THERE’S LESS than a month to go before the town of Murwillumbah will be converted into the shire’s largest art gallery for the Murwillumbah Art Trail 2018 (MAT18) from May18 to 27.
The Weekly has already featured several amazing local artists as part of an ongoing feature to engage with MAT18 participants and present their outstanding art talents and stories.
This week’s featured artist is Roslyn Oaks, who creates incredible landscape paintings and is fast making a name for herself by securing a place on Murwillumbah local Graham Stevenson’s international hit series Put Some Colour In Your Life.
Roslyn recently caught up with The Weekly to talk about her connection to the shire and passion for all things natural.
“I have always seen beauty and inspiration in the natural world that surrounds me, I remember being fascinated by simple things like rocks and trees as a child though other people seemed to find these things uninteresting,” she said.
“My love of nature has stayed with me and the relocation from the Central Coast to the Tweed in 1989 was possibly the best move for an artist to make.”
Roslyn said the diverse and inspirational beauty of the caldera remains a constant source of inspiration.
“One of my most favourite things is to go out early in the morning with camera and sketch pad in hand and capture as many images as I can to use as reference material for future paintings,” she said.
“Some of my passions are painting what inspires me, what ignites that spark and stirs an interest, be it a position of a bird, an expression of an animal or the light or shade of a landscape.”
Roslyn has also worked closely with Andy Reimanis on The Green Cauldron Panorama which was a consuming passion and labour of love for many months and also an integeral part of her love for landscapes.
Roslyn said she was excited for MAT18 in mid-May and hopes to present a diverse range of artworks.
“I will be exhibiting a diverse range of works in the upcoming Art Trail, which include, wildlife, landscapes and waterways,” she said.
Roslyn also emphasised the therapeutic benefits of art which she uses to help teach art at Heritage Lodge Aged Care.
“Art is a tremendously therapeutic and meditative experience,” she said.
“Besides creating new neural pathways in the brain its healing qualities and mental health benefits are amazing.
“I teach art at Heritage Lodge Aged Care facility and the classes have had a profound iatrical effect on the residents who look forward to each class immensely.”
Roslyn was also pleased to announce she has been selected to be filmed during the Art Trail for an episode of Put Some Colour In Your Life.
“I am extremely excited and grateful to Destination NSW and Put Colour In Your Life to be chosen from this year’s Art Trail artists to be filmed for an episode of Colour In Your Life,” she said.
“As the show has more than 10 million viewers on Youtube and is shown in nine countries across the world I am very pleased to have the opportunity to show what I do to such a huge audience. The show goes to air later this month.”