Strathnairn Arts Association

Avi Amesbury: Ceramics   www.aviamesbury.com

Avi Amesbury uses clay to express a connection between land, history and memory and to explore the notion of the 'poetic image' evoking memory. These relationships are investigated through materials, mark making and the making process and the strong surface depiction in her work evokes a sense of history similar to an artefact or relic.

Amesbury uses the translucent qualities of porcelain to hint of cultural diffusion and the ephemeral nature of perceptions.

Margaret Carlin: Ceramics

Most of my work explores notions of connections - connections to place, family and how we strive for a sense of belonging. "Constructed memories " is a series of work that take inspiration from old family photographs, letters, collections of old recipes, scraps of material and other mementos to explore not only loss and absence, but also the links people create to try to connect with family members across past generations. Some of these family members may never have been known, but a "memory' can be constructed from the stories told of their lives and their photographs. Old recipe books and bundles of letters also provide links and evoke memories of the home, family and others.

Jo Hollier   www.johollier.com

"I had a pencil in my hand from a very young age!"

Jo has lived overseas and travelled extensively. Her art practise is informed by personal stories and memories collected during her time in SE Asia. This work addresses issues of displacement and reflects a fascination for different cultures and way of life.

While living overseas Jo took trips back to Canberra to work on etchings at Megalo Access Arts. The prints, she would then take back to Bangkok to assemble, hand colour or apply gold leaf. The work had to be small enough to fit into a suitcase or carry-on-luggage. The idea of having to enlarge small works by addition continues to appeal.

Jo is currently based in Canberra, with her studio located at the rural haven of Strathnairn Arts Association.

The source of inspiration for her work is the world about her, nature and personal experience and memories. Her favoured media include printmaking, etching and drawing, are often mixed with paint media and collage. Her work shows a love of line and colour with a hint of the exotic!!

Jo Hollier has exhibited in group and solo shows both locally and overseas. She was recently selected to exhibit in China for the 3rd International Chinese Modern Folk Art Exhibition in Jiaxing. She is represented by various galleries in Australia, Jordan and China.

Peter Latona: Sculptor

Peter Latona has been sculpting and teaching sculpture in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra since graduating from art college in 1976.

He works mostly on commissions, specialising in portrait busts, figures, medallions and plaques - cast in bronze. Other interests include jewellery, trophies, water and garden features, and fountain designs, utilising silver, gold, ceramic, glass, stainless steel.

Although preferring to sculpt from live sittings, the most impressive aspect of his work is the true-likeness and lively character captured in his memorial portrait busts, modelled from photographs, video and film. These may be of national cultural icons, local heroes of small towns, political or corporate leaders, or family loved-ones.

Vivien Lightfoot: Figurative ceramics   www.vivienlightfoot.com

I have been working intensively in clay since 1986 when I began an Associate Diploma at the Canberra Institute of the Arts. The human form has been my major preoccupation and I have spent a great deal of time studying portraiture. I am constantly exploring surface texture, colour and application to the ceramic sculptural figures, often firing each piece up to ten times to create layers of visual complexity and a rich patina.

Leo Loomans: Sculptor   www.leggegallery.com

"Constructing in welded steel is for me a means of drawing out, expressing and reflecting on ideas, to the best of my ability, into clear, articulate and resonant sculptural form. I find it a highly interactive -and occasionally deeply satisfying- process, both physically and mentally."

Leo is currently represented by : Megalo Access Arts Gallery in Canberra and Legge Gallery in Sydney.

Helen Martin: Ceramics

My art practice fuses textile techniques with ceramic processes. Through this fusion the stitches are captured and preserved. Pure wool knitted and crocheted objects are saturated in glaze and transformed through the heat of the kiln into textile-like ceramic pieces.

My work celebrates and honours the skills of the makers in my family, and also those of countless unknown makers whose work I now collect from op shops. The love of making, particularly knitting and crochet, is the common thread that ties me to other women and other generations in my family. These are activities that allow me to enter a gentle, indulgent space of meditation and daydreams.

Maryann Mussared   www.maryannmussared.com

Maryann Mussared studied textiles, printmaking and papermaking at the Canberra School of Art for three years before completing her Bachelor of Visual Arts (Applied) at the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales in 1997.

Her practice combines mixed media and applied techniques, including gilding and collage with handmade paper, often combined with spontaneous and repetitive mark making such as subliminal writing and Pitman's shorthand. She explores a number of ideas through her work, such as the pressures of the fast pace of modern life and the lost stories of the millions of people who died in global conflict in the past century.

Mussared is preparing for a solo exhibition "Re(a)d" in early 2008 and the exhibition "Vantage Points" with Lorna Crane and Catherine Tamou-Sloane at ANCA Gallery in the ACT and the Moruya Mechanics Institute Gallery in April-June 2008.

Mussared has spent extended period living overseas including UK, USA, Germany and France. While a student at the Canberra School of Art, she was part of the Canberra School of Art's cultural ambassadors program to the Kyoto Seika University.

Michael Sainsbury: Fine furniture

Versatile artist and craftsman Michael Sainsbury produces fine furniture, wooden toys, and turned wood articles. He is also well known for his slip cast and moulded ceramics

Examples of Michaels work may be seen in SCOOP in the Strathnairn Homestead gallery.

Michael is able to take commissions for tables, shelving, cabinets and other made to order items. Contact Michael on (02) 6254 2134, Mob: 0439 990 087 or by email - michael.sainsbury [at] strathnairn.asn.au

Nancy Tingey: Textiles

I joined the Strathnairn community in 2007 settling after years of travel between England and Australia.

Trained as a painter, stained glass designer, art curator and educator, I began working with textiles thirty years ago. A passion for piecing thousands of hexagonal cloth patches led to more conceptual work and an MA in constructed textiles examining the issues arising from my experience of living in two cultures and expressing these through installations, digital imagery and film.

While studying in England from 2002 - 6, I experimented with industrial felt making machines and collaborated with spinners to produce continuous lines of textile. Fascination for these making processes has led to a current project researching net making and trapping fibres.

A commission to design logos for a chemical product in 2007 encouraged me to return to mixed media work on paper and explore ways of using the computer as a design tool. I am also playing with ways of manipulating a gift of paper made by a colleague as part of a body of work about living on the edge.