Pictured above: “Hiding in Plain Sight” Quilt, finalist in Holmes Realistic Bird Art Prize, 2022
It has been another busy year of creating art, finding new pathways and enjoying life in general. A quick run down of all that the year 2022 has brought me –
I joined the Queensland Wildlife Artists Society and began exhibiting with them. I was fortunate enough to win an encouragement award in the exhibition held at the Logan Art Gallery. I have made new friends with like minded artists, enjoyed a workshop learning how to paint native orchids, and joined the committee to help run this fabulous group of dedicated artists. It is rewarding to be a part of something that promotes and highlights conservation and looking after our beautiful flora and fauna whilst creating wonderful art.
I attended 2 more workshops through Nature Art Lab, one on drawing birds, which was good to get back to basics and to practice with others. The second was on photographing birds, a great hands on weekend to get me improving my camera operating skills. I regularly go for walks with my camera, as all my art is done from my own reference photos. This gives a lovely balance between time in the studio and time out in fresh air exercising and exploring my local area.
Awards were won at the Ekka, another 2 ribbons added to my stash! It was fabulous to get to go this year and see the quilt exhibition, I hadn’t been in years.
My sole quilt I made this year was for the Holmes Realistic Australian Bird Art Prize, which made it in as a finalist. It is always such an honour to be a part of this exhibition, and even better that it is always held in my area, making it so easy to be a part of. I am hoping in 2023 I get to make a few more quilts, but time will tell.
I participated in the Downlands Exhibition in Toowoomba, the fabulous Joanne from Maleny Art Direct took 8 of my embroidered paintings as my gallery representative, and they all sold! Fantastic!
I spent the better part of 12 months working on coloured pencil drawings of native birds. Once they were all framed up they went off to Maleny Art Direct, where they have been well received with several quickly selling and off to their forever homes. I began producing prints of seven of them, which are also selling well, which is a cost effective option for those that can’t afford an original. I love the high detail I can get with coloured pencils, although the process is quite slow. I have more planned for 2023.
Life slowed me down towards the end of the year, with surgery in October. Recovery has been slow and steady and was a success. Christmas and family have been wonderful as ever, and a lovely time of year to relax and take a break. It is now time to get busy again, time to think about competition entries, making art to restock the galleries and ramp up that creativity again. I hope you all had a fabulous 2022, and a big thank you to all my supporters, those who bought my art, and those who encourage me to keep on going.
2023 will see me join again with the Textile Art Group for another exhibition at Bribie Island mid year, after our highly successful exhibition in 2021. I have started creating for it, so stay tuned! There will be exhibitions with the Qld Wildlife Artists Society, a few competitions entered along the way, as well as my usual gallery spaces at Maleny Art Direct and Seaview Artists Gallery to keep ticking over.