Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2023 i Country Style

OUR ANNUAL Art Issue is one of my favourites to work on. Every year, I’m amazed at the creativity that comes out of regional Australia. I also look forward to collaborating with the Michael Reid team for our Country Style art exhibition. This year’s theme, Coast to Coast, came to us quite easily and we all agreed it had great scope for beautiful artworks. Since that decision was made, there have been a number of devastating floods around Australia at a scale previously unseen and in towns that weren’t prone to flooding. It’s a stark reminder of the power of water. Spending all my childhood holidays at the Kyogle pool, in swimming holes on Lions Road or catching waves at Clarkes Beach with my cousins, the dangers of water were…

WE ALL HAVE THAT thing, whether it be cooking, yoga, sport, writing or playing an instrument, that fills our creative cup; an activity where you become so involved in the process that you almost enter a meditative state. For Clay Beehive founder Melanie Eliades, that thing is pottery. Mel lives and creates in Milawa, a small town in Victoria’s north-east region. Having “stumbled” upon a night class during a particularly stressful time in her life, it was at the wheel where Mel fell in love with the joy and peace that pottery provided her. “I was a carer for my mum, who had early-onset Alzheimer’s. So, I thought I’ll go, take the class and see what happens. That’s how I first got into it,” Mel, 48, explains. Now, five years…

I BUY MY T-SHIRTS from Bloomingdale’s in the United States. When it comes to home delivery and shopping transcontinentally, it has always been easier, less costly, and none too time-shabby to let my fingers do the walking. In this increasingly global, transactional world, it’s perfectly sensible to buy the mass-produced over the airwaves. However, like the ripening of the Slow Food movement from the late 1980s, acquiring the art of a very particular place and time has now come of age. Regionality in those things we like to savour allows the collector to acquire artworks that reflect the culture, history, and way of life of the artist and their place of work. For generations, we have understood the developing notion of regional identity, alongside the art and cultural practices of…

1 Matteo dining table in Untreated Teak, $3925-$4595, from Cotswold InOut Furniture. 2 Pure linen towel bundle in Forest, $235, from Cultiver. 3 Toledo clear pendant light in Black & Black, $285, from About Space Lighting. 4 Looking over Bass Strait acrylic on aluminium composite board painting, $1500, by Janine Everett. 5 Tish floor lamp in Natural, $279.95, from Provincial Home Living. 6 Antique Persian Isfahan rug, $18,000, from Cadrys. 7 Domino paint, $5.90 per 100ml sample pot, from Dulux. 8 Estancia Leather Co The Vittoria sofa in Sand, $4995, from Coco Republic. 9 Trough surface mount basin in Cloud, $1020, from Nood Co. 10 Noni Gingham queen quilt cover in Olive, $249, from Country Road. 11 Elm round coffee table in Natural, $1190, from Beachwood. 12 Alabaster pot in…

IF ANYONE CAN DEMONSTRATE the truth of the phrase, “patience is a virtue,” Barb Somervaille can. Barb, 58, and her husband Andrew, 64, live at Tallowood, an 11-hectare property in Southern Queensland’s Ravensbourne, on Jagera, Giabal and Jarowair land. They purchased the bare plot with two dams in 1998 and built a double-storey, barn-style home in a swift nine weeks. The garden, however, is a long-term project that Barb has chipped away at while homeschooling the couple’s eight children, now aged 17 to 34. “Moving out of Toowoomba to the country was a lifestyle choice, and it was my career choice to homeschool our children full-time,” says the powerhouse mum. However, when Barb and Andrew’s youngest, Daniel, began Year Nine at school in Toowoomba four years ago, Barb enrolled in…

AFTER A BLISSFUL childhood in Orange, NSW, with a painter for a mother, Larissa Blake was always going to be an artist – but her path hasn’t been a straightforward one. “I was blessed with a creative childhood with access to plenty of materials for making and creating,” she says, “but the little rebel in me didn’t want to follow in Mum’s footsteps, so I studied communications and marketing.” Scoring a coveted job in Sydney’s publishing scene seemed like a dream come true, but it turned out to be more of a nightmare. “I lasted only one year in the corporate world and was utterly miserable,” says Larissa. It was her old friend, art, that came to her rescue in this difficult time. “I met an art therapist and started…

TODAY, I THOUGHT WE MIGHT like to discuss the science of evolutionary psychology and sociology. Then again, I could be wrong. Those of us who majored in this field will remember that Fred Flintstone and his accomplice Barney Rubble were seldom without hefty wooden clubs which they used to provide their cave-dwelling clans with protein-rich animal flesh. Animal flesh was regarded as a complete protein food even before we knew about legumes and yoghurt. It may have seemed like only yesterday, but it is probably closer to 200,000 years since Neanderthal man carried around a selection of clubs with which to disturb the grassroots beliefs in environment protection while wiping out species we don’t see anymore, and shouting the Lord’s name in vain. Okay, maybe that was what we now…

SIENA STUBBS First Nations Yol u woman Siena became a photographer as a child, when her parents gave her a hand-me-down camera. See page 62 for her images of artist Djirrirra Wunu murra Yukuwa. “Being a Yol u woman, I grew up on Country learning the knowledge of the land and the beauty of the bush,” says Siena, 21, who is studying film in Brisbane but calls Yirrkala, in the NT, home. After publishing a book of bird photography, Siena took these images of her grandmother, Djirrirra, when she was home for university holidays: “For Yol u, it is rare to be by yourself, as we say yaka gäna (never alone). But sometimes I’m alone with the handline waiting for a fish to bite, or sitting at the fire in…

WOMEN ON THE LAND DESPITE ITS WHITE-HOT FEROCITY, summer in outback Queensland is Angie Nisbet’s favourite time of year. From the homestead on her family’s 12,950-hectare station, 80 kilometres south of Hughenden, the 35-year-old watches the horizon bruise and blacken. The afternoon’s storm is building in the north-west, air crackling, before rolling coolly across the downs country with a sighing relief. “The heat and humidity is always horrific, but when you can look out and see the beautiful green grass, it beats everything else,” Angie says. A fifth-generation producer, it was a matter of when rather than if Angie would return to the land. After a stint working up north as a jillaroo before training as a beauty therapist and working for a decade in Longreach, it was a topic…

MOUNT BARKER WA FOR ARTIST CARLY LE CERF, who is based in Western Australia’s Mount Barker, on Wagyl Kaip and Southern Noongar lands, conveying the vast beauty of Australia’s rugged interior landscapes is a dance between what she remembers and letting her medium speak. Working with encaustic wax and oil painting techniques to illustrate the places she visits, Carly’s texture-rich works derive from an immersive journey. “Every year, I go off on location for a solid two weeks and then return to my home studio to create a body of work with everything I’ve gathered from my time away,” says Carly, 44, whose works are primarily presented as a collection. “I investigate that area in every way possible – I meditate on site, record the sound, take videos and photos,…

BIGGER AND BETTER… Now in its fourth year, Country Style’s annual exhibition in partnership with Michael Reid is all about our magnificent coastline, that symbolic space where land and sky meet the sea. In addition the show will also capture the diversity of landscapes in between, from coast to coast. The exhibition will be held across Michael Reid’s NSW galleries in Murrurundi and Berrima. Visit the Berrima, Southern Highlands gallery for the opening drinks party on March 11, and other talks and activities relating to the exhibition. WHEN Thursday, March 2 – Sunday, March 26, 2023 WHERE Michael Reid Murrurundi, (02) 6546 6767; michaelreidmurrurundi.com.au; Michael Reid Southern Highlands, (02) 8353 3535; michaelreidsouthernhighlands.com.au Enquiries to jamesstokes@michaelreid.com.au…

AS A TEENAGER, SALLY LE ROUX often had sleepovers at the Pindari farmhouse – the home of a high-school friend, 35 minutes’ drive west of Toowoomba. Set on 26 hectares and surrounded by an established garden of jasmine, salvias, camellias, and towering tibouchina and jacarandas, Pindari holds special memories for Sally, who grew up nearby. “The house was stylishly decorated, beautifully maintained and always felt welcoming. It was such a lovely place to visit, as it’s a real bush sanctuary,” she recalls. Many years later, Sally and her husband, Pieter, returned to Toowoomba and were living with their three sons – Jake, now 12, Charlie, 10, and nine-year-old Angus – and Michael, their eight-year-old dachshund. Pieter, a doctor who was raised on a sheep property in South Africa, and Sally,…

DOWN THE GARDEN PATH MOST GARDENERS LOVE BEES, but my husband really, REALLY loves bees. It’s a love affair that has spanned a decade now, and has weathered good seasons and poor seasons, hive beetle and countless stings – including to rather sensitive parts, due to a hole in his bee suit. (Now repaired.) Adam has 14 hives and watches them closely in winter, even more closely in summer, and can talk for hours and hours about the wonders of all things bee-related (cue the sound of our three kids’ heads hitting the table as they fake falling asleep). Pollen pants, bee bread, Warré hives, waggle dancing: these things set my beloved’s heart racing. Like gardeners everywhere, I love bees for their diligent pollination work in my flower and vegie…

A HALF PALLET of the world’s least necessary wine sits naked in a Clare Valley shed. The only thing identifying it is the general indifference of all those who pass by it, and my name written in black texta on the plastic wrap keeping it all together. The wine’s not that bad. I would say that, though – I made it. It comes from the seven rows of shiraz vines that impinge on decent grazing land in our front paddock. These are the vines that the lawyer who sold us the property mistakenly thought would seal the deal, until I informed him I had plenty of good wine made by others infinitely more talented. In our first year, the sheep got at the vines, but last year they threw a…

THE LAST LONG DAYS OF SUMMER are sighing to a close. And with the fresh breezes of autumn, its cooler mornings and earlier sunsets, come new opportunities to layer colour, pattern and texture into your wardrobe. Inspiration for autumnal clothing isn’t hard to find – nature provides it in abundance. That’s easy to see in the new autumn/winter collections from Marco Polo and Yarra Trail, two Aussie fashion brands with style and heritage. This begins right at the start of every piece of clothing: its material. Natural fabrics – cotton, linen and wool – are central to each brand’s new offerings. “Yarra Trail’s autumn/winter collection is designed with the Australian climate front of mind,” says Jacquie McIntosh, who works across both labels. “Our extensive use of natural fibres in our…

TIME TO DREAM Country Style, you have been a thoroughly enjoyed subscription gift for my dear mum for many years now. My mum is a nurse, and she’s a kind, thoughtful woman – especially during this past year as I transitioned into my own new role as ‘Mum’ after birthing my first beautiful son. During my maternity leave, Mum would pass on her copies of Country Style. I would boil the kettle while my little one was sleeping and relax in my apartment, dreaming of getting out of the hustle and bustle of Sydney, and embracing the beauty of the country – just like in your stories. Kate Engley, Sydney, NSW BACK IN THE OPEN After our second COVID Christmas in a row, we emerged to find that the world…

A DAY IN THE COUNTRY IN MY STUDY, I have a great heap of finished tapestries. They are completely disconnected; there’s no symmetry of colour or design. Laying them out, I wish some other version of me existed… a version who had realised I was going to do this for years and it would be wise to pick a theme, a colour scheme, or anything to connect the stitching. I could have a complete set of chair covers, or matching cushions. Instead, the randomness of the heap would suggest the point has always been in the doing, not in the finishing. The concentration of one stitch after another, the lack of thought required, has meant it’s a practice that has been a balm at times. Looking at them conjures the…

THE INSPIRATION BEHIND THE remodelling and restyling of Tabitha and Richard Young’s Queensland home initially came from a faraway source – a US television program, Fixer Upper, set in Texas. Tabitha is a fan of the work of interior designer and star of the series Joanna Gaines, who together with her husband, Chip, performs stylish transformations on local properties. Joanna’s ‘farmhouse chic’ approach appealed to Tabitha and she was delighted to find local designer Nikki Hobbs, whose ideas aligned with her own vision. “Originally Joanna Gaines was where I started off, but Nikki has got that lovely flair as well,” says Tabitha. “I was able to just run an idea past her and she’d say, ‘Yes, that’s good, and we could also do this, this and this’, so that’s how…

WORKING FROM HOME certainly has its merits, but it can also come with distractions, especially if you’re a mum to three little boys. And it was with this in mind that still-life artist Whitney Spicer went in search of a dedicated space to paint – away from her own backyard. “I’m lucky to have an art studio at home, but I wanted the opportunity to ‘go to work’ as well,” she says. “I felt like I would be more productive if I removed the daily distractions of home – with no clothes to be washed, no toy room to be cleaned and no uniforms to be ironed.” She didn’t have to look far for the perfect spot. Whitney, 33, and her husband Tim, 35, live just outside Manildra, in the…