Arts and Culture
Ipswich: an artist impression
Ipswich is home to a large and supportive creative community. Artists, designers, musicians, poets and performers can all be found in abundance.
Both the suburban and rural environments within the boundaries of Ipswich are a source of inspiration and below I’ve compiled a list of six local artists whose work is directly influenced by and reflective of living in Ipswich, though this should not by any means be considered a complete list of local artists (there are many, many more).
Kate Roberts
Kate is an artisan silversmith, creating unique jewellery and teaching from her studio within her shop Art Time in the Top of Town precinct. Kate makes short run small wearables including earrings and tiepins but also creates larger sculptural pieces such as the one below – Meanderings inspired by the twists and turns of the Bremer river through Ipswich. This piece was awarded second place in the sculpture section of the 2016 Ipswich Art Awards.
Donna Davis
Donna’s practice spans both art and science and looks at new ways to work with scientific concepts and develop works, which capture and create sites of ecological observation. Donna’s work aims to raise environmental awareness and promote conservation by providing new ways of seeing and creating new connections in the mind of the viewer.
She is currently working with mycologists from the Queensland Herbarium undertaking an arts/research project ‘Unseen’ exploring fungi which grows alongside the endangered swamp tea tree population in the Purga Nature Reserve. The image shown ‘Entwined III’ is from this current body of work and won The Edge Digital Art Award as part of Flying Arts Queensland Regional Art Awards.
Emma Russell
Senior Graphic Designer and visual artist Emma creates bold and colourful images inspired by the iconic heritage buildings of Ipswich under her label ‘The Colliery’. Alongside her illustrative work she also lovingly documents local architecture through her instagram account emma_russell
Annamaria Mays Vermeer
Annamaria is a story teller, a mixed media artist, incorporating found objects and piecing together art works from items gathered from a diverse group of people, places and things. Through her work she aims to evoke memories, create feelings of nostalgia and honour the past.
Mieke den Otter
Mieke is a painter and textile artist, a community-minded leader in our arts community. Her drawing and painting is reflective not only of the natural environment but also her domestic surrounds and in her textile exploration she works with locally sourced natural fibres and creates her own dyes from gathered native foliage. Mieke’s work is held in collections around the country including our own Ipswich Art Gallery.
Nick Hughes
Nick is a local photographer sharing his images predominantly through social media. He has an uncanny ability to capture and transform banal urban scenes from the ordinary to the sublime. His ‘abandoned in Walloon’ was selected for acquisition by The Ipswich Art Gallery at the 2016 Ipswich Art Awards.
