Sigrid Patterson

Trimmings

43 x 63 cm

Acrylic on canvas

Sigrid is an award winning artist working in both oils and acrylics.

Based in northern NSW, Sigrid is surrounded by the natural environment and is growing a large native garden that is often the inspiration for her still life paintings. She is passionate about using art to tell stories and capture everyday moments. These often include native flowers that tell stories of her continuous learning about the environment or to reflect her commentary on community and social issues.

Trimmings show a young banksia pod that was snapped off the tree by a young Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo. ‘There’s a flock of around 70 of these birds that visit my garden most days and along with the wallabies and koalas, keep the gardens pruned and my studio full of trimmings.’

Astrid Dahl

Unfulfilled Dreams

85 x 100cm

Oil and acrylic on canvas

Astrid is inspired by the un-known and how it interacts with the known, namely the natural landscape.

‘The sometimes soft feathery treatment in my work, is one side of nature that is gentle and benign while there are courser, highly textured elements that can represent danger. To me the landscape can be, fragile, ferocious, aweinspiring, humbling and fearful – often simultaneously. Deserts and salt lakes are my places of refuge and inspiration, having made numerous trips to the desert areas around Australia’s outback.

My work shifts between being ‘more abstract’ and ‘less abstract’, depending on environment and reflective thoughts. The transient nature of life and my creative responses are also subject to those changes and mutations. Nature in all its forms, is always changing, being reborn and mutating. My paintings are my personal way of making sense of those constant changes in time, environment and circumstances through landscape. The truth is we probably have no single sense of where we belong in any given time. As an artist, these places get mixed up with preconceptions, cultural significance and our deeper spiritual feelings. On this earth, we are as one’.

Mela Cooke

On The Edge

Male 70 x 26 cm

Fremale 70 x 41cm Bronze Sculpture

Mela is a Brisbane-based sculptor working in clay and casting in bronze.

With a background as a physiotherapist, Mela has always had an appreciation of the human form.

When sculpting, she draws on friends and family as models. Mela endeavours to capture the character of the individual; in the end it is the essence of the person that is most important for her to translate into the work.

On The Edge is a continuation of the series of bronze swimmers created by Mela which reflect the connections to both the water and the community this beloved pastime creates.

Featuring a male and female swimmer sitting on the edge of the pool, this sculpture captures the moment when the sun is rising and they have pulled their togs on, ready to jump into that crisp water, an experience frequently shared by many Australians.