Wendy Nugent - paintings that draw upon the symbolic forces of nature, the earth, sun, moon - looking to the landscape as a source of spirituality.

Corrugate waves unfold
63 x 94 - acrylics

Orange Moon
63 x 94 - acrylics

Surfacing
93 x 124 - acrylics

Orb
72 x 92 - acrylics

Baroon Dreaming
63 x 63 - acrylics

Black Stone of Night
103 x 78 - acrylics

Slips silently
78 x 63 - acrylics

Standing Together
78 x 52 - acrylics

Winter Light
124 x 23 - acrylics

Whose stillness
103 x 78 - acrylics

Summer Light
62 x 47 - acrylics

The Shape of Water
104 x 78 - acrylics

Beyond the Curve
78 x 53 - acrylics

Water from the Moon
103 x 78 - acrylics

The landscape for Wendy is a constant dialogue that is ever present in my painting. It is not strictly representational for what she is trying to convey it is the sense of place, rather than the actual locality.
Art for Wendy is an important conduit between past and present, thought and feeling, exploring the relationship connecting the land and those who live within it. Part of the fascination for her is the juxtaposition of limitless horizons and the meeting of land and sky.
Wendy's preferred medium is acrylics, building up layers of colour, and the interplay of colour and texture to capture the atmosphere of place.
Contact the artist.

Fiona Dempster - artists' books reflecting the natural environment of Lake Baroon, and in collaboration with poet Robyn Nugent, books of contemporary and original poetry tracking the phases of the moon

Full Moon (detail)

Bush Glyphs

From little things ( side view )

From little things (end view )

Leaf Litter

Phrases

Artemes ( detail )

Artemis

Fiona is an experienced calligraphic artist and maker of artists' books. She is one of only a handful of Australian artists to have been awarded the National Diploma of Calligraphy from the UK. She enjoys working with paper and her artwork reflects her love of letters, symbols, glyphs and words. 
Over the years, Fiona has developed a range of personal lettering styles but her favourite is her 'heartbeat' style which is used in this exhibition along with more traditional scripts.
Fiona is exhibiting her own artists' books reflecting the natural environment around Lake Baroon, the waters of the lake and the moonlight, and has collaborated with poet Robyn Nugent to produce artist books of contemporary and original poetry.
Contact the artist.

Noela Mills - jewellery and intriguing conical vessels suggestive of the local environment - mountains, lakes, rivers and lush foliage, set against the backdrop of the moonlit night.

Noela is an experienced artist and tutor producing paintings, jewellery, intimate sculptures and installations, all with a strong sense of design and using predominately found and recycled materials.
Her works reflect the Zen aesthetic of 'wabi sabi' which finds beauty in imperfection, in the old and worn, and in the everyday. These items have a simple, honest and noble story to tell.

For this exhibition, she has made a series of intriguing conical vessels from fine papers and silks, and beautiful jewellery suggestive of the local environment - mountains, lakes, rivers and lush foliage, set against the backdrop of the moonlit night.
Contact the artist.

Robyn Nugent - poetry inspired by the particularity and connectedness of the landscape as a source of deeper meaning in an increasingly transitional world.

I:  new moon

this pencil shaving
this infant's fingernail
of moony white
child of darkness clinging
pale sickly thing
to the heavy cattle tick
the vast sullen bulk
hulked silent
beside it

II: crescent

insouciant
a jaunty presence hat-tipped
on the topsy-turvy world
celestial  Fred Astaire
sliding across glossy night
the universe of stars
struck like sparks
from dancing shoes

III:  quarter

which is not what it seems
but half a moon
waxing or waning
a slice of lime
dropped into night sky
its citric presence
bitter
on-edge to eye

IV:  gibbous

asquint the earth
the moon's jutting eyeball
in its dark socket
sideways stares
unlidded
from stony sky
the small starssnapped out like lights

V:  full moon

the moon, that silver pebble
spun across the surface
of the night's dark pond
whose stillness is an illusion
scatters the water skimmer stars
dimpling spacetime before it
slips silently
before dawn
beneath black waters

from  phrases of the moon
                           - r nugent

Midday at Baroon Pocket Dam
(for Gershon Holtz)

the water gathers in the reeds
announcing its presence
with its one voice

standing together
the trees listen
from their kept distance

so quiet, the corrugate waves unfold
small and silent
repeating themselves
like an obsession

in the distance
the sky holds its breath
above the dark hole
burrowed into the earth

the lake inches to my feet
seeking attention

nothing happens,
continuously

I am not fooled

the surface is a funnel
into which the sky falls
and can't get out

r nugent

Maleny: 5.30pm

late sun
lies low upon the earth
cupping its flanks
of luscious green
dips and spurs
the eye is in love with it
its palette of light and curve
luscious  luscious
sweet as fruit
warm-skinned
ripe as olives
the plump
lush earth
offering itself

r nugent

flame tree: Obi Obi Creek

flung at the sky
the lorikeets
tumble
like Giotto's falling angels
plummeting earthward
into the burning up-thrust
of the flame tree
burst
into view
beside the brown stream

the shock of their presence
is a reminder of leaves
sharp green
against the wild red bells
of the wild red tree

the mind's confused
red tree / green bird
these opposites
burn into the eye
their retinal afterimage
shimmering
fire-edged in the brain

in the river the flame tree
lies like a bolt of silk
on the brown surface
the lorikeets
leading their double life
above
below

the river lies still before it
silent
cupping its hands
around flame
and flight

r nugent

Azure Kingfisher: Obi Obi Creek
(for Sophia)

in the intersection between water and shadow
by the river the kingfisher
lives its secret life

small piece of sky
fallen into our world
its brilliant flash
a concentration of colour
alive to itself

on its twig
the kingfisher
watches the water

I watch the bird
watching the sky
that lives
in the eye of water

catching
its moment of beauty

- r nugent

night approaches
(for Wallace Stevens)

night approaches
and the trees return
to their ancient selves
the black shadows of their presence
stir on the edge
of habitation
their leaved voices
whispering into darkness
all that is not
not all that is
*
eyes closed
i am
shadow
inside
*
outside
the night wind's
black-winged
silence

Curlew: 2am

broken
into night
a bird's cry
the curlew's
trespass scream
darkens
the silence
around it
so much before it
so much after
and the density
the weight of it
the curlew's cry
the black stone
of night

- r nugent

white cockatoos
(for Fiona)

wings deckle-edged
against waned light
the cockatoos
wheel eastwards
their noisy sentence
single-spaced left to right
a skyful of vowels
headed towards night's
full stop

- r nugent

Goshawk: Porter's Farm, Maleny

flight is a wrenching
lift from thickened air

sky enters my eyes
and I am

airborne

a pattern of artist's marks
the earth
beneath me
nothing between us
the bird
and that series of signs
indicating
life except
thought spread thin
into the wind
that holds me here

turning against the light
the goshawk, sharp-winged
curves into distance

slowly

unmakes itself
out of sight

- r nugent

Artemis

frail muslin moon
delicate and opaque
against the sharp-edged
blue of midday
skimming across the sky's surface
the thin membrane
that separates us
from emptiness

virgin moon
forever distant
from an importunate earth
tacking across our skies
with obsessive determination
deviating not an inch outside its ellipse
watchful
ruthlessly inviolate
unmoved

- r nugent

Poetry is about seeing. It gives us the intellectual space in busy lives to realize the world, to bring into focus the pattern and detail that all too often we pass by. From the ridged spine of the Blackall Range that lies under its soft green hills, to the hidden springs that run down deep from leafed valleys to the dark waters of Baroon Pocket,
Maleny provides rich material for artists of all kinds. Being involved in Water from the Moon's unique conversation between 5 different artists - each seeking to see, in their own way, the particular beauty
of the Maleny landscape - has been an exciting and creatively engaging experience, an experience we hope others can share.
Contact the artist.

Ken Munsie - clay vessels inspired by the leaf debris found at the lake's edge and coloured by the mysteries that lurk in the depths of the water mirroring the moon above.

Twelve years ago Ken started making paper out of recycled office paper and natural plant fibres. This led to an interest in combining the paper with other recycled material such as timber and metals, to  produce sculptured forms.
More recently he has taken up clay work - both hand building and wheel work - and he is finding that combining the two mediums of paper and clay is giving him the greatest joy in artistic expression.
Ken consider himself as a "Mature Aged Emerging Artist", and feels that his work reflects a balance of newly acquired knowledge, intuition and even uncertainty, which work together to produce individual and unique works of art.
Ken's clay vessels are inspired by the leaf debris found at the lake's edge and coloured by the mysteries that lurk in the depths of the water mirroring the moon above.
Contact the artist.

The themes of destruction and renewal with the overarching theme of a strong sense of place flow through this exhibition. The moon with its Cycles, phases, and mysterious presence, hovers over the landscape.

The landscape is the metaphor.

The landscape is from images drawn from Maleny and the response drawn from five artists to this unique place …

Lake Baroon is a man created environment, but originally it was a meeting place for people as well as the confluence of creeks and waterways.

In ways it can be seen as a place of destruction. All evidence of the original occupants, aboriginal and white settlers sunk beneath the waters. The dead eucalyptus paradoxically "growing" in the water - a ghostly reminder of the original forests that grew beside the creeks.

On the other hand, it can be seen as a metaphor of renewal. Thousands of trees have been now been planted on the water's edge were once it was bare, cleared by previous generations of timber cutters and to make way for dairy farming . There are remnants of their presence in the cutting  ledges left on old dead logs by the timber cutters , and fence lines from the original farms run into the water and disappear under the surface to be markers for sunken pastures.

On its surface now glide black swans, brown ducks, water hens, and kyakers, and underneath, roam Mary River cod and large eels … all experiencing the joys of water.

Now on its edges are new forests… leaf litter, filtered light, whilst overhead glide the black cockatoos, the guardians of the land that reside in the tall timbers. In the skies are pairs of wedge-tailed eagles navigating the thermal currents sailing ever higher and cruising high above the land. White cockatoos screech to each other across the valleys and lorikeets fly in larrikin packs, twisting and turning at hair-raising speeds.

Place can also be imaginary… a dream space. The moon series takes one to an
imaginary  place , a space that is  sometimes powerfully nurturing sometimes menacing. The moon watches over everything, knowing that everything will pass.

The moon is infinite and eternal. However, there is always hope and renewal … the impossible is possible.

Indeed water from the moon.

Lake Baroon is a metaphor for what is illusionary ... for what is on the surface is not what is underneath.

Inspired by water with its healing powers and the moon (also a water sign) with its, cycles and phases, there is a  sense of mystery, that is life, permeates this collection.

The themes of destruction and renewal underpin these works.