Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2024 i Country Style

PAINTING IS MAGICAL to me. As a writer and editor, I understand how the right combination of words can create an unforgettable character or vivid scene, but how a series of brushstrokes on a canvas results in a beautiful landscape or still-life is a mystery to me. I have concluded that some very special alchemy must be at play. And I am in awe of artists. To celebrate our fifth annual Country Style art exhibition with Michael Reid, we selected six artists and gave them the theme ‘Our Country’ to inspire their work. Having had a sneak preview, I can report they are as diverse as they are beautiful, and I admit that this is my favourite exhibition to date. From Vicki Yatjiki Cullinan’s striking paintings of her Country in…

IN TASMANIA, summer lingers deliciously into March. The days are warm, but the nights are cold enough for a blanket and even a fire (though this is much disputed in our household). Ahead of us, the autumn jobs – classing and crutching ewes, putting out the rams, sowing new pasture for spring – are like a ballast. After a busy, unpredictable summer filled with comings and goings, family and friends, impromptu dinners and days out on the boat, I’m eager for the quiet of autumn. I walk outside and the ground is a heart holding heat beneath my bare feet. I collect nectarines, testing their ripeness by resting them in the palm of my hand. If the tree releases them, I take the fruit inside for breakfast, their flesh the…

“There’s a sense of ritual involved in rolling an olive seed around in your mouth; it’s a flavour reward for effort.” “Roasting vegies – especially cauliflower – before they go into a soup makes every difference to the depth of flavour.” “This is such a simple recipe, but it really packs a flavour punch.” QUINCE HUMMINGBIRD CAKE WITH TAHINI CARAMEL Makes a 26cm bundt cake, or 6 baby bundt cakes 375g plain (all-purpose) white spelt flour, plus extra for dusting 390g rapadura sugar 10g (1½ teaspoons) bicarbonate of soda 7g (1¾ teaspoons) baking powder 5g (1 teaspoon) salt 6g (2 teaspoons) ground cinnamon 480g mashed banana (from about 3 bananas) 110ml extra virgin olive oil 180ml quince poaching liquid, at room temperature 8g (2 teaspoons) vanilla bean paste 60ml apple…

“AM I LOSING MY MIND?” Between the ages of 30 and 60, many women will wake up one morning and wonder what hit them. Whether it’s uncontrollable sweating or a barrage of brain fog and anxiety, any woman can be confronted with an onslaught of peculiar changes sudden enough to, quite literally, make her head spin. It might be a sense of disorientation, where you find yourself doing increasingly absentminded things, like entering a room only to wonder what made you go there in the first place. Communication can become a challenge, too. Moments of sheer panic may arise as you struggle to come up with that word on the tip of your tongue or draw a blank on something you just said, losing your train of thought. Emotions, too,…

Editor KYLIE IMESON Creative director SARAH FARAGO Deputy editor HANNAH JAMES Queensland contributing editor CLAIRE MACTAGGART Art director BERNHARD SCHMITZ Stylist KATE LINCOLN Features writer REBECCA HOOTON Features writer RACHEL WHITE Junior writer LISA EASEY Chief copy editor, Homes Group PETER GRIFFITHS Senior copy editor GRETA DUMBLETON Copy editor STEPHANIE HOPE Editorial coordinator ANNA CAMPBELL ADVERTISING AND PRODUCTION Commercial brand manager JO-ANN TAYLOR Advertising production manager KATE ORSBORN Director of sales –NSW, VIC, SA KAREN HOLMES Head of direct sales – VIC, SA, WA WILL JAMISON Queensland head of sales JUDY TAYLOR Creative director CLARE CATT Head of events and sponsorships CATE GAZAL Head of Directories REBECCA WHITE Production controller KARA STEAD Advertising production controller DOMINIC ROY All advertising inquiries ADVERTISING@AREMEDIA.COM.AU MARKETING AND CIRCULATION Marketing director LOUISE CANKETT Marketing manager…

c’est magnifique Add a soupçon of elegant French flavour to your garden with a gazebo in antiqued iron. The Tivoli Gazebo from Early Settler also lends shade to alfresco dining and entertaining; $2299. Visit earlysettler.com.au COTTON CANDY Woven from sustainably sourced cotton that’s OEKO-TEX-certified, Aura Home’s Milos bath towels, $59.95 each, have a softly dotted texture and come in a variety of colours and sizes. Here, Caramel, Sand and Pink Clay bring the ice-cream rainbow. Visit aurahome.com.au ALL BOOKED UP With vintage emporium Dirty Janes about to open another outpost, this time in Orange, NSW, now’s the ideal time to discover what makes the magic. Dirty Janes Vintage Style by Jane Crowley ($59.99, Ventura Press). TAKE A SEAT Outdoor chairs don’t come more stylish than the Roy Cocoon, from $1455,…

AS THE SAYING GOES, a change is as good as a holiday, but for many, it’s a way of life. For Sophie Marino, teacher and artist at Scribblygum Weavings in Byron Bay, NSW, the idea of transition is built into her sustainable handweaving business. “With making these pieces, where the person is going through a life change, I can teach them to weave their own cloth to support their process,” Sophie, 37, says. From wearables to soft furnishings, such as meditation blankets, each piece is slowly and intuitively designed on a saori or lap loom using locally sourced, natural fibres. It was Sophie’s childhood on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria that started it all. “I’d see my grandparents in the school holidays – they lived on a sheep farm. We…

WITH THEIR RICH, earthy colours and organic patterns, Elizabeth Beaumont’s abstract landscape paintings have a mesmerising quality. The process of creating them, however, is somewhat more chaotic. “I love painting, but I don’t find it relaxing,” says Elizabeth, 34. “I find it almost exhausting, because it’s very energising. After a good painting session I come back a bit wired.” Rather, Elizabeth, who goes by Elle, says she finds painting “addictive”. Her art practice kicked off in 2017 while living in Brisbane, where she had the luxury of spare time and a spare room to turn into a studio. But creativity has been a lifelong companion. “Growing up, I was always making something or doing something – lots of drawing and painting and doing stuff with my hands,” she explains. “I…

THE ONLY SOUNDS THAT disturb the deep peace enveloping Jo Sabey and Tim Biles’s home in Metung, on the traditional lands of the Gunaikurnai people in Victoria’s Gippsland Lakes region, are the stirring calls of the kookaburras and magpies. Jo, a talented visual artist, loves their idyllic lifestyle in this beautiful landscape, and employs the colours and textures of the natural world that surrounds her in her work. “It can be a solitary life,” Jo says, “but there’s a huge sense of peace and tranquillity here, where local wildlife roam the property and seabirds fill the sky.” Tasmanian-born Tim, a consulting town planner and urban designer, discovered Metung 40 years ago when he was working on a project nearby. “I couldn’t believe it. Why hadn’t anyone told me about this…

I HAVE A LONGSTANDING love affair with hydrangeas. My pop grew them, many years ago now, right along one shaded wall of the Willoughby, NSW, house that my mum grew up in. They bloomed bright blue, carefully doctored by my keen gardening grandfather with baking soda to achieve that colour, and I thought they were amazing. My mum’s memory of that bank of bushes, however, is of fiercely cut-back bristles, naked of greenery and generally unattractive, and so our farmhouse garden in Gerringong never had any hydrangeas until I took it over. Now, there are a million. Maybe a gazillion. You’d be lucky to go out any door of this house and not fall into a hydrangea bush. I’ve been given them; found them at the local church plant sale;…

A RECENT TRIP to Melbourne for my son’s graduation was an excellent reason to celebrate at a noted Spanish restaurant, MoVida. Each time we visit, the food seems better than the last. I recall Frank Camora’s old restaurant in an unassuming hotel in west Melbourne – who knew all those years ago his interpretations of his native Spanish food would go on to have such a profoundly positive effect on the dining scene, not just in Melbourne but Australia-wide. In early-’90s Melbourne, a surfeit of Spanish-style tapas bars sprouted along Johnston St, embellishing it with a Spanish f lavour which I think had more to do with food purveyor Casa Iberica opening than some of the questionably (in)authentic bars. Within a few short years, we’d reached Peak Tapas and with…

CLOCKWISE, FROM FAR LEFT Eight & Bob Mémoires de Mustique Eau de Parfum, $121 (30ml), from Saison, combines an invigorating blend of orange blossom, jasmine and osmanthus with musk and woody notes. Get your beauty sleep with the Pink Sleep Mask, $55, from Slip, which reduces friction and features long-fibre mulberry silk. Aromatherapy Daily Defence Face Moisturiser SPF 50+, $21.95, from Natio, protects skin from the visible signs of ageing and contains nourishing aloe and vitamin E. Refresh skin with an uplifting blend of aloe vera, green tea, citrus and cedarwood in Jurlique’s Exclusive Edition Aloe Vera Mist, $55. Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask in Berry, $31, from Adore Beauty, hydrates dry lips while you sleep. Laneige Water Bank Blue HA Cream Moisturiser, $58, from Adore Beauty, strengthens the skin’s moisture…

LUXURY GETAWAY The Byng Street Boutique Hotel is located in Orange’s heritage precinct. A beautiful juxtaposition of the historical homestead and modern architecture, this 4.5-star hotel offers guests sophisticated style and comfort. byngstreethotel.com.au THE TABLE IS SET Merchant Campbell’s cotton tablecloths and napkins will add fresh appeal to tables, both indoors and out. Delicately block-printed by hand in India, there’s a pattern to suit all interiors. Choose from a range of colours and sizes. merchantcampbell.com.au ADVENTURE AWAITS Planning an autumn getaway? Browse Lake Leather’s collection of top-quality leather travel accessories, including the Plenty Backpack and Roland Travel Bag – available in assorted colours. Timeless style never goes out of fashion. lakeleather.com.au NATURAL WONDERS Experience the wild, vast Kimberley landscapes by sea and air on a 10-night adventure of a lifetime…

TRADITION UPHELD I acquired my love of Country Style at age 16. My mum loved op-shopping on Saturday mornings – one weekend the store had a trolley out the front full of 50c magazines. The front covers were stunning and, just like that, in my arms I had someone’s entire 2016 collection. I read them many times over the years and only recently donated them due to moving, which I regret, but hopefully someone else is enjoying them. Now 24, I and my partner recently bought an ’80s brick home on two hectares in South West WA. We have lots of things to fix and renovate over the next decade. I am writing this on my English oak dining table, looking out at hills and paddocks. The table was purchased…

THERE’S A MULTISENSORY quality to the work of artist Jo White, whose colourful depictions of Australiana might recall a whiff of frangipani and the warmth of the midday sun; a chorus of cicadas as the soundtrack to a summer barbecue. Bright and optimistic, her neighbourhood scenes are both personal and universal. “Somewhere between the city and the outback, whether it be a country town or the outer suburbs, there’s a real connection a lot of us can latch onto – it doesn’t matter if you’re 20 or 60,” says Jo, who is based in Armidale, NSW. “The beautiful, iconic imagery of farming and woolsheds has been built up to be typical of what Australia is, and it’s definitely there, but equally there is this suburban landscape that resonates with so…

“Bimlow is so humble, but it feels really homely.” TUCKED BEHIND CONIFERS and golden elms, Bimlow Cottage is one of a handful of homes that make up the quaint hamlet of Edith on Gundungurra land in NSW’s Central West. A modest wattle and daub structure built in 1890, Bimlow charms with its wonky angles and uneven surfaces. “I call it a pauper’s house, and I think it was added to over time,” says Georgie Stuart, 40, who bought the cottage in 2011 with her partner Matt Quigley, 39. At the first inspection, Georgie, a formally trained artist working in business development, spotted the rustic tin roof and ‘Bimlow’ sign on the timber fence and “knew in my heart of hearts it was the one for us”. She and Matt, an…

ocean breeze How do you bring a sense of the sea indoors – without resorting to kitsch knick-knacks? Here’s how: a palette of fresh white and timeworn blue; nautical brass tapware (from CB Ideal Tapware); an antique seascape; and, yes, a single ocean-themed accessory (here, a clamshell that doubles as a tray). The owner of this masterclass in maritime decorating is Georgie Selman, who enlisted stylist Belle Hemming Bright to renovate Port Cottage on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. “To stand on the clifftops with the ocean raging below is an incredible experience,” says Georgie. But indoors, “There is a calmness that’s hard to find.” See more on Instagram @port.cottage painterly patina Christine Hansen loved renovating her 160-year-old home in Latrobe, Tasmania, and uncovering the layers of the past.…

AS WITH MOST THINGS worth doing, there is an art to good baking. Part science, part practice and part intention, I love the creativity and mindfulness of the baking process. And then, of course, I love the eating part, and the connection, joy and nostalgia this brings to others. I have long been a fan of a Swiss roll, and if ever there was a bake that was something of an art form, I believe it to be this. As I child, I loved those little packaged Swiss rolls filled with what I think was supposed to be strawberry jam – finding one in my school lunch box was truly a great joy. Since then, my tastes have matured somewhat, but there is still something about a slice of Swiss…

AN UNASSUMING COUNTRY cottage on the outside, Twiss Street is a lovingly restored, 160-year-old home full of personality and historic charm on the inside. Situated in Latrobe, where the Mersey River meets Bass Strait on Tasmania’s northern frontier, the home is the handiwork of Launceston-based museum curator, academic and business owner Christine Hansen. A portal to the past, Twiss Street has been painstakingly restored by Christine, who also runs The Patina Factory, a paint-making studio specialising in house paints made with natural materials. Every pigment, textile and object at Twiss Street – from the handmade lampshades to the milk-painted woodwork – was chosen to complement the cottage’s origins, using techniques Christine learned while living overseas. “In 2011, I moved to Sweden for an academic position researching museum collections,” explains Christine.…

ESCAPE TO NATURE Australian Geographic, Hardie Grant, $50 A sturdy laminated cover ensures that decades on, this heirloom item will still be intact. It’s a guide to 75 unique national parks across the country. Panels and maps give you highlights, while mini features spell out the detail, whether you’re looking for a quick day trip to ease tension or a pre-booked tour (the five-day Desert Sky tour in Mungo National Park; a whale-watching adventure out of Busselton; or, harnessed and dangling, picnicking 300 metres above Mount Buffalo’s valley). Visual surprises abound. The moon over Mungo turns the arid landscape a ferocious rosehip red. There are also warnings. The heart-shaped leaf of a stinging gympie-gympie tree “can result in months of excruciating pain and may induce allergic reactions that require hospitalisation……

March 2010 THERE ARE A NUMBER of reassuring things about living in the country. One is that even if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can be sure someone else does. Other people’s business is a pretty popular form of entertainment out here. And you never quite know when you’re under surveillance. One local told me he was sitting on his verandah reading the paper one morning when the phone rang. It was a lady across the road, phoning from behind closed curtains to warn him that his shoelace was undone. I was reminded of this recently when forced to defend our decision to come in search of the rural idyll in Dunedoo. Every once in a while, a minor blast from a not-very-explosive past prompts a review of…