THE MURWILLUMBAH Art Trail 2018 is fast approaching, and The Weekly is continuing to feature a new Tweed Shire artist taking part in MAT18 each week.
This week’s featured artist is Madeleine Murray, who is a passionate member of the Murwillumbah Potters at Fernvale.
Madeleine grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, which she said is one of the coldest, flattest, most windswept cities in the world.
“I came to Australia from Montreal 38 years ago,” she said.
Madeleine said it was during a day out in 2004, that she was exploring the Tweed Shire with a friend from Ireland.
“As we drove over the bridge into Murwillumbah, I remember looking down at the sinuous Tweed River, across the rainforests and up to Wollumbin, and thinking: this is amazing, I would love to live here someday,” she said.
“I even wrote that thought down in a notebook.”
Every few years after that, Madeleine said she would visit Murwillumbah.
“Two years ago, I finally moved up here,” she said.
“Now every day I see or hear something that makes me gasp with wonder and gratitude.
“The people up here are as amazing and interesting as the landscape.”
“When I lived in Sydney. I worked for about 20 years painting backdrops and sets, for films such as Crocodile Dundee and Elton John’s Sad Songs video.
“Later I became a journalist and wrote for the men’s magazine Ralph, and the Sydney Morning Herald.”
Madeleine said some of her passions in the art world include a love for the Assyrian rooms of the British Museum.
“The huge carved winged lions and massive cedar doors,” she said.
“I was lucky enough to visit the ancient Persian city of Persepolis, to see the fine relief work and magnificent winged bulls on top of towering columns.
“It is so tragic to see the history and art of the ancient Middle East destroyed by wars and ISIS.”
In looking towards MAT18 in May, Madeleine said she is following the ‘Moving On’ theme with a micro-bat skeleton on a small quilted coffin-liner, perched on a little platform anchored to a wood-fired pottery base.
“I also have some organic bowls and dark, Gothic planters,” she said.
Speaking about her involvement in local art, Madeleine said she did a short pottery course in Sydney, and loved it.
“When I moved up here, I discovered the Murwillumbah Potters, who work and play in a 100-year-old schoolhouse in Fernvale, south of Murwillumbah,” she said.
“The experienced potters love sharing their knowledge with beginners.
“Tweed Shire Council contributes to the club, and it is open to anyone to come along and try working with clay.
“Members run workshops, and students can buy clay onsite, and use the wheels and kilns in the shed.”
She said some of her pottery is for sale at The Modern Grocer, and Handmade in Uki.
“I will be having a show at the Uki Post Office later in the year,” she said.
“The new postmaster, Gary Wall, has created a gallery for local artists, and a great coffee bar in the 109-year-old post office.”
To find out more about MAT18 pick up a copy of The Weekly each Thursday or visit the website: www.themurwillumbaharttrail.com/about/