Sandra McMahon

Sandra McMahon

CREATIVE PRACTICE

Sandra McMahon is a visual artist whose practice includes painting, drawing and design.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My interest in how we construct spaces; spaces to live, work, play and the division and perception of space. I am also interested in our response to colour and the emotional effect colour can have on space; it can calm or excite; it can recede or dominate. Colour, shape, pattern, repetition, harmony, discord, balance and texture are fundamental elements. Removing an object or subject from my work allows me to concentrate on making these elements the primary reason for creating. My work then becomes a mind game of problem solving – how big, what format, what shape or line, which colour, how will they work together? I endeavour to produce work that is resolved and visually pleasing.

BIO

Sandra McMahon lives and works in Tamworth NSW. Sandra has been working in the Visual Arts for over 35 years. Staring out her career as a Visual Arts teacher/ lecturer at NSW TAFE for 8 years before moving into the gallery sector where she has worked across a range of positions at 3 Regional Galleries and 3 Commercial Galleries in NSW and ACT. Sandra holds a Diploma of Visual Arts (TAFE), a Graduate Diploma in Art History and Curating (ANU), and a Diploma of Management (UNEP). She also holds a Cert IV in Training Assessment and Education (TCC) and is a registered Art Valuer under the Australian Governments Cultural Gifts Program. Sandra McMahon was awarded the Windmill Trust Scholarship in 2004 and has undertaken residencies at Hill End, Bathurst in 2005, Tweed Regional Gallery in 2017, Annandale Sydney in 2019, at Kandos, NSW and at Cockatoo Island, Sydney in 2021. She has been a finalist in the JADA Drawing Prize, NSW; John Leslie Art Prize, VIC; Art on Paper Prize, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, NSW; Muswellbrook Drawing Prize, NSW; The Belle Art Prize, VIC; 10th International Polish Drawing Biennale, VIC. Her work has been included in numerous group shows and she has held several individual exhibitions. Her work is held in both private and public collections.

CONTACT

0438 235 657
sbmcmahon@bigpond.com

Alison Goodwin

Alison Goodwin

CREATIVE PRACTICE

Studio practice includes exhibitions and art commissions in two dimensional media. Oil painting and Works on Paper that include - water colour, gouache, mixed media drawing and printmaking.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My natural inclination to sketch and love of mark making are integral to the development of my art works. Inspiration for my artworks are frequently connected to the photographs that I take of my home environment and when I travel. Scrolling through my photographs provide the source imagery and affirm my landscape experiences, that are redolent of the change of season, the shifting atmospherics and the play of light and colour on shapes and landforms.

BIO

Artist and Educator. My studio practice includes exhibitions and art commissions. Experienced in program planning and delivery - my professional teaching and facilitation in the visual arts encompass community projects and tertiary engagements in Australia and the United Kingdom.

Qualifications include:

Post Graduate Diploma - Fine Art Printmaking

Post Graduate Diploma - Art Education

Certificate IV TAE40110 Certificate IV Training & Assessment

Artwork represented in:

Australian National Gallery Canberra

Art Gallery of South Australia

Print Council of Australia. Brisbane City Art Gallery

University of SA Library, Uni. of Central Queensland

Parliament House ACT

Flinders University Library Collection

Canson Australia PTY. LTD. Vic.

University of Newcastle Union

Private Collections in Australia and Europe

Solo Exhibition - Weswal Gallery - Reminiscence 2019

Group Exhibitions - Weswal Gallery Small Joys 2019

Group Exhibitions - Weswal Gallery Small Joys 2020

CONTACT

0427 138 357
alisongoodwin890@gmail.com

Craig Drew

Craig Drew

CREATIVE PRACTICE

Blacksmith

ARTIST STATEMENT

My aim is to preserve the skill of forging hot steel with a focus on both traditional and contemporary techniques by creating products that are visually pleasing. I believe providing affordable educational experiences are key to the future of blacksmithing.

BIO

Blacksmithing Apprenticeship 1984-87. Winston Churchill Fellow, 1996. Silver Medal at Blacksmith World Championships 2017. Ypres 2016 Blacksmithing event. Exhibition 'Gone but not Forgotten' at Tamworth Regional Gallery 1995 and FE26 2018 at Glasshouse Gallery Port Macquarie.

CONTACT

0407 005 557
drewy13@bigpond.com or use the form below.

Glenn Cooper

Glenn Cooper

CREATIVE PRACTICE

Mixed media collage.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Glenn Cooper is a mixed media collage artist who is drawn to the incomplete, the fragmentary and the discarded. He likes to give new life to forgotten objects. His collages are composed of vintage materials such as antique books, letters, receipts, magazines, newspapers, mesh, postage stamps, cigarette cards and corrugated cardboard. Many of his collages are augmented with charcoal graphite and acrylic paint. He likes to find worth in what has been deemed worthless.

BIO

Solo exhibition at Blackstone Gallery, Newcastle, 2019.
Solo exhibition at Weswal Gallery, Tamworth, 2020.

CONTACT

0472 762 866
glennwaynecooper@gmail.com

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Leslye Cole

Leslye Cole

CREATIVE PRACTICE

Born in Sydney, Leslye Cole’s love of the Australian bush began in childhood, exploring the nature reserve in front of her family home in the leafy North Shore suburb of Lane Cove. After a successful commercial art career as a designer and illustrator in Sydney, she moved to regional NSW in 2012, commencing full time fine art studio practice the same year. She currently lives and works on a 100 acre cattle stud farm SE of Tamworth, NSW. A self taught artist, Cole’s genre works are realistic oil on canvas paintings, using the alla prima technique. Great importance is placed on composition, with objects cropped in a cinematic-style to create the impression of moving in on the subject or scene (a technique honed while working as an art director and storyboard artist). The slow drying and transparent qualities of oils suit the wet-on-wet style as Cole strives to capture the light, action and atmosphere of the moment. Her mixed media portraits are influenced by the Japanese aesthetic, especially their concept of ‘ma’ — or the space between the structural elements. Capturing the essence of the subject becomes an exercise in positive and negative space. A background shape is built up with layers of acrylic wash. Structural lines are drawn with pastel, shadows and highlights then blocked in with black and white gouache. The ‘accidental’ watery drips become part of the composition. The subject appears to emerge out of the background.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My body of work is a narrative of contemporary country life in Australia: the people who live and work on the land going about their day-to-day activities and the individual animals I come across, set in the beauty of the Australian rural landscape. I am especially interested in the interactions of humans with the animals they depend on, the trust that develops between them, and the extensive knowledge these people have of their environment and nature around them. With admiration and curiosity I observe country life with city eyes, using a documentary approach similar to a photojournalist. Alongside this pastoral work, I return to my first artistic love of portraiture, fulfilling numerous commissions a year.

BIO

Solo Exhibitions: 2019 Weswal Gallery, Tamworth, NSW

2016 Weswal Gallery, Tamworth, NSW

Awards: 2019 Finalist — Portia Geach Memorial Award, for Australian female portraitists, S H Ervin

Gallery, Sydney

2018 Packing Room Prize — Frost Over Barraba, NSW; Finalist — Stanthorpe Art Prize, Stanthorpe, QLD;

Category Winner “Traditional” sec2on — Nundle Art Show, NSW

2016 Category Winner — Nundle Art Show, NSW; Category Winner — Currububula Art Show, NSW

2015 Pat Hill Memorial Prize — Nundle Art Show, NSW

2014 People’s Choice Award — Frost Over Barraba, NSW

2013 First Prize — Quirindi Show, NSW; Finalist — Inglis Equine Art Prize, Sydney and touring exhibition

2012 Finalist — Sir John Sulman Prize, The Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney; Category Winner — Nundle Art Show, NSW

2011 Finalist — Inglis Equine Art Prize, Newmarket, Sydney and touring exhibition

2008 People’s Choice — Amnesty International ARTicles Exhibition, NSW

2006 Semi-finalist, People’s Choice — Amnesty International HumanRights Exhibition, NSW

2017 Judge for the Nundle Art Show, NSW

2004 Residence, Arthur Boyd’s Bundanon Trust, Riversdale, Illaroo, NSW

CONTACT

leslye.cole@gmail.com

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Marilynne Barnes

Marilynne Barnes

CREATIVE PRACTICE

Figurative artist in painting drawing and sculpture.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I am a drawer, painter, sculptor of people. I love the shapes found in and around the human form. Body language is a fascination to me. I try to capture the slight nuances of movement within the human body that relay the mood of the subject. I want the viewer to be able to recognize what the subject is feeling, to believe that they are seeing some secret part of that person. I love to draw and draw and draw some more. Sometimes I think that painting gets in the way of a good drawing. Nevertheless, I do enjoy painting and my techniques vary from thin layers of glazes to thick textured surfaces. Every work is an experiment for me. I allow the work to dictate what technique I will use and often I am taken on a completely different direction to the one I started on. Every work is a new and exciting journey for me.

BIO

2001 Advanced Diploma Fine Arts Tamworth TAFE

2000 Diploma Fine Arts Tamworth TAFE

1997 Certificate IV fine arts Tamworth TAFE

1996 Book Illustration RMIT

1981 Bachelor Fine Arts Newcastle University ( 2 3rds completed )

1965 Lessons with John Ogburn Sydney

I have been lucky to have known and worked with some very talented artists who have been generous with sharing their knowledge with me. These experiences have been the most rewarding and influential ones in my artistic journey.

CONTACT

0417336278
marilynnebarnes@outlook.com

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Denise N Rall

Denise N Rall

CREATIVE PRACTICE

Deconstruction and re-assemblage of recycled garments that are embellished with lace, buttons, beads, trims and materials found on hand.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Dr Denise N. Rall is an adjunct fellow in Humanities and Social Sciences at Southern Cross University, in Lismore, New South Wales and an adjunct lecturer in the School of Humanities , Arts and Social Sciences at the University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia. In 2009, her research into textiles followed after her Certificate IV accreditation in Costume from NSW TAFE. Her eclectic research interests include textiles, fashion and wearable art, and how technology and the Internet have changed women's roles in computing, domestic work, craft, and social protest. She currently examines the narratives surrounding the clothing of women in political positions. Rall's textile work focuses on reconstructing and re-assembling recycled clothing to provoke the audience to rethink fashion as 'new' along provocative themes such as: Fashion & War, Fractured Royals, and The Suffragettes - Women's Right to Vote.

BIO

Dr Denise N. Rall began her journey into recycled textiles following her Certificate IV accreditation in Costume from NSW TAFE. Her eclectic research interests include textile artworks, fashion and wearable art, with links to women's domestic work, and craft as social protest, or craftivism. Rall's textile work focuses on reconstructing and re-assembling recycled clothing to provoke the audience to rethink fashion as 'new' along provocative themes such as: Fashion & War, Fractured Royals, and The Suffragettes - Women's Right to Vote. She has exhibited at RMIT's Textiles & Fashion program in Melbourne, at Curtin University's Fashion & Design Course, and lectured at the University of Adelaide, Sydney University, in Brisbane, and Wellington, New Zealand on the topics including fashion, craft, reconstruction and re-use of the 'all ready made' as well as the cultural significance of mending.

CONTACT

denrall@yahoo.com or use the form below.

Kylie Heidrich

Kylie Heidrich

CREATIVE PRACTICE

Kylie of Peakvue Studio creates handbuilt, functional and decorative ceramic wares that reflect simple country life.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Kylie's practice combines the traditional techniques of slab building, pinching and coiling to create beautiful ceramic wares. Hand building, as opposed to wheel throwing, really allows the 'hand of the maker' to shine through in each finished item. Every piece is slightly different. Highly influenced by her surrounds and rural community, Kylie's ceramics feature botanical prints, delicate patterns, textured carvings and simple phrases to remind us to slow down and take notice. She utilises gentle, neutral tones in stoneware clay and food safe glazes.

BIO

I have always been a maker. I've intuitively sought new creative interests since a young age. I'll readily have a go at anything to build new skills and satisfy my curiosity. I then reflect, edit, adapt and combine ideas to share my own voice. Self taught artist. 1st Prize- Abstract Tenterfield Show 2019. 1st and 2nd Prize- Figurative Tenterfield Show 2020. 1st Prize- 3D Artwork Tenterfield Show 2020. 1st Prize- 3D Artwork Tenterfield Show 2021. Hanger Prize Tenterfield Show 2021. 3rd Prize Australiana Prize ASC Tenterfield 2021.

CONTACT

info@peakvuestudio.com or use the form below.

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Mary Ann Svenson

Mary Ann Svenson

CREATIVE PRACTICE

Spinning, Weaving, Felting, Needle Felting, Creating Brooches, Tabards, Scarves, Hats, Gnomes and more.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I have been a spinner and weaver for over 25 years. Using beautiful natural fibres such as Merino, Polwarth, Alpaca and silk in vibrant colours. I create ponchos, tabards, scarves and needle felted brooches and gnomes. My knitted and felted hats are also something I enjoy creating. Being a part of Make It Tenterfield means I am able to show case my work every day of the week.

BIO

Tenterfield TAFE Certificate Spinning, Weaving, Dyeing, Design. TAFE Sewing and Textile. Exhibited Stanthorpe Art Prize 2018. Granite Belt Arts Trail 2019. Warwick Jumpers and Jazz since 2012. Borderline Art Exhibition.

CONTACT

maryannsvenson@gmail.com or use the form below.

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Julia Griffin

Julia Griffin

CREATIVE PRACTICE

Painter

ARTIST STATEMENT

I tend to choose my subjects by coming back to a spot which has consistently left me with a strong impression or by catching moments when the elements of a place are caught in the spotlight from the changing light. The weather is reflected in the landscape, as is the presence of man in the way he has delineated the landscape with roads and fences that follow the contours of the land, pegging out territory, asserting control and ownership. Whether it is a landscape or an interior I try to strike a chord of recognition, of a moment that was real and is familiar to me and the viewer. Homes that are abandoned hold a particular interest for me; these places hold memories and the remnants of another life and time. The date of a calendar bookmarking the time of abandonment and the interplay of shadowed empty rooms and light through lace curtains create a poignant stillness. It is the light that creates an inner life to these spaces and very often it is the sense of absence that becomes the present.

BIO

I began my practice after finishing my studies as a printmaker at Sydney College of the Arts where I met my future husband Stephen King. When I moved to Walcha in 1982 to live on Stephen’s family farm I continued my printmaking with monoprints and etchings but moved to painting in 1990 working in both watercolours and oils. Interiors, the fronts of houses and the backs of trucks held a fascination for me, but gradually I started to paint the landscape in which I live and particularly what I see from the road. Photography is an important tool in my painting practice. More recently we built a new printmaking and painting studio. I have returned to making multiple plate colour etchings of interiors and continue my exploration of light and the landscape close to home and remote locations to which I travel around Australia.

CONTACT

.juliagriffinking@gmail.com or use the form below.

Stephen King

Stephen King

CREATIVE PRACTICE

Sculptor

ARTIST STATEMENT

I make sculpture out of wood, sometimes figurative, sometimes abstract constructions. We have good hardwoods on our farm. I drag the logs to my studio and chop them into shape.

If I’m working on an abstract construction I mostly build a scaled marquette before I start the work so almost no creative decisions need to be made during the construction stage. I cut the logs into trussed beams of my own design, making constructions based on the grid.

BIO

Art school in Toowoomba, then thirty years exhibiting painting and sculpture in Sydney.

23 years teaching part-time in the sculpture studio at the National Art School. Working full time from Walcha for a decade now.

23 Solo Exhibitions.

18 times Sculpture by the Sea exhibitor.

Public commissions including the cities of Tamworth, Walcha and Glen Innes.

CONTACT

Via website.

James Rogers

James Rogers

CREATIVE PRACTICE

Sculptor

ARTIST STATEMENT

I make sculpture from steel. Compositions of elements, hand cut using the blow torch, are joined up with the aid of the electric welder. Nature’s rhythms are complicit in the organization of the aggregations and as the work finds its space and physical structure, the poetic dimension is invoked.

BIO

Art school in Toowoomba, then thirty years exhibiting painting and sculpture in Sydney.

23 years teaching part-time in the sculpture studio at the National Art School. Working full time from Walcha for a decade now.

23 Solo Exhibitions.

18 times Sculpture by the Sea exhibitor.

Public commissions including the cities of Tamworth, Walcha and Glen Innes.

CONTACT

Via website or using the form below.

Nick Osmond

Nick Osmond

CREATIVE PRACTICE

Abstract Figurative and Acrylic on canvas

ARTIST STATEMENT

BIO

Sydney Uni 1997-2000
Sydney Oslen Irwin
Rude Assembly
Gallery 90 (Oxford St)
Cooks Hill (Newcastle)

Group exhibitions:
Studio Gallery, Melbourne
Groupshow @ 19 Karen, Gold Coast
30th Anniversary exhibition @ BAMM

Semifinalist @ Doug Moran 2018
Featured Artist Profile Magazine 2018

CONTACT

Via Instagram or TEXT ONLY 0428 335 775

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Belinda Williams

Belinda Williams

CREATIVE PRACTICE

Watercolour artist

CONTACT

Via Facebook or Instagram or the form below.

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Nicole Alexander

Nicole Alexander

CREATIVE PRACTICE

Nicole is an internationally published author - novels, poetry, travel, creative writing and genealogy articles.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I write primarily historical fiction to better understand the present and the future through the lens of the past. In writing I celebrate the craft of storytelling which has developed from the ancient practice of indigenous rock art, interpretive dance and stories shared around campfires to the written word. Historical fiction has a wonderous time-travel element. It introduces and illuminates a particular period from the past exposing lives and untold stories whether based on real events or highly imagined. It allows the reader to engage with and ponder worlds that we can never fully comprehend. And it is that step back in time, into the unknown that is so enticing.

BIO

Master of Letters in creative writing

Shortlisted - 2011 Australian Book Industry Awards Debut Author - The Bark Cutters

Awarded: The NSW 2012 Barwon Woman of the Year – part of the 2012 NSW Woman of the Year

Awards – recognised for literary talent and promoting Australia’s pastoral history

Chair of Judging - 2021 ARA Historical Novel Prize Australasia

Judge - Inaugural 2019 Colleen McCullough Residency Award for historical fiction authors

Past judge - Elyne Mitchell Writing Awards

Nicole’s novels, poetry, travel, creative writing and genealogy articles have been published in Australia, America, Singapore, Ukraine, Germany, New Zealand & Canada. She is the author of ten historical fiction novels. Non-fiction works include Divertissements: Love. War. Society (2008). She was a contributor to the National Breast cancer Foundation anthology (2013) Dear Mum & The Great Australian Writers Collection 2013

CONTACT

westmurki@bigpond.com

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Mona Fernando

Mona Fernando

CREATIVE PRACTICE

• Creative weaving practice using locally sourced materials incorporating contemporary Ganularoi Art

• Using rope, grasses and other materials

• Evolving weaving practice as a way to connect elders, materials and community together

• Carrying down storylines and knowledge from my elders past and present for future generations.

  
  ARTIST STATEMENT

Mona is an Indigenous Gomeroi artist born in Mungindi and living in Moree. She has always had a love of culture, arts and crafts. Her practice is split between creative weaving, including woven wall art, hanging baskets and coolamons incorporating native grasses and dyes, and painting. Mona’s art is an evolving practice that connects her spiritually with her family, carrying storylines and knowledge from her elders past and present for future generations. She often incorporates locally sourced materials including grasses, gum nuts and feathers. ‘This art form of documentation is very important to me, especially now that I am a proud mother and grandmother and have my own descendants to show and teach.’

Mona’s artworks are on sale through Yaama Ganu Moree, including available workshops for groups (local and visiting) and community.

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CONTACT

Email: munrofernandomona@gmail.com

Instagram: @mona.artandcrafts

Mark Washington

Mark Washington

CREATIVE PRACTICE

Kamilaroi/Gomeroi visual artist

ARTIST STATEMENT

I was born in November, 1975 in Moree. I am from the Kamilaroi tribe. There are six in my family. Now I have three kids of my own and two beautiful grannies.

I have been doing art for a while now before coming to TAFE. I used to go to Yurrandaali here in Moree to do art and screen printing. The printed fabric then went overseas. It was here I met Ken Done and he sponsored us to do our screen printing which was made into fashion. We had all the technology. The fashion was even sold in Club Meds.

I have been studying Certificate Ill Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural art at TAFE this year but it feels like longer. I am really enjoying it. We have done so much this year.

I have enjoyed learning about painting, improving my dot art and landscaping. I have also loved doing carving and sculptures. Carving has been a big part of our culture here on the Mehi River over the generations. I have also used the carvings designs I have done on bark on lino prints which have come up really good. They have sold well with tourists. I have also carved designs into emu eggs and then paint them too.

I have also had a go at jewellery making using echidna quills and quandong seed to make necklace.

I love art. It makes me feel calm.

CONTACT

Via Moree TAFE (Mehi Gallery and Studio)