ART POST UKI
Supporting Artists, Supporting Community
Since our first exhibition in February 2018, we have raised over $75,000 for local artists. Art Post Uki has also supported the community by developing a unique opportunity for locals and visitors to engage in a special way. If you would like to exhibit at Art Post please contact us to discuss the opportunity further.
David Preston's - Painting of the Post Office. Copyright D. Preston 2018
Matt Ottley
The Art of Children's Books| February 2018
Matt Ottley is an award winning multi-modal artist, working equally across the fields of literature, visual arts and music. Matt has had 35 picture books published and his work also appears in more than thirty nonfiction books. His awards include the CBCA Picture Book of the Year and both the Queensland & NSW Premiers Awards for literature. His international awards include Ibby Honour Book for Australia and a White Ravens listing, Bologna. He is also an Endorsed Yamaha Musician and currently works as a composer with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. ‘For me the ancient art of book illustration is ironically not about the words in the story. As a story unfolds, the paintings connect the author’s words with the reader’s own lived experience.’
Heather McClelland
Bold Yet Tender | March 2018
Heather McClelland’s BOLD YET TENDER exhibition was inspired by the local geography and takes in an eclectic mix of portraiture, life drawing and landscape. The works which were on display at Art Post Uki were part of her new series “Contours of the Caldera”’.
“I enjoy creating layers in my work, playing with colour and print effects, says Heather. In my search for form and perspective surprises often spring to life on the canvas”.
Heather and her husband Brian arrived in Uki in 2010 and have cemented a place for themselves within the local community through art, charity work and music. Heather has had a career as secondary teacher and therapist, and taught for eight years in Bangladesh, where she and Brian formed an ongoing relationship with an NGO called Symbiosis. Symbiosis supports marginalised women in the north of Bangladesh and profits from sales of her work go to that organisation.
Tina Wilson
An Intimate Nature | May 2018
Tina Wilson received a Bachelor of Arts (Visual Arts) from Newcastle University, majoring in Plant and Wildlife Illustration in 1996. She has worked as a visual artist and graphic designer across Australia for over 20 years.
While living in Perth and working as a graphic designer, Tina created Western Australia’s very own national art prize – the Black Swan Prize for Portraiture. As its founder and executive director for ten years, she was delighted to see it grow into Australia’s third richest portrait prize and the only one of its kind in WA.
In 2013 Tina was awarded the City of Perth Premier’s Active Citizenship Award for her contribution to the arts. The Black Swan Prize for Portraiture is now proudly exhibited at the Art Gallery of Western Australia each year.
Following its success, Tina resigned in 2017 to return to her own creative practice.
Tina now lives with her partner in Uki, a small village in the Northern Rivers, NSW. She spends her time painting, drawing, writing, curating exhibitions and creating children’s books.
Julia Collingwood
Dark Fables| June 2018
Julia was born in Scotland and spent her early childhood in London. It was during this time when she spent long summer holidays on a remote island off the coast of North Wales that she developed her
passion for drawing and art.
After an overland journey to Australia in 1961 her family permanently migrated in 1965 and made Sydney their home. Her father, Peter Collingwood was a well-known stage and TV actor in both the
UK and Australia and her mother, Margery also worked in the theatre and was an actress.
In 2017 single and with her family grown Julia, decided after working in Darwin for five years to relocate to Uki, where she now lived for more than a year.
Julia’s inspiration for Dark Fables was not conscious but likely rose from her earlier years in England (the rain, the bleakness), her renewed interest in British artist such as Francis Bacon and the poetry of Ted Hughes, and her love of black and white films
Uki Public School
September 2018
David Preston mentored children of the Uki Primary and they responded with imaginative and unique works that reflected their love of making art and their environment.
Michael Willard
Self Evolution | October 2018
As a Uki resident of only two years, Michael says he is now finding the motivation to expand his personal technical and broaden his expressive limits. This exhibition will not only represent him in recent years but, more importantly, provide a point of departure into a less safe and guarded creative space
Lynden Stone
Sacred Gaia Healing | December 2018
Stokers Siding Artist Lynden Stone presents an exhibition of artwork and performance from her Sacred Gaia Healing™ project which scrutinizes blatant capitalist tactics that target New Age naivety. Stone states, "these capitalist tactics offer over-valued, spurious services and products that demean any possible underlying merit in metaphysical beliefs. It is not these beliefs that I seek to critique. Nor do I wish to demean people who genuinely hold New Age beliefs, however radical. Rather, my target is exploitative capitalist practices such as co-opting ecological concerns, quantum physics and Gaia/Earth worship to rationalise and promote bogus goods and services."
Dieter Irving
Horizons and Beyond | January 2019
Peaks and Flowers | August 2022
Dieter’s love affair with the Australian bush began in 1971. “I instantly fell in love with the bush and Australian light. I loved the expansion of the landscape and the big sky just blew my mind.” Dieter said he felt a freedom he never felt in the European Landscape." In 1971 Dieter migrated to Australia and a whole new way of life- marriage, children. 1976 his first exhibition at the Hogarth Gallery in Sydney. Dieter was encouraged to study art and enrolled at the Academy of Art in Mannheim where for one year he was in the master class of six students tutored by the expressionist Artists Paul Bergner and Hans Meistermann. After his four years at the Academy he became a practising artist and taught at the Rudolf Steiner primary school in Frankfurt for two years. In 1969 he was one of three young artists who opened their own gallery in Gross-Gerau as well as exhibiting their own work in Russelsheim, Weinheim and Heidleberg.
Vrinda Gleeson
Am I Dancing Alone | March 2019
200km east of Delhi there is a village that is considered one of the most significant places of pilgrimage in India, Vrindavan Dham. The people who live there are known as the Vrajbasis, ‘the people of Vraj’. The Vrajbasi’s are considered some of the most devout Krishna devotees, the deity of Krsna quite literally being their life and soul. From September 2017 to April 2018 Vrinda lived amongst Vrajbasi devotees and observed the daily going-ons of their lives.
What started as a visual diary evolved as both a daily meditation and an exploration of ‘spiritual work’. As concepts, Vrinda often think of ‘spiritual work’ and ‘material work’ to be two very separate activities. Vrinda says, we are either praying or working. This binary between the things that are sacred in our day and those that are mundane permeated her religious upbringing. But does this binary hold strong when it comes to the lives of the Vrajbasis?
Over eight months of watching, looking and gazing at the village that she inhabited, what interested her most was that often, when she really observed what was happening in front of me, when the moods and changes of the Vrajbasis truly surfaced, there was little difference between the sway of the Brahmins in the temples and the stride of the Bhangis in the streets, all were engaged in acts of devotion. Devotion within work, within any kind of work, was an idea that began to inspire my own practice.
‘Am I dancing Alone’ is in all senses a personal project for Vrinda. It manifested from a desire to connect with a people Vrinda has long observed. From her own sense of foreignness she began to create portraits, and through portraiture, she was able to see some of the values and characters of the Vrajbasis and so her role in the village felt a little less like someone dancing alone.
Aetaomah School
April 2019
Aetaomah, is a small school, kindergarten to year 8, based on the educational work of Dr Rudolf Steiner. They are nestled in the picturesque hills below Mt Warning, 10km south-west of Uki, beside the upper reaches of the Tweed River.
Aetaomah, educates through the arts and imagination, by making things, enjoying outdoor activities and agriculture; in this way they believe they can creatively inspire the inquiring mind, delicately foster the child’s emerging thinking, care for the physical and emotional health and nurture social and leadership skills
Susan Kinneally
Grevilleas, Bandicoots and Snake Charmers | May 2019
Uki itself is not quite sure who it is – there is quite a bit of confusion as to what the name means, who named it – and indeed to which language it belongs. But much like its short but complicated name, Uki is a small village with a big presence, full of people who care about each other and the planet. It is a place of inspiration and charm , nestling in the shadow of Wollumbin (Mt Warning).
After 30 years of teaching secondary school art in Melbourne, I, with my husband David, made the move to the magic lands of the Northern Rivers where I have been able to concentrate on developing my own art practice. I had the great good fortune in 2016/17 to have been offered an exhibition at the Tweed Regional Gallery in Murwillumbah, a fabulous experience and (incidentally) a sellout! I am continuing some of the themes of that show in this present collection, although animals and not mermaids are merging with and interacting with all those grevilleas and not a few pythons. (there are indeed a couple of bandicoots as well – Uki apparently means ‘bandicoot’ in one version of the origin of the name).
Janet Mackay
Birds, Banksias and Reflections | June 2019
An emerging artist from Burringbar, Janet works primarily with thread and fabric. She enjoys exploring ways of creating pattern and texture by using a variety of media along with the fabric and thread.
“Birds, Banksias and Reflections” presents a selection of works exploring these three subjects. Birds have always appealed to Janet and through her encounters and observations, she has created beautiful, if slightly whimsical, portraits of them. Banksias have held a special spot within Janet’s heart from childhood. The sculptural elements of this genus provide endless creative curiosity for her. Reflections on objects have been a counter-balance to the natural subjects more frequented by Janet. She has found the challenge of representing a reflective surface through fabric art quite stimulating.
In 2017 Janet won the mixed media section for the Ocean Shores Art Prize, in 2018 was a selected finalist for the 30 x 30 art prize for Art Piece Gallery, and in 2018 she held a solo exhibition showing 13 of her artworks at the Northern Rivers Art Gallery.”
Marie-France Rose
What about Uki | July 2019
Marie-France Rose said, “in this exhibition I reflected on what makes Uki so special to me. I made an artistic connection through landscape, people and the beauty of life in the country.
Marta Spear
Garden Portraits | August 2019
Marta states “Garden Portraits is the botanical art project that started in 2015 from the need to capture beauty of seeds and flowers. The project aims to document gardens, parks, backyards, public places sometimes the same ones at different time of the year.” Marta says “each collage is a personalised Garden Portrait. Garden Portraits explores botanical treasures of different parts of the world. However the main focus of this exhibition are recent works that explore the beauty of Northern Rivers and Mount Warning area through the seasons.
Barb Suttie
October | Just love this place 2000 to 2019 and beyond
Barb’s exhibition “Just love this Place 2000 to 2019 and beyond“ shares moments in time, a unique collection of expressive images in the form of preliminary paintings, artistic photographs, digital images and oil paintings energetically created between 2000 and 2019. Barb Suttie known as ‘The Mount Warning Artist’ shares the beauty of the area through her images. She has lived in Uki for over 26 years and recently migrated to the big smoke of Murwillumbah.
Captivated by the forces of the mountain and embraced in the arms of village communities she wields her brush with passion to bring a collection of works depicting landscapes. Now these are transformed through the passing of time. Barb says, “the Caldera nurtured by the Border Ranges and Mount Warning, encapsulates powerful forces and energies experienced and felt by those who live within our communities and those who seek this unique alluring energy of connection in whatever form it takes. Constantly shifting, we embrace those times through our own personal experiences.”
This exhibition brings us together in a sacred bond of nature’s beauty. Barb and the Art Post team looks forward seeing you at her exhibition in October.
Christmas Group Exhibition
December 2019| Christmas Exhibition
For the very first time, several artists who have exhibited since we launched in February 2018, come together to show their work in a very exciting group exhibition. We are very excited to announce the following artists for our inaugural Christmas Show.
Barb Suttie, Michael Willard, Julia Collingwood, Vrinda Gleeson, Dieter Irving, Marta Spear, Tina Wilson, Matt Ottley, Lynden Stone, Janet McKay, Marie-France Rose, Susan Kinneally, Heather McClelland, Christine Mellor
Lyn Hope
January 2020 | Eye See I see
Lyn says “the mystery of how the human mind constructs reality is inspiration for my work. I am particularly interested in the mind’s interpretation of sensory information in the construction of a personal reality. I use photography, symbolism and metaphor to explore, and imagine how others might perceive the world.”
Through the use of various filters, including water, to distort realities, Lyn aims to push the viewer towards the idea that differing perceptions are as valid as their own. Lyn boldly states, “one person’s distortion is another’s reality.”
Samantha Beau
February 2020 | Happy Feet
Having grown up in Tasmania, wildlife and conservation are dear to my heart.
Many of the local Tassie wildlife are under threat by our (often) careless human footprint. The grizzly Tassie Devil, inquisitive Quoll and shy Pademelon have been elusive heroes of mine growing up and still to this day capture my imagination.
This year I was introduced to the Blue-footed Booby of the Galapagos Islands.
These cute little birds struck a chord with me.
Found only in northwest South America the bird is truly remarkable. Known for its comical jiggling mating dance, weird sounds and blue eggs, the blue-footed booby is now under threat of becoming endangered and extinct. Watching them dance, waddle and add colour to the magic islands of the Galapagos makes you smile from the inside out.
In 2012 breeding numbers were estimated to be at 6400 which is a dramatic drop from 20,000 in 1997. A shortfall in sardines appears to be the likely cause.
I have tried to capture this enigmatic fun little bird and will donate a portion of sales to the Charles Darwin Foundation. I hope you and your friends and family will enjoy sharing this exhibition..
Diana White
January 2021 | Landscape of the Mind: A New Pathway
Diana graduated from the Mary White School of Art and Design, and studied painting with the great John Olsen. She later became a Display Artist at David Jones Sydney, creating interior and seasonal window displays including the Christmas story windows. Throughout her career Diana has further explored her art at workshops with Queensland artists at Cooee
Bay with many Australian “greats” such as Ann Thompson, Elizabeth Cummings and the beautifully eccentric John Wolsey. Life drawing has always been a constant love. In 2009 Diana travelled and sketched her way around Australia. These sketches were later exhibited at the Circle Gallery, Brisbane. She has won prizes at Byron Bay and Brisbane, and exhibited
in a number of galleries including the Tweed Gallery for the Border Art Prize, the Northern Rivers Community Gallery Ballina and One Arts Community Gallery at the Gold Coast.
Dian Johansen
March 2021 | The Eyes are Upon Us
After working in fashion and interior design in both Melbourne and Sydney for many years Dian has moved to the Northern Rivers of New South Wales. Here in this stunning landscape she finds an abundance of inspiration for painting and drawing, thus returning to her first love – making art.
Dian’s uniquely colourful artwork is designed to change the viewer’s perspective in ways both subtle and emotional.
“Eyes” is the title of her show planned for early 2021. It will explore the idea of the eyes of the animals of the world observing us and the impact we are making on THEIR world.
Christine Mellor
The Bone Repository | August 2018
Christine’s exhibition featured the fascinating and unexpected work focussed on Memento Mori (an object kept as a reminder of the inevitability of death) by Uki artist, Christine Mellor.
“There’s a certain fascination we hold within our culture about death, and the Still Life genre of Memento Mori is a successful means to discuss a number of topics often associated with it – including mortality, the inevitability of death, and the beauty which arises as a result of death, says Christine.
Christine is very much a local. She was born in Murwillumbah, and spent her childhood growing up with her family in the Chillingham General Store. Through necessity she had to defer her hopes of studying art and with her husband Garry and children settled in Tyalgum before moving to Uki in 2011.
After 27 years of working together in the construction industry, Christine was able to follow her dream by completing a Certificate 1 Visual Arts course at TAFE Murwillumbah continuing onto the Advance Diploma of Visual Art culminating in an exhibition at the beautiful Art Piece Gallery at Mullumbimby.
After three years of commuting to Brisbane, Christine graduated in 2017 with a Bachelor of Fine Art from Queensland College of Art. It is now her dream to create work with concepts revolving around the complications, mysteries and pleasures of life and death.
Marion Douglas
April 2021 | Moreton Bay Magic
June 2022 | Intrepidity
Marion Douglas is a locally born visual artist whose triggers for artmaking are emotion, love of the inherent qualities and possibilities of art materials and just plain compulsion to make art.
Tertiary studies in art were characterised by a traditional approach to painting and drawing. This served as a kind of apprenticeship in drawing with perspective and colour mixing from primary colours that was ultimately valuable, though seemed tedious and enervating at times.
Attending “Dynamic Drawing” sessions with Ron Curran in Northern New South Wales was a pivotal influence. The freedom and transgressive nature of art making unleashed in the dynamic drawing sessions overlaid existing skills leading to a new and more emotionally charged expressive practice. .
A collage workshop, involving working entirely in the abstract combined with the aforementioned approaches has led to a broad based, dynamic art practice that is an integral and unstoppable part of daily life.
Uki Public School
June 2020 | 126th Anniversary
A celebration of students artwork.
Stephanie Wright
July 2021 | Many Hearts
Stephanie began painting after autoimmune arthritis forced her early retirement from her career as a Veterinary Surgeon. A portrait of Nick Cave by Ben Smith inspired her to return to her early love of art and portraiture and she began attending Ben’s classes.
Success followed, with her portrait of her husband selected as a finalist in the 2019 SBS Portrait Prize on the Mornington Peninsula, and another of her friend Trevor as a finalist in the Du Rietz Art Prize in Queensland. Other awards have quickly followed.
Stephanie is inspired by the expression of mood and character within the tiny details of portraits of people and animals.
Stephanie now lives in Adelaide with her husband and daughter, where she is a member of the Adelaide Art Society and Royal South Australian Society of Artists. Stephanie is preparing a solo exhibition with the working title of “Many Hearts” at Art Post Uki in 2021.
Helen Otway
August 2021 | Take Me to Your River
Take Me To Your River is a body of work emerging from a deep fascination and inexplicable attraction to the caldera region of the Tweed.
Over 20 years of visiting the region which I now call my home, there has been an incredible pull to its immensely beautiful scenery.
The title Take Me to Your River is a line from a Leon Bridges song called River, which has really stuck with me, and it’s also the title of one of the paintings in the show. I painted Take Me to Your River and Sleeping Giant earlier this year using a looser more painterly approach. The glistening river and hazy mountains in the background really lent themselves to this. Take Me To Your River is a scene inspired by a drive along Bakers Road in Byangum. The day was overcast but the fields were iridescent green and the river was sparkling. Sleeping Giant is a view from Tumbulgum across to Wollumbin. Again, the day was overcast and the clouds were thick and heavy. They created a wonderful backdrop to the peaceful river scene.
Since painting these two works, I have taken inspiration from the green hills and villages circling Wollumbin; Byangum, South Murwillumbah, Pumpenbil as well as Tumbulgum. With so much rain in 2021, the fields have looked incredibly green. I wanted to capture the expansive pastures of our region, the feeling of being small in comparison to our big land, and the sense of calm through the connection to nature.
Artists in the Shed
September 2021 | Lockdown in Paradise
Lockdown in Paradise opened on Thursday 16 September and featured the work of artists from the group 'Art In the Shed’.
Art in the Shed (AITS) began 3 years ago when 6 artists from Shirley Kennedy’s life drawing group exhibited together in the Murwillumbah Art Trail. The experience of discussing art, sharing ideas and feeling a sense of camaraderie led to meeting every week in Holly Norton’s shed to make art, drink wine and talk about everything from art to politics.
COVID had temporarily put an end to meeting in the shed but thankfully not to producing art.
Paradise in Lockdown presents paintings created while isolated by the 9 members of AITS: Julia Collingwood, Di Johansson, Joanne Joy, Susan Kinneally, Heather McClelland, Francis McCormack, Holly Norton, Lyn Wade and Diana White.
The works show the gratitude each artist feels for being able to live and work in such a magical local landscape. The art celebrates the beauty of the natural world which gives us joy and solace during these times of COVID.
Vrinda Gleeson
October 2021 | Until it’s Shared
Vrinda prepared for her exhibition in a small London bedsit where she is living until she can return to Australia. This moving exhibition is her response to the sadness, bravery and simplicity of the Indian people of Vrindavan during this catastrophic time of COVID.
Vrinda Gleeson is a young artist who lives between two worlds – in the Northern Rivers of NSW where she grew up, and in a small town, Vrindavan, just outside Delhi in India. A town she describes as ‘beautiful, mysterious, ugly and devastating all at once’.
Her drawings and paintings robustly and yet sensitively capture brief moments in the lives of the women of Vrindavan. Attracted to a particular pose, Vrinda plays with the light and the rich sultry colours of the street. Although surrounded by noise and bustle, her women are quiet, contained and alone in their own personal worlds.
Gleeson completed her Bachelor of Visual art at Southern Cross University and finished her Honours in Fine Art at Griffith, Queensland college of Art in Brisbane.
Lorraine Lintern
December 2021 | Quartz Inversion
Lorraine’s ceramic pieces have a timeless sublime quality that echoes the antiquity of this art form. Her vessels could have been found at an archaeological site in the Middle East. Looking at them, it’s possible to imagine they once contained ancient frankincense oil or pomegranate juice, and yet they are also stunningly modern.
The dramatic simple beauty of the works is often enhanced by delicate carving and subtle glazes. You are drawn to touch her works, to feel the curves, carved textures and coolness.
The title Quartz Inversion refers to the rearrangement of the clay’s quartz crystals at 573°C — it’s when the alchemy begins.
Lorraine trained at East Sydney Tech and Penrith College. She has exhibited in many local exhibitions as well in the Blue Mountains and Penrith. She explains ‘the urge to create objects with a dramatic appearance is always at the very heart of what I do and it is truly a labour of love"‘.
Jan Lobban
January 2022 | Portraits that rejoice in the many threads from which the Tweed is woven
‘Portraits that rejoice in the many threads from which the Tweed is woven’ Jan captures the rich variety of people living in the Tweed today through a series of exquisite portraits, a photo montage and a woven flag incorporating eleven cultures.
Photography is at the core of Jan’s artwork, but each photograph is subtly enhanced with metallic thread sewn into the image giving it a magical, other-worldly atmosphere.
Jan, who has always placed social justice and equity at the centre of her working life, now carries this over into her photographic and textile works.
Her art expresses her belief ‘in the values of diversity and individual uniqueness, and that our differences, such as race and ethnicity, only make our communities stronger and richer.’
Jan, who grew up in Brisbane, lives in Tyalgum. She regularly exhibits in the Northern Rivers and currently has two photographs in the 6th Foto Biennale of Fine Art and Photography in Barcelona.
Natalie Popovski
March 2022 | Absorption
‘Natalie Popovski paints ‘portraits’ of interesting individuals, but the person remains invisible. What you do see are incidental objects, the odds and ends of everyday life that reveals so much about the person’s personality and idiosyncrasies.
Natalie’s work is driven by a curiosity about people. She approaches complete strangers and asks ‘May I paint you?’ As it turns out, few people say no. She then tells the person it’s not your face I want to paint but your intimate surroundings.
In these delicate, absorbing ‘portraits’ we meet a person who shares his home with carpet snakes, an expert in all things herbal, a once barrister now turned brewer, an artist with flair, a dynamic 94-year-old, an unusual postmaster, and a flamboyant maker of objects.
Jenny Sayer
April 2022 | Natural Chaos
When the floods came, Jenny got her works for this exhibition safely upstairs just before she had to evacuate in the middle of the night. The floods have been devastating for so many local artists, some losing years of work. Jenny
lost much of her earlier work and her studio ended up being covered in oozing sticky mud, but her precious art material remained intact. The advantage of working in glass is mud can be scrubbed off! Jenny’s glass mosaic ‘paintings’ of the Australian bush are truly beautiful.
They live and shimmer. Whether it is a scene of a burnt-out bush, a strangler fig, or mangroves, the glass projects a liveliness by chaotically bouncing light that never remains still. The glass reflects the deceptive apparent chaos of the Northern Rivers bush.
Throughout her life, Jenny has drawn and painted but it wasn’t until 2007 that she discovered the thrill of working in glass, which hasn’t left her. Recently Jenny has incorporated beeswax and collage into her intricate, painstaking mosaics, adding yet another dimension.
Aetaomah School
May 2022
Aetaomah is a small school nestled in the heart of the Tweed Valley in the foothills of Mt Warning. We offer Kinder to Year 8 education based on the principles of Rudolf Steiner…
“Our highest endeavour must be to develop free individuals who are able, out of their own initiative, to impart purpose and direction in their lives.”
Rudolf Steiner.
To begin to strive for that goal, our education must be based on an understanding of child development, both general and individual. The artistic element, therefore, is part of every lesson. In this way, the children have daily ventures into the sanctuaries of colour, form and contrast. These "retreats" help to restore balance and harmony to the children as it opens their thinking, feeling and willing to a variety of possibilities.way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Marion Douglas
June 2022 | Intrepidity
Art Post Uki welcomes an Encore Exhibition by Marion Douglas. ‘Intrepidity’ sums up qualities inherent in one who agrees to fill an unexpected vacancy in an exhibition schedule at short notice with no specific plan in mind.
Due to a last-minute schedule change, local artist Marion Douglas stepped in to present her latest work. This exhibition focuses on Marion’s love of flowers and her garden. Their intense colour, movement and light delight her, and the result is a profusion of brilliantly painted images full of
liveliness and joy. An exhibition that dismisses cold and dreary weather with warmth and charm. Don’t miss it!
Dieter Irving
August 2022 | Peaks and Flowers
Nature has sent us unceasing rain, devastating for many places yet transformative for others. From arid dry landscapes, the Flinders Ranges and the Warrumbungles have been transformed into verdant green, radiant with flowers. In 8 joyous landscapes, Dieter celebrates this renewal.
Taking off in their pop-up tent, Dieter and his partner Penny have been exploring Australia for years. The Flinders Ranges, a favourite destination, has been painted many times by Dieter, who loves its dry, rugged beauty, but
it was only on their last trip after heavy rains that the Flinders Ranges revealed its rarer exuberant side of lush green growth carpeted with colourful flowers.
Dieter trained as an artist in Germany, where he taught and exhibited widely. In 1971 he arrived in Australia and immediately fell in love with the wide open landscape and the endless sky, which ‘just blew his mind’. He has been an exhibiting artist ever since.
Ukitopia Revisted
September 2022 | A little village with big ideas, community spirit and artistic flair
Art Post celebrated Uki’s musicians, actors, storytellers, artists, fashion designers and most of all, Uki’s love of the wacky creative in this exhibition of exceptional photographs taken from 2009 to 2019 at the annual Ukitopia festival.
It all began in 2008. A group of locals got together to show the world what Uki had to offer. At Ukitopia’s height, Uki exploded with a weekend of music, acrobatics, juggling and clowning, art, comedy and fashion. Everyone contributed: people with astonishing clothes and amazing hairdos strolled about, children displayed acrobatic skills, musicians their music creativity, artists their creative talents in
Images of Uki. It was an exciting creative feast. Ukitopia was a testament to what a small united, creative community can achieve. These photographs were taken by Uki’s own Perri and Alan Wain (Vibrant Imaging), with contributions from Grey Rose and Raji Deva, paying tribute to that spirit.
Marta Spear
November 2022 | When we depart, we leave behind fragments of ourselves
Marta Spear brought together through photographs and personal notes intimate fragments of her friend’s life, Carl Palmer. Days after Carl’s death, Marta photographed the intimate spaces and objects of his home - an old suitcase with a note attached, well-worn sturdy shoes, a quote from Prometheus Rising by R A Wilson written on a scrap of paper stuck to the wall.
In another photo, his friend and pet, Coco the cow, grazes at night in front of the lit-up house - a photo that captures the overwhelming beauty and tranquillity of the world in which Carl lived. These photos affirmed an authentic life well lived.