2016 Art & Poetry - Creative Connections

The river of life has many faces –
It rushes and it pushes, it flows and it gushes…
It gives and it takes away
It comes and it goes,
it meanders
A lonely Traveller
Ever-changing

Brigita Ferencak “The Wandering Gypsy”

The North-West

the colour
the heat
the weight of the air
induces a drowsiness

eyes droop
as the river lazes by
boulders slumber sand snoozes

even the sun
has let a ray
slip from its grasp.

Val Neubecker

3 Keith Wallan

Untitled, 30 x 40 Acrylic on canvas

‘You are the new day’
connected to light, air, earth,
the bush. You echo yourself,
know who you are.
Paintbrush almost chisels alone,
slants bolts of sun, moulds squirrels
on a search, carves a powerful tree –
you are that tree!

Margaret Ferrell

A painter, a charmer from dear old WA
Has his squirrels Diddle and Dum searching away
Looking for honkie nuts beneath his tree
As the sun sends down rays of serendipity.
For centuries Keith’s tree grew strong and tall
It’s waving branches protecting all
Beneath its leaves the grass is green,
Keith’s painting has given us a peaceful scene.

Colleen O’Grady

4 Chris Van Aurich

Untitled 30 x 40 Acrylic on canvas

Ocean Dreaming

What do you see when you stand on the headland
and wonder at the cliffs below?
You scrabble through low berry saltbush,
shove aside the swordlike sedge and stare in awe as
gulls spread their wings to cry and soar over the sea.
Do you wish to fly out there, skimming the wave tops,
dipping your fingertips into the foam, or would you rather
trawl the coves, safely on sand, shuffling shells
under your toes?

Virginia O’Keeffe

Classical Transition

Forest meet sea
cotton clouds sweep
blue canvas, amongst
amber warmth of sun
Chris finds solace in
his landscape of colours
a classical transcript
comes to life

Faye Teale-Clavi

5 Julian Skewes

Untitled, 25 x 30 Acrylic on canvas

He dreams in the South China Sea

Who lives across the water?
Does he look like me
Play soccer too, like art?
When I am big
I will build a bridge
Dad says all bridges
Begin with a dream.

Ron Okely

colours everywhere
this place where legends are born –
a bridge to cross

Jonah Tan

6 Natalie Green

Untitled, 30 x 30 Mixed media

Man Doing Tai Chi

As he moves his hands and feet
his energy rises like a wave
cresting and folding forward
into blue stillness
spreading to the edge of light.
His movement is a cosmic dance
stepping out in grace and pace
at one with himself.
Like the ocean, both fierce and gentle
he practises being strong.

Fran Graham

Self Defence

I stand on this fulvous etched pavement
stretching arms toward
a potential foe, flexing soundlessly in readiness
for a silent quietening jab to resolve
the attack that never comes –
but for which this well-trained body
is armed, fit, anticipating.
Lush viridian pastures wait just beyond my reach,
calling. A distant horizon beckons beyond
this marbled pooling inlet of sapphire tidal flows.

Allan Padgett

7 Sarah Fogg

Untitled, 30 x 35 Acrylic on paper

Rhythm of Colours

Shapes dance as musical notes
across the reddened sky

creating a rhythm repeated
over and over like a chorus

singing in colours that harmonise
with purple as best friends

until their dance is completed
and the music begins again.

Mike Greenacre

A face from behind
before I
am ready to come out
into it
wear it as MY face.
The eyes are shut –
the light
comes through the mouth
with the air.

Chris Palazzolo

8 Rebecca Lambert

Untitled, 30 x 30 Acrylic

Disclosure

Conspicuous
the ochre soaked rocks
labour hard against
the red day

Strike yellow sparks
conceal a mystery

Ann Harrison

A Settina For Rebecca

Peace may end with a sadness,
resolution with happiness.
Frustration always brings stress —
anger just stays as anger.
Stress may produce frustration,
happiness is resolution —
sadness a prelude to peace.

Glen Phillips

9 Lang Ma

Untitled, 25 x 30 Acrylic

Tide Mark

so many

overlapping

outbreaths

and a first, sharp line,

a lick, that rush of pigment

we reach back for:

your birth was everything

pulsing

into flight.

Sunny Blundell-Wignall

Lang Ma (Eagles fan)

We have great heights in common
where nests hang in swathes of colour
in threads of red and white
where yellow wings beat blue sky
in a direct line from there to here
up and up in kaleidoscopic jetstreams
a ragged bird on a pulse of air
we have that between us
as the paint, the feathers fly

Nathan Hondros

10 Rhiannon Burns

Untitled 29 x 41 cm Acrylic

Afloat In Love

Above the sparkling river,
Like my lover’s subtle hint and play,
Our boat nudges its way gently to shore.
Our desire gives my arms strength
And we slide onto the welcoming sand
And hand in hand and in love with love
With our Hearts’ desire blazing with fire,
We walk into Paradise.

Peter Jeffery OAM

First Date

It was she that asked him,
bit her lip to mask the quavering.
He matched the surprise
by finding the overgrown track
to the old boat shed.
One oar each, they slapped around,
clumsy but warming up.
Though this was home,
that day their river seemed to ripple
with a few new colours.

Hessom Razavi

11 Lindy Johnson

Still Life, 40 x 60 Mixed media

Epiphany Of Blue

As a window finds its likeness
beneath a heavy jug of milk
Flowers rehearse themselves
Through the weave of a cloth
shout from the mouth of a vase
as if everything has left its bright
mark on something else|
expectant and inviting

Amanda Joy

Where windmills dance and Tulips grow
an ancient farmhouse table stands,
with echoes from a distant time
when Masters sat with brush in hands,
creating art in Prussian Blue.
jug, a vase in silent conversation
bring that distant past to you.

Peter Rondell

12 Lindy Johnson

Mushrooms, 30 x 40 Acrylic

Mushrooms

Mushrooms turn leaves
and litter to the canopy
pushing against the dark
as light paints the gloom
to cast each dusky morsel
with wild colour, red capped.
Worked deep in a world
that floats to fantasy.

Gary Colombo De Piazzi

A Tanka For Lindy

Searching in the woods
You might find bright funghi there.
Some give dire warnings
of danger, of poisonous death—
or a place where elves might play!

Glen Phillips

13 Lindy Johnson

Emu 42 x 29 Acrylic on paper

Psychedelic Emu

Well… I suppose we
have all
been to the bush.
Hell, I’ve seen some things;
you know, like things out there
where the outback
is a bit lonely.
But a psychedelic Emu.
With a long neck so its easy to kiss.
Hmm. I wonder what noise it makes?

Christopher Kennedy

What are you looking at, weitj?|
Adorned with big colours
majestic, powerful
you can’t go backwards
only forwards, run, weitj
run, to the safety of
the coat of arms where you
and yonga face us with defiance
where we can never
make you extinct!

Maureen Sexton

weitj – nyoongar for emu
yonga – nyoongar for kangaroo

14 Clinton Carter

Untitled, 38 x 31 Acrylic

Cosmic Explosion

Detonation;

motes of dust and rock
create a whirling vortex.
Comet tails flick and flash,
exploding into shining patterns
of star-bright colours,
vibrating, shifting,
colliding, coalescing,
tremulous…

Life begins.

Veronica Lake

Indigo Blue

A river
finds light
in the reeds–
spells silence
for all of us.

Rose van Son

15 Clinton Carter

Untitled, 24 x 30 Acrylic

clothes line
hand stitched parrots
take flight

Tash Adams

Pencil shavings
Blackboard dust
Scratching names
On soft woody desks
Lids up to hide notes passing between palms
Teacher lining up our foreheads
With rainbow chalk

Somewhere our initials
Somewhere signs of us
We were here and here and here

Deanne Leber

16 Jason Whittington

Untitled, 29 x 35 Acrylic

Burst Up

We hide behind –

because we forget we

are –

The colours surround

us like soils that

warm and keep moist our roots

But we are not this meeting

place –

we burst up beyond; we

are rainbow itself

Alistair Bain

Jason paints with abandon
selects colours at random
here a yellow splodge
there a crimson flame –
the result, a great surprise
that needs no name.

Meryl Manoy

17 Janelle (Nelly) McMahon

Untitled, 33 x 32 Acrylic

The Fire’s Boast

and when you stir me
I will roll from wistful to
absolute,

my flames will furl into
a concentration
of the Buddha’s strong gold
and my bold reds flare to blue,
branding
the insolent dark

Helen Bradwell

Listening to the visual rhythm,
hear inside a wave, or beneath
surf hitting beach, spray in flight
herring gulls cawing, wailing
long, soft rumble of thunder
receding salt water over rocks
boat wood flexing, the squeak of
kindling on an open fire, bamboo
wind chime and Gregorian voice
muffled applause, rain rattle

Shey Marque

18 Grace Panaia

Untitled, 35 x 45 Acrylic

Playtime

When you cats
have finished
playing with
that ball of wool
i want you to
roll it up tightly
and put it away
tidily where
you got it from!

Andrew Burke

In the Forest

I’m in the forest
Under trees –
Look, in the leaf mulch,
Skeleton leaves!
Feel the tiny tracery,
Isn’t it like lace!
Never knowing what you’ll find’s
The magic of this place!

J.R. McRae

19 Grace Panaia

Morning Landscape, 33 x 33 Acrylic

Against sky’s deeper blue
Stiffened by blackened hills
Rampant red plains storm.
Only bold Acacia forests give
Golden relief
Shining against blue’s infinite deeps.

Graeme Butler

Morning Landscapes
(with Gryphon)

Bright thunder

drops

from skies of lapis,
talons like rushing stars
grip, lift, hold.

Gryphon backwings,
shivers red gold pelt,
settles to feed eggling,
nurture tomorrow’s fables.

Jan Napier

20 Denis Tomlinson

Untitled, 51 x 21 Acrylic on wood

rust —
a metal scab
as shine rots

Coral Carter

Turbulence

The blood sky smoked and wildlife choked
who tallies their loss to fire?
We count the cost of livestock lost
the bill of death runs higher
on nature’s funeral pyre.

Max Merckenschlager

21 Elinor Doddrell

Untitled, 29 x 30 Acrylic

Emily Dickinson Knew Such Things

Sweep up the anyhow leaves

of your week

Scour the earthenware

dishes of your day

Each a necessary darkroom

Hold still

The pinprick aperture of happiness

Will open and let

light burst in on the wing

Liana Joy Christensen

1
Radioactive
Atomic toffee apples;
Explode in your mouth

2
Neon lights up the silent street
Lemon and lime come to meet
Snapped up in one gulp
Juice squeezed from the pulp
By a dog who thought they were sweet?

Deb Micallef

22 Elinor Doddrell

Untitled, 40 x 30 Acrylic

The sun arrives in thin lines,
scratches its way to the surface of our lives.
We are scarred in the chaos,
the shambolic finding of our way.
No one knows where we are going.
We intersect with the flight paths of birds,
hear the singing in the feathers
and allow colour into our hearts.

Josephine Clarke

Elliptical

when i dance, i am
seized: a grand mal
of glee is released
from the knees. in
this grip, i tip, feel
faint, am ecstatic
expression of paint
. sometimes the art we
make is greater than the
poetry it creates

Scott-Patrick Mitchell

23 Lana Davie

Untitled, 41 x 29 Acrylic

Language of Flowers

Unlike Latin, these semantics
ciphered so only lovers and
gardeners can understand,
explain the humility of bluebells,
translate rocketing nose cones
of rosebuds into pure and lovely,
unpuzzle the scarlet constancy
of zinnias.

Jan Napier

New Life Blossoms

As winter passes
darkness disappears
colourful blooms appear
across a landscape to
spread warmth to the hearts
of all who view new life
in Lana’s creation

Faye Teale-Clavi

24 Lana Davie

Untitled, 41 x 22 Acrylic

Peacock spider hiding in the soil,
show your tail for a mate.
Aquamarine, sun on dew.
Fire, as an element of danger
in courtship is mandatory.

Sue Clennell

Chaperoned

Head held high
she drifts downstream
night breezes ruffling her feathers
as they catch the last of the carnival lights

graceful serene elegant
unaware of her beauty

her mother follows closely
eyes darting
alert to her vulnerability

her cygnet has become a swan

Val Neubecker

25 Joel Grant

Untitled, 41 x 29 Acrylic

Blaze

In daylight
imagination gives me
green on blue of trees and sky
crackle of bonfire and BBQ

on edge of night and sleep
I remember flames like roaring sunspots
a world taken by smoke
glossy black
where the conflagration passed.

Maree Dawes

From Joel’s palette come swirling clues
Of layered paint in different hues
So canvas portrays coloured streaks on blues.
Greens, yellows, dabs of orange and red pass by,
Smidges of white over blue of the sky
With hands reaching as the colours do fly.
Across the canvas they beautifully glow
While black swans serenely watch the show
Painted by a gifted artist you know.

Colleen O’Grady

26 Joel Grant

Untitled, 29 x 40 Acrylic

When We Went Fishing

When we went fishing out on the bay
the sun was just rising, announcing the day.
The surf sent out its thrumming roar
you had to pull hard to steer with your oar
while the rowlocks groaned and the salt spray stung
and the whole water world was a fiery one.
We tossed in our lines for flathead and shark
four kids and a dad, at dawn, such a lark.
What a joy, to be out on the bay,
fishing.
When I was a boy.

Virginia O’Keeffe

Curious

creative circles carefully
crawl, caresses colours canvas

squiggly swirls swivel
silently slide sideways

techniques transpire
tapestry transcends

Faye Teale-Clavi

27 Joel Grant

Untitled, 29 x 40 Acrylic

There is no Beginning and no End,
Neither a Before Nor an After.
An Intrinsic Storm of Thoughts,
Ready to be unleashed
Without hesitation they long for upheaval
For Change
For Life

Brigita Ferencak “The Wandering Gypsy”

A Well Rounded Life

Round and round
The brushes go
Green upon red
From go to whoa
If we wanted it straight
We could make it so
Vive la difference !

Ron Okely

28 Joel Grant

Untitled, 34 x 20 Acrylic & pastel

Roll paint, convolute colour,
scallop, weave, twirl with brush.
Joel, you make circles – perfect shape –
and, with their energy, grow meaning
into a creature of the deep, deep sea
with enormous eyes who puffs
himself up to scare predators –
and me!

Margaret Ferrell

In The Beginning

I saunter toward the edge of your universe
and find myself circling wormlike threads stringing
toward this purpling, chaotic cosmos.
I gasp at your lucid hold on the colours which drive
this imposing bang in an infinite
roaring exploding space
of distance, time and meaning.
Now, these galaxies are smitten
with depth, colour and feeling –
as you return to your vibrating land.

Allan Padgett

29 Joel Grant

Untitled, 39 x 33 Acrylic & charcoal

Untitled

Ta n g l e d fishing line
Impatient knots
Always the choice – slow unpick
or cut free to cast again.
Beach fishing.

Sally Gaunt

Archaic shrine of the backyard
a core of soot for your flame
accept this offering of onion and flesh
May it honour Him who lit the tree
and showed the way of power to me.

Chris Palazzolo

30 Marianne Percudani

Lion sculpture 70 x 50 x 40 Papier Mache

Soft paw rustle that holds the wind still.
A quiet that grows as ears search
every slight shiver with the scent
of fear shadowed in every dark corner.

The wind strains and birds
climb high
as a roar
rips.

Gary Colombo De Piazzi

The Lion

the lion is a mighty beast,
it roams across savannahs.
as a group they form a pride,
antelope for dinner, no manners!

this lion looks a fearsome beast
though merely paper and glue.
we artists do revere them much,
we must protect the few

Kevin Gillam

31 Holly Gray

Untitled, 40 x 30 Acrylic

Present

honey eaters in the courtyard.
a string, a clump,
one by one,
flat packed, paraphrased,
something she said
once:
I’m not afraid
to want
this
unopened
moment

Sunny Blundell-Wignall

Carnival

A Dali-esque blue cello leans against
red and green balloons
a candy cane strokes the strings
and spun sugar, sticky with fun
dances across the surface.
Corner curtains drape the coloured music
as Holly’s brush gives in to a rhythm.
An intermittent snatch of breath between bars
creates a rest, the suspended space for
the sleepy red dolphin to nuzzle the cello’s neck.

Fran Graham

32 Josh Harper

Sorry John, Can’t Get In, 25 x 30 Acrylic & pen

That Voice Within

Buildings rise as questions above you
a mass of white structures with
blue lines against the sunset

creating a maze of choices
that tease your sense of direction
and the logic within

before you walk every angle
then listen to that voice inside, to keep
or leave or demolish and begin again.

Mike Greenacre

Sorry John, Can’t Get In

They called him ‘The Wizard’ on Channel 9.
Celebrity architect, John the Frenchman,
Saint Laurent suits and designer stubble.
Only I knew his secret: a blind spot,
une erreur fatale in every blueprint.
Take his pièce de résistance, ‘Multistorey Magnifique’.
Sharp edges, smart glass, bold red: formidable!
Yet without his apprentice – moi –
John’s plans had the fans walled off, looking in,
le Magnifique sans porte d’entrée.

Hessom Razavi

une erreur fatale: one fatal flaw
pièce de résistance: masterpiece
formidable!: wonderful!
sans porte d’entrée: without a front door

33 Josh Harper

Untitled, 25 x 30 Acrylic & pen

A New World

When I create the world
I will just build windows,
then
I can frame the stars,
space ships and comets
and put them on my walls,
pictures
to make dreams
come true.

Ann Harrison

Where life begins
in secret places,
creating wondrous
minds and faces
of horse or human
it’s just the same
that never ending
Nature’s game.

Peter Rondell

34 Peter Dixon

Untitled, 19 x 28 Acrylic & pen

Paintings could be started a thousand times
each a sharp new beginning on top of the last

a decade of mornings as empty as a canvas
then wide strokes of paint or drip lines in white

bundled up into a handful of stern brushes
then released, then opened, then begun

blue sky underneath it all, a cool wall
on a hot red day struck with lightning perhaps

Nathan Hondros

This is me,
flowin’ with the ink,
gettin’ along.
This is my singing day,
all blue, green, yellow
and, just-in-case-you-
missed-it RED,
movin’ along; my day
full-of-action-WHITE!!

Zan Ross

35 Peter Dixon

Untitled 30 x 33 Acrylic & pen

Art As Craft/ Craft As Art

Just as our palms pressed in our eyeballs
Render a flashing diffusion of shape
In shifting waves of colour,
Peter, for you and I the world suffuses
Object with melding molten colour.
The base of your craft is colour soaked paper,
But ever the artist, you add
Layer on layer with acrylics, glue, inks,
Clay, pastel and pencil,
Turning your craft into really remarkable art.

Peter Jeffery OAM

red flowing river
blue tracks of life
covered by a circuitry
of thoughts and feelings
scrambling around
in your mind’s eye
land lines sensing
the lie of the land

Maureen Sexton

36 Valda Peterson

Sunflowers, 68 x 51 Fabric paint on linen

Imprint

That first warm day after the rains
When wildflowers seemed to rise
and burst from the ground overnight

We shared their secrets in smiles
Bent over in the sunlit field
with pollen stuck to our noses

Amanda Joy

Butterflies

petals

blink wind

eyes

wings

blow

wink sun

catch

Tineke Van der Eecken

37 Kathy Adair

Untitled, 38 x 42 Watercolour

Great Barrier Reef

blues, greens, pinks
landscapes
swaying in the wind
of underwater currents

a reef without equal

oh what a wonderful world

Julienne Juschke

Music follows your brush
colours your palette–

romance turns
and returns
with the tide.

Rose van Son

38 Stephen Franklin

Untitled, 33 x 46 Mixed media

Rest:

Rest – A Saturday afternoon in a country town.
It’s a picture painted
on the prison bars torturing
the prisoner from within.
You can see the
smells of rich tilled fields
fringed with green grass.
Rest – lay to sleep clasping your
arms around you.

Christopher Kennedy

Lost Thoughts

My thoughts are lost
in the grass.
They mist grey
and are swept up
in the moment
like bold brushstrokes;
but underneath chaos
new shoots try to push through;
the ideas of tomorrow.

Joanna Wakefield

39 Janine Noonan

Vase of Flowers, 65 x 45 Acrylic

newborn asleep
a bee nuzzles
the cosmos

Tash Adams

Golden Bouquet

A bouquet of gilded promise,
like Klimt decoration
scattered over canvas.
Here float miniature suns,
rimmed with morning gold,
blooming into bold beauty.
Each petal glows, fusing
to form clusters of glinting light
filled with ruffled colour,
lighting up this space.

Veronica Lake

40 Justin Carter

Tropical Paradise, 35 x 65 pencil

And From The Rock

The coconut seems bent in worship
until you see the banana
releasing fruit and you notice
casual husks weathertime peeled
letting go flesh and milk
natively shared upon earth things
as earth things, the planet that lives
despite our coveting what is not magic,
knowing things we sometimes notice:
leaves and grasses and from the rock, a flower

Alistair Bain

In Elysium’s foliage, nymphs forage
For golden apples, dripping with light
They trade sweet fruit for the dragon’s pause
Skipping between flames so bright

Deanne Leber

41 Chris White

Untitled, 38 x 55 Acrylic

Tree-Blossom

This should be spring –
an English spring when
rain rinses the air
and the drab earth pops
with colour.

Then cherry and
star magnolia wake
to green and pink and gold
and drip
with delicate light.

Helen Bradwell

Enchanted Forest

Red, yellow, green and blue
these magic trees of every hue.
Chris’s painting is quite a featwing he does it with his feet!

Meryl Manoy

42 David Brandstater

Untitled, 35 x 50 Acrylic & pastel

Rowuponrow
Owuponrowr
Wuponrowro

Sun bursts through!

Andrew Burke

The Silent Way

It’s the colour of sound

the code for language

yellow and lime green sets the tone of us

hear me in red, and you in bottle green

It’s the colour of numbers

the code for maths

yellow rod equals blue minus pink

add red plus brown and you get orange

but if you throw a ‘one’ rod on the floor

you get detention

Shey Marque

43 Gillian Deague

Untitled, 25 x 35 Mixed media

Hooded figures all joined hands
Roundy round in circle dance
Two steps in, they shout hooray
Two steps back in roundelay
Jump two-to-the centre
Jump two back
All raise hands clappitty clap
Happy hooded figures all join hands
Roundy round in smiles they dance

Graeme Butler

In the Pink and Partying

A dance of crimson,
A twitch of mauve,
A lavender underlay –
Let these lovely colours play,
Let your fingers rove,
Let loose the stardust!
Voila! Treasure trove!

J.R. McRae

44 Gillian Deague

Untitled, 25 x 35 Mixed media

roadside puddles
reflect dark clouds
rain on my tongue

Coral Carter

Pond Life

Succulent splashes of water lettuce
tangled strings of ribbon weed
sunlight shimmers on muddy banks
tadpoles twist and flap
on necklace stems
while bubbles burst to the surface.

Jacqui Merckenschlager

45 Kristen Cameron

Untitled, 31 x 41 Mixed media

The Beauty Of Swans Is Overrated

All you ugly ducklings

pay attention as the mallard lands.

Graceless? Maybe. But so much life in the chaos of homecoming —

neck stretched, wings lifted, broad feet paddling

air just before she hits the water.

You will hear the reeds applaud her prodigal return.

Liana Joy Christensen

Seaweed floating on the ocean’s surface.
Iridescent blue brine surrounding brown and green fronds
Tiny camouflaged fish, weaving in and out
While a leafy sea dragon, fragile and frilly
Drifts along with the crowd.

Deb Micallef

46 Kristin Cameron

Untitled, 20 x 49 Acrylic & pastel

Egret

Out of greening rushes
steps an egret.
Mincing water’s margin
haughty as some regency
dandy dreaming of war and
glory, he comes closer,
never suspecting that
a commoner with a Canon
would dare to shoot him.

Jan Napier

it’s hard to be recognised

won’t you pay attention to the green of the trees

I will brand myself onto your white paper sky

see, look

I am all the colours of the rainbow

in a lorikeet scooting past

I am not invisible

Josephine Clarke

47 Odette Murphy

Untitled, 33 x 46 Acrylic

Stick figures populate this world
where trees and flowers and birds
fall to the simplest trace of themselves.

Somewhere in this picture
I hide.

Collect all the colours
and shift the dark angles
into something that is bright
and full of laughter.

Gary Colombo De Piazzi

Bloomeria

poetry is an inspiration
game of paying it forward
. here, my garden is the
frame: i plant stanzas &
sestinas to bloom & quatrain
. in spring, with ear to the
dirt, i listen to how earth sings

Scott-Patrick Mitchell

48 Lisa Joyce

Untitled, 22 x 49 Acrylic

Fireworks over Perth water,
hot nights, children’s cries,
folding chairs, the clink
of empty bottles.
The detritus to be
cleaned up tomorrow.

Sue Clennell

Rainbow Quills

Kaleidoscopic memories
escape her mind and cage;
rainbow quills, coloured thoughts
as dreaming summer breaks and spills
on flashing, dancing page.

Max Merckenschlager

49 Lisa Joyce

Untitled, 13 x 42 Acrylic

Effortless Smooth

Silk drys
fish swim on an incoming tide
glossed up lips
swing of hips
effortless smooth

studied smooth
peloton in a downhill rush
dancer’s leap
loaded brush across a page.

Maree Dawes

Flying School

they streak through the ocean

then instinctively en masse

leap up through the surface

nose against the spray

suspended in the atmosphere

sleek, wet bodies mirror

a fiery sunset

for a fleeting moment

a psychedelic cavalcade.

Val Neubecker

50 Delores Purdie

Untitled, 13 x 42 Acrylic

Talented Delores is a painter rare,
She joyfully layers her paints with care,
Thus creating the image her heart desires
Of planned mediums and never tires
Of striving to give the world a clue
Of what her skills can bring to view.
Fascinating artist loaded with skill
Paints trails of colour that do spill
Down the canvas like a picture 3D
A rare scene one does not often see.

Deb Micallef

This is like me –
in the sea. I’m a
Flower Hat Jelly, all
luminescent colour;
what my eyes winkle
from water, sky and
earth; and my eyes
miss nothing!!

Zan Ross

51 Cathy White

Untitled, 30 x 42 Acrylic

When spring emerges within us
Inner tenderness awakes
Like a myriad of spring flowers
Breaking through a blanket of snow
Appearing mellow and full of promise
Awaiting to Unfold
Awaiting to Become
A gentle reminder of Reoccurrence
Constant Resurrection
Hope grows in the tiniest things.

Brigita Ferencak “The Wandering Gypsy”

Those Flowers

Those flowers that glow in the late afternoon chills
lying low in the cusp of the mighty sand-hills
bring a smile to my face and warmth to my heart
as I struggle through the cold south coast sands.
Those flowers I picked with their long rangy stems
are nodding their heads as the breeze softly wafts them
on the dresser where they stand in a tall oyster jar
to remind me of sun, and rubies and fire.
Lowly nasturtiums, which run on green feet
whose petals and seeds are piquant to eat,
their greatest gift to those who care
is the joy we infuse on seeing them flare.

Virginia O’Keeffe

52 Vickie-Lee Devenish

Landscape, 30 x 41 Pastel & pencil

Out Walking

It really doesn’t matter
If walking to the sea
Or some mysterious hinterland

You will need to rest at times
A bun an apple a bottle of water

If someone comes
and sits beside you
So much the better

Ron Okely

Imagine

A Spring day: green velvets the valley,
trees refreshed climb to turquoise
trickled in cloud – my camera kidnaps
the moment . . . Not enough.
With my pastels and paint, precision
of photo gives way to texture,
nuances of meaning, light and colour,
creating something new.
Imagine a wooden seat on which
to wonder at the road ahead.

Margaret Ferrell

53 Vickie-Lee Devenish

Farmhouse, 30 x 41 Pastel & charcoal

Farmhouse

Converging lines meet
A vanishing point –
Villers – Bretonneux.
Soldiers in lice – ridden uniforms
sleep in warm hayloft.
Farmer brings
Eggs, bread and milk.

Sally Gaunt

A Grazing Afternoon

An amaranth pink sky excites the eye with turbulence,
as apple green swards surround this comely home with comfort.
Crooked cypress bends dark crown toward your happy haven.
Within, lady friends gather for tea and conversation,
painting their way into tomorrow.
A foregrounding silvering fence plays at being
boundary within this painted frame –
anticipating among its vibrant crossers
a welcoming smile and close-held hug.
Such satisfaction from a soft and grazing afternoon.

Allan Padgett

54 Sharleen Jesperen

Untitled, 38 x 56 Acrylic

Nine Times Five

scriibbles of thinkings,
beetroot linguine

trackings of sand-flies,
relief map of fret

a tangle of whys,
rhubarb cumulous

then gnarly weather,
tongues and their jumblings

where shoe laces go

Kevin Gillam

On a dare I climbed the Geebung stands.
The night was close with cloud, the pitch
a gulf of black. I heard the thumping hooves,
I smelt the clods of turf; the shouts were shouts
of sport not massacre. But there was nothing out there.

The cloud broke. Moonlight showed the sashes,
the striving fetlocks, the spray from smashing mallets.

Chris Palazzolo

55 Tony Stanesheff

Vase of Flowers, 65 x 45 Pastel

Vase of Flowers

A bunch of checkered feathers in a jar
transforms itself into a still life
of fern fronds, blooms and leaves
long enough to prick the blue and green
of listless air standing back
as Tony paints his music
into the red jar, the loudest note
in a well-balanced composition
slightly to the left of centre.
Still life. Still beautiful.

Fran Graham

Story Of The Red Vase

Oh, the red vase, the red vase
my mother so prized it on the shelf
by the back door. In it would repose
white roses mother grew herself.

I loved it too, as a four-year-old,
climbed up with aid of a chair
but knocked, smashed it—away it rolled.
I blamed our cat but mum had seen me there!

Glen Phillips

56 Cameron Dermer

Bear No. 1, 39 x 34 Acrylic

Happiness

piecing together
lost clouds, pulling them close
until sparks fly

Sunny Blundell-Wignall

Painting Happiness

Splashes of colour
blue, black, white and grey
create your image of number 1 bear

another friend to join Franklin or
Paddington, Baloo or Rupert
or Yogi Bear or Winnie The Pooh.

Imagination brimming from the
drawing book mum gave you,
your brushstokes bring forth

the happiness you feel.

Mike Greenacre

57 Cameron Dermer

Bear No. 2, 39 x 40 Acrylic

On Being Yellow

When I am yellow
everyone can see me
just like they see the sun.
The sun is yellow
and it warms the world.
I want to warm the world,
that’s why I am yellow.

Ann Harrison

Joy Is

the shake-shake of gum leaves
like tambourines in the wind

the cut and swoop of a Spitfire
arching through your dreams

a cartoon show at the gallery
followed by choc-chip ice cream

smell of brushes and acrylic
the chirp and din of arts

your own golden teddy bear
arms wide and ready to hug.

Hessom Razavi

58 Cameron Dermer

Bear No. 3, 39 x 40 Acrylic

honey bear number three is that exact colour
a sticky friend indeed for friends in need
with winter arms that fit around your waist with
as warm a welcome as two dimensions ever dared
but a heart that goes about and up and in
leaping from the page that hangs upon the wall
I saw him moving fast between the trees
a black and yellow sun, sugar spun,
at least a dozen metres tall
the bright joy of a canvas well done

Nathan Hondros

While deep in sleep
I saw him there
that smiling ghostly
Teddy Bear.

I woke so slowly
when the dream was faint
so I captured that bear
with my artists’ paint.

Peter Rondell

59 Cameron Dermer

Racing Car, 38 x 55 Acrylic

Racing Car 53, All The Way !

Smell the benzene, see the thrusting smoke,
Hear the roar of the watching crowd,
See the pit-boys dismantle the torn tyre, the bent wheel,
Patching the parts like mosaics or cogs in a watch.
Then push 53 back on the track, Cameron at the wheel
And watch it skid start with a leaping squeal,
Burning rubber, spitting flame, hurtling forward
To catch and then lead the field,
To pass under the checkered flag,
And Cameron kiss the girls, and take the spouting cup.

Peter Jeffery OAM

Race Car

This is what you see –
Number 53. It’s me,
wind over paint and chrome,
tearing up the tarmac
at 200mph plus out
out there, laying down rubber
early and late, under the sun,
under lights – a blur at night.
That’s me, Number 53!

Zan Ross

60 Michael Sinclair

Untitled, 20 x 41 Acrylic

Sprouts

Patient colour collects on the ground
darkens to ochre and earthen
Remembers itself in glimpses
of light, sparks and catches itself
in seeds shooting skywards

Amanda Joy

I could reach in and touch
this garden, feel the soft
texture of petals
the firmness of stems
and the weaving of roots
repeated harmonies and
patterns of Earth.
From the indecision of grey
comes the spectrum
of light.

Maureen Sexton

61 Michael Sinclair

Untitled, 31 x 41 Acrylic

Escarpment

A river runs through this country
bursting seeds burnt by fire
rhythmic repeat of ravenous thoughts
an oracle for the living

Tineke Van der Eecken

The Story Of The Raised Garden Bed And A Little Helper

railway sleepers old and grand
edge the freshly sown raised garden bed

spectacular sky-blue fence paint
strewn across the tidy rows

by a well-meaning five year old helper

Julienne Juschke

62 Michael Frith

Rusty, 24 x 25 Mixed media

Rusty

Get your tongue
out of my mouth
you silly dog.
I watch you
playing like a child
jumping, rolling.
You leap eagerly
within the
circle of my arms.
Then stand
sentinel for my dreaming.

Christopher Kennedy

bold strokes–
Pilbara light opens
your paws

rustic
reminders
of a dry day

Rose van Son

63 Chris Reynolds

Flowers, 25 x 21 Acrylic

Follow the Sun

Drowsy
Sun-glutted petals
Flutter and sigh-soft,
dreaming sleepy
in sensuous summer air.
Like children, their faces turn,
to follow the sun’s path.
Bathed in its fiery glow
their hearts open,
hazed with warmth
and munificence
kindling the blaze within.

Veronica Lake

Like sunflowers, we turn our happy faces
to the sun.
Like sunflowers we hold hands and
dance in the fields
and like sunflowers
we are strong in unity
as our petals brush
the wind of desire.

Joanna Wakefeld

64 David Brandstater

Untitled, 30 x 24 Mixed media

the light
in the shade
of me

Tash Adams

The deliberate push of alphabets
Lilting on the page
Soft on your tongue
Have begun to know you by sentences
The way you sit on lines
Silent, heavy, pulsing

I catch you by vertigo kisses
Swinging from the night light
Neon meadows
Yellow daisies bobbing

Deanne Leber

65 Chris Reynolds

Flowers 2, 46 x 35 Acrylic

The Impressionist

In search of fresh perspective,

Degas ascends to the gods

and from there renders

two of the corps mid spin.

Each dancer leaves green shadows.

Diaphanous skirts flare out

from the lamplight glow

of their pollen-dusted skin.

Liana Joy Christensen

Moon Flowers At Midnight

The full moon elicits these nocturnal flowers
to purvey their scent on the midnight air
creamy yellow they stand erect
perfume fading in daylight hours.

Meryl Manoy

66 Greg Barr

Untitled, 46 x 35 Acrylic

Fall

From this distance there is
light in ribbons
flaying the great dark cliff.
Each brush-fall bears the force the roar
of water falling, gathering
light and spray
as colours collude
in a deft illusion
of gravity.

Helen Bradwell

Earth Mother at Dusk

Cycling and circling on the ring road
with each lap the rock changes colour
from pink to purple to indigo, pigmented
like the skin of an old world lizard.

Feast on me, says the crocodile,
and we do, while the star talker treks
the southern night sky, moonset Uluru
ink-black against the red red horizon.

Shey Marque

67 Michael Chandler

Yellow Orange Pastel, 45 x 59 Acrylic & pastel

The cerulean sky is dancing.
Velvet ripples of blue keep falling
onto the seabed of my happiness.
Looking up from underwater,
reminds me that air is still mine.
While I can swim in yellow and measure
its size with my hands, one finger at a time,
shout my smiling fury across any page,
draw from orange—I am choosing breath.

Josephine Clarke

The Map

Let’s create a picture. Plan…
Touch the outlines,
Feel the contours, scan
Them with your senses. Take
The measure of the man!

J.R. McRae

68 Kaye Howell

Untitled, 38 x 39 Acrylic

My Colours are Agitated
I don’t know what to do.
My turquoise, I’ve given fair space
and mixed it severally with green and red
with black, white and blue,
all painted bottom left to top right
finishing in a mist of greenish hue.
Then I overlay a storm of colour,
stirring unhappy black with forever blue –
Ah, and now I’m done its clear to me, my
colours are an energetic, balanced brew.

Graeme Butler

A Windy Day At City Farm

fragrant earth is turned for Autumn
leaves of peach and pear and apricot
carpet the gardens
or swirl and dance across the paths.
Death and decay, renewal and rebirth
anticipate Spring plantings.

Jacqui Merckenschlager

69 Lara Goodger

Untitled, 46 x 60 Acrylic

rising sun
galahs pink breasts
a grey feather floats

Coral Carter

Chiaroscuro

i am perpetual dusk, a
husk of the day that
was & the night yet to
i am a story of how
the sun always eats it
-self. i am the middle, a
wealth of all at once as
it pivots into darkness to
shine eternal

Scott-Patrick Mitchell

70 Bonnie Wilkinson

Untitled, 30 x 35 Acrylic

Blue Nile becomes White Nile,
fertile at the edges,
desert within eye’s range.
A pyramid lones it,
like the one on the face of the moon.

Sue Clennell

Agriculture and Mining

Sulphur-crested white cockatoos flying high over
Golden fields of wheat and Canola
Surrounded by red dust and salt
Here and there a dash of salmon-coloured rocks
Like pale peach chalk

Black cockatoos circling brackish billabongs
Casting shadows over the fractured Earth
Slashed open to steal its riches and leave a gaping wound
That can never be healed.

Walking across the salt flats
Miles of arid, barren land
Even the Yonga have moved on
In search of greener pastures

Deb Micallef

71 Walter Hall

Untitled, 40 x 60 Acrylic

Neons

Glimpsed in city alleys
moving through shadows
the city turns
white stripes to neon

hooves clatter in stairwells
dung drifts in gutters
odd shaped gaps in topiary hedges
sure signs of electric zebras.

Maree Dawes

Adam And The Ants (Or Joseph?)

Soften the strings, lower guitars,
off with your strobing lights —
hush the hysteria of love-crazed girls!
‘Adam’ and his Ants in sexual-market dance
watch them sway, see them prance …
or have I read you wrong?
s Joseph in your song?

Max Merkenschlager

72 Terry Bralich

Home, 50 x 40 Acrylic

The Fledgling

Does the seabird scream, the rush
of wind-whipped foam breaking at
its throat? The red-capped man’s
too busy
making terms with weather
at the tiller, the ocean blazing
split and gashed between the rocks
colour hauled from the silent ocean
breast,
to hear the fledgling laugh

Alistair Bain

Light

There is no shore in this,
Pounding waves of colour
The sun and moon contest.
Don’t touch! The maker’s marks
tell the tale as waves
Sweep over the days
Delight upon light.

Andrew Burke

73 Audrey Warbie

Untitled, 50 x 30 Acrylic

Red Hope

Silk threads held by gold
A painted picture of flowers in a meadow at dusk
Eager to feel the wet colour of red
The girl’s stretched arm hand
crosses no-mansland
shadows dance

Tineke Van der Eecken

Hip, hip, hooray
Hips twist,
Red skirt swirls,
Feet lift off the ground.
Dancer in body torque.

Sally Gaunt
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