Jennifer Fletcher is a mixed-media artist who has been working and exhibiting both nationally and internationally since the 1980s. She has a BA Fine Arts (Printmaking) with a special interest in creating unique state prints.

Jennifer was born in north west NSW into an aviation family. Flying low over the Australian landscape in small aircraft gave her an aerial perspective of the world from a very young age.  Living close to the bush and swimming in the sea have always been close to her heart, producing a profound fascination with the natural world and this ancient land we call home.

Gathering detritus from storm washed beaches, kelp, seaweed and sea sponges, delicate plant life, the patterns of roots and branches, the mysterious sacred geometry of our world that knits everything together. Intricacies of plant forms, in sea or on land, ancient formations of weathered stone or mountain ranges all exert a powerful fascination that never grows old.

Jennifer spent nine years in Italy, living in a rural area absorbed in local life, history and culture while working and exhibiting. Home is now on the Mornington Peninsula, Bunurong country, where she swims in the Bay and delights in the beauty of this diverse geographical area.

Over many years exhibiting in solo and selected group shows, of opening her studio to the public on a regular basis, Jennifer’s work has been collected by private, public and corporate collections.

FB       :           Jennifer Fletcher Artist
IG        :           @jennifer.fletcher.artist
PST    :           www.peninsulastudiotrailinc.org

Lisa O’Keefe studied Art at the ECOLE NATIONALE SUPERIEURE des BEAUX-ARTS, Paris, graduating with Honours in Painting.

In the nearly 15 years she lived there, her work gradually moved from abstract to figurative, becoming more so on her return to Australia.  However, abstraction did not disappear entirely.  The figures and other figurative elements exist within an abstract framework, and within this, she sets out to explore colour and texture (or the illusion of it).

The stories that unfold, often diverse and detailed, are juxtaposed against a smooth and empty background, the intention being to create an area of calm, a void.  These are paintings from the imagination but rooted in reality. – the world around us, anecdotes, personal experiences.   Questions are asked.  Do we have answers?

And, they express that endless need to record, make marks and communicate in a visual way.

Lisa has exhibited consistently over the years, picked up several awards and is represented in private and public collections in Australia and overseas.

Website:        www.lisaokeefe.com.au
Instagram:     Lisa.okeefe4
Groups:          MSWPS (Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors)
Melbourne Artists Society
PAS (Peninsula Artists Society )

Carolyn Roberts is a multi-media artist who works mainly in watercolour and mixed media on paper.  Her love of watercolour comes from its freshness, directness and immediacy.

She has long been interested in questions of time, place and identity, interwoven with the natural world and the cycle of life.  Carolyn examines the big picture, by the close observation of its components; her works examine the minutiae of the landscape, the little things that make up the whole.

Carolyn has spent the last 13 years living between Melbourne and rural Normandy, which has influenced her work to a great extent.  This latest body of work is concerned with destruction and regeneration; in particular the bombing of the city of St Lo by the allies in 1944.

The built environment has been restored since the war, just as the natural world continually restores itself.  However the scars still remain visible in the landscape.

Informed by, but not bound by the rules of botanical and scientific illustration, the artist reconstructs her environment in order to better understand it.

Carolyn has a long exhibition history and has won several awards.  She has works in both private and public collections.

She has a Master of Fine Arts from Monash University.

Chris is a full time award winning mixed media artist, holds a BA Fine Art (Painting) and has been exhibiting nationally and internationally in solo, selected and group shows since the late 1980s.

Combining collage with a variety of compatible professional mediums has been her enduring challenge and continuing journey.

Over the years Chris’ works, informed by her life’s experiences, have gradually become more complex and multilayered.

Her people gather and wonder in environments of unknown composites.

They confer, wait, and search to understand themselves, each other and their world.

Perspectives are altered, different in time and place while simultaneously, an echo of life.

What if anything is real or purely imagined?

Her works are the imagery, the viewer creates their story, where the more one looks, the more one sees.

Website: www.chrisrowe.com.au
Bluethumb Online Gallery: https://bluet.hm/ChrisR
Instagram: @chrisrowefineart

Jill Symes is a Melbourne based ceramic artist working with hand built terracotta and white earthenware since the 1970’s. Known for her strong forms and love of simplicity, asymmetry and mark making her works have been acquired by numerous public collections such as the City of Bayside, City of Whitehorse, and importantly several in the Shepparton Art museum (SAM) as well as many private and corporate collections in Australia and overseas.

Known for her hand built sculptural vessels and layering techniques with recycled and earthenware clays, Jill employs unique firing methods including gas kiln sagger firing and shallow in ground pit firing with timber, sawdust and salt. She is well known for her love of surface treatment, frequently burnishing the leather hard clay surface with polished gemstones or the back of a spoon, then often adding slips, oxides and sgraffito details before firing.

A multiple award winning artist, Jill has conducted many workshops in New Zealand and across Australia, imparting her knowledge and experience to all levels of ceramic artists from professional to beginner. To this end she has run workshops in hand building and firing for numerous potters groups around Melbourne and country Victoria, mostly under the auspices of Craft Victoria.

Jill Symes distinctive sculptural forms are based on her close observation of history, landscape and the earth from which her material comes.