Local resident Deborah McCauley will be a guest artist at the 2019 Bowen Mountain Arts Festival – Art on the Move - set to run until the end of this month.
Art on the Move takes place from Friday, January 11 to Thursday, January 31 at the Village Kitchen, Kurrajong, with the opening night event being held on January 10 at 7pm.
The festival takes place after a three-year hiatus following the untimely illness of the Bowen Mountain Arts Fest co-ordinator, Marian Hanly, and is a tribute to her contribution to the arts in the Hawkesbury.
Deborah McCauley will feature as a guest artist at the festival fresh from her appearance at the Children and Youth Art exhibition in Bowen Mountain Park in November. Her demonstrations and workshops run on the Sunday proved to be very popular.
“After moving to Bowen Mountain with my husband nearly four years ago I finally had the chance to basically stop and smell the roses. I fell in love with the pace of life up here and the amazing variety of flowers growing within meters of my home, unfortunately they only lasted a few weeks before they withered away, photos are fine but I wanted something three dimensional,” McCauley said.
“I’ve always enjoyed hand crafts and painting so decided to combine my knowledge and experience and develop a unique hobby to keep me busy and creative.
“After studying these flowers for many months, I have re-created them completely with paper using various techniques such as sculpture and quilling. Depending on the actual flower or leaf the paper is hand painted, embossed and distressed.
“The blossoms of the gum tree, wattle, bottlebrush and flannel flower are created by tightly rolling up a finely fringed strip of paper using a quilling tool and securing with glue.
“The leaves are hand painted to add distressing, veins, shadows, highlights, burn marks and insect bite marks to add a touch of reality. All parts of the plant are arranged and glued individually to the base board, the matting board is hand cut, a corflute foam frame is hand built and glued to the back of the frame to create the shadow box to accommodate the 3D paper sculpture.
“I have many more flowers that I’d like to study and turn into paper sculptures in the future and the Waratah will be my ultimate challenge.”
The second site of this travelling exhibition will feature Hawkesbury artists working in a variety of media including oils, pastels, watercolours, ceramics, jewellery, handwoven scarves and hats, wood work, photographs, porcelain, and candles.
Patrons are welcome to come along and enjoy a delightful coffee, cake, lunch or dinner in a picturesque setting while gaining inspiration from the creativity of local artists.
All artwork will be for sale.
