase through Koorong and Amazon Book outlets. Victoria’s second published book.
Currently represented at the galleries listed below along with a list of memberships & has representation in the Australian Catholic University Collection of Canberra, Caboolture Mental Health Facility, the Art Edit magazine, Eyeline Contemporary Visual Arts Publications and various personal collections both in Australia and overseas.
Also recently selected to design and paint a Commemorative Plinth to celebrate the 20 Year Anniversary of the Mary Valley Arts Festival, which will be taken on tour through various Galleries across the Sunshine Coast.
INSTAGRAM; VICTORIAVISIONS
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WWW.ARTS CONNECTINC.COM
VISIONARIES ARTISTS OF FAITH
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Fiona Groom’s artistic journey started with a variety of art courses which included Diploma of Visual Arts , and concluded with a BA Double Major Fine Arts, Visual Culture. Professionally Fiona’s activities have included exhibitions in a variety of State and National Arts Festivals as well as Group Shows, including an International Art Exhibitions in Florence, the US, Scotland and in addition to those shows Fiona has donated and displayed works in the Explorers Against Extinction presentation in London. Ms. Groom’s work has been purchased and shown in private collections throughout the world, here in Australia, the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Europe, Singapore and the US. Some recent publications have seen her art feature in Creative Artist Magazine, Artist Palette Magazine, as well as several international Art Book publications and in addition to that she had the chance to feature in a TV episode of Put Some Colour in Your Life.
Ms. Groom continues to volunteer in several Community Galleries on the Coast which has given her plenty of occasion to work with other Artists, organize and present art and become involved in an assortment of local community events, group exhibitions, art projects, painting workshops, and art group tutoring and community based Artisan Markets. Furthermore, Fiona has also had the opportunity to create her art large scale with the chance to create Animal art murals…
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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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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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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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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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Architect and Artist
I have always enjoyed drawing and sketching for pleasure.
I commenced an Art Course by correspondence at age 9, began
Architecture studies from 1965, Life drawing classes at 19 and through working life, an accomplished caricature artist from high school days. Introduced both wife Narelle and daughter Helen to Life Drawing. Participated and supported annual plein air Painters@Mudgee with Narelle, 2003 to 2012. Retired from Brisbane to Lagoon Pocket, 2005. Early member of Mary Valley ArtsLink, 2007. Participated in anti dam campaign. Exhibited life size political caricatures, Bligh and Garret, Gympie Art Gallery, 2010. Self published 2019, Citroen DS automotive book featuring 120 pen and ink, pencil and water colour sketches.. Enjoying recent return to Life Drawing Class with tutor Pat Cale. Former member Sculptors Society, Brisbane. Developed a true passion for sculpture through early architectural training with inherent ability to think and create in three dimensions. Latest creation, artistic timber and stainless steel cable suspension structures as external garden seats. Continuing my many hand skills in retirement has been therapeutic.
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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.
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.
From making the models for ‘tick, tock, what’s under the clock today’ for Playschool, tombstone art, graphic design, paste up artist, tutor, set design, community artist, desktop publisher, papermaking and basketmaking to running the Gympie Regional Gallery for over 22 years, Joolie Gibbs brings a wealth of experience from a career spanning over 40 years in arts related industries.
Completing her Masters of Art in Fine Art (MAVA) at the Queensland College of Art, Brisbane, connected her once again with her own art practice, taking it in new directions, which she is keenly looking forward to finding that direction since recently retiring from the paid workforce mid Covid.
I’m in love with my natural surroundings. I need to live in the bush; I love the intimacy it offers; the sanctuary. I love the starkness of the desert, the majesty of the mountains, the ever-changing ocean.
I am seduced by the Australian landscape and travel widely to find inspiration. There, I am compelled to write poetry or represent what I see in the visual ways through painting.
I love the use of watercolour. To me, it is a way to depict the air, the wind, the sound of waves. The works become lyrical and light as the watercolour bends and flows with its own magic properties. As an artist, it is my mission to capture landscape in the ways.
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.
Sutton Street Studio artist Sally Luchich, from Brooloo, tells us that she began painting years ago when she lived in Darwin.
“My mentor encouraged the use of photos as a jumping off point and I developed interpretations of scenes I enjoyed. I began with pastels using a strong style which relied heavily on bold colour. This passion for colour has remained with me in the use of other mediums.
“My style is relaxed rushing if that makes sense. I don’t generally labour for hours on any one piece of work, that often being for me, a recipe for a disaster. I am still learning when to stop.
“I am not formally trained in visual arts (rather in Ceramics) and although the thought of seeking formal tuition sometimes crosses my mind, I am happy to be free from the expectation of justifying my methods and thought processes. As much as I love researching, reading and understanding, I really don’t fancy any more assignment writing. Four years doing my Bachelor of Education, followed by numerous other unrelated courses of study most of which were used in voluntary roles remind me that time can be better spent.
Since coming to the Mary Valley, Sally has been able to immerse herself amongst a range of talented and dedicated people who understand the true worth of artistic pursuits. Their daily enthusiasm is not just encouraging for individuals like herself, but heart-warming and essential for the continued respect and recognition which the creative arts industry deserves.
“I am thankful for belonging to Mary Valley Artslink who have made this all possible. Without creativity our world would be bare and our minds dull.”
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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.