Artist in Residence

Morgan Stokes

 Morgan Stokes’ R.M.Williams series, Where The Body Ends, delves into the material history of a storied Australian icon, reimagining the interplay of craft, material, and experience. This body of work is both a homage and a critique – a meditation on the tactility and cultural weight of the materials that shape objects and lives. Stokes’ practice, known for its interrogation of the medium of painting, extends here into a realm where questions of craftsmanship meet conceptual exploration.

The works in Where The Body Ends are formal studies in materiality, bridging the traditional components of painting – stretcher bars, cloth, and paint – with remnants of R.M.Williams’ legacy; discontinued lines of leather and suede salvaged from the company’s Adelaide factory. This fusion of artistic and artisanal materials interrogates notions of value and obsolescence, highlighting the liminal space between utility and aesthetics. The leather and suede, imbued with histories of labour and durability, are transformed into surfaces that are at once subdued and bold, rational and irrational, spontaneous and considered, their textures and tones pushing the viewer into an encounter with the unexpected.

Charmaine Davis

Charmaine Davis is a proud Gumbaynggir and Bundjalung artist based in Queensland. Her artistic creations are deeply connected to culture, homelands and family. Charmaine’s works are reflections of a spiritual connection to Country. Through ancestral links, family, identity and community Charmaine tells not only her own story, but that of her lineage and people. 

“Water plays an integral part in the landscape of Country and that of its people,” says Charmaine. “It is the lifeblood of our world and supports a rich tapestry of life for all living things. Waterways and Wonder is a series of paintings that represent the rivers that give life and are connected to us all. 

“The concept for these pieces came from the connection we have with place, especially the water systems that impact them. My connection to Maiwar, Brisbane River in Queensland, where I live and work, to the Washpool Creek in northern New South Wales where my family’s smoking ceremony is held every year. I have referenced the rivers connected to the founder of R.M.Williams and that of its current custodians. 

Leonie Barton

Leonie Barton’s practice is profoundly informed by her environment and how the complexity of nature is in constant flux. Recently relocating to Wootton, in country NSW, after decades spent in Sydney’s Pittwater area, this series of oil paintings documents a transitional time for the artist, imbued with narratives `of change, transformation and resilience. These paintings tell stories of a pivotal time in Leonie’s life through their evolving composition and palette. Having begun the series amongst the suburban landscape of Sydney, busy and controlled compositions embodied the bedlam of urban life. As Leonie’s environment shifted, so did her paintings, metamorphosising into loose, untethered compositions and a colour palette that reflects the greenery of her new landscape. 

Both the power and stillness of the outdoors have informed Leonie’s practice; she works intuitively, discovering shapes, balance and harmony in compositions. Time spent in nature is essential for its ability to ground and allowance to encounter the intimate details of life — slowly.

Diana Miller

Diana Miller is an abstract artist based in Bundjalung Country, Byron Bay, where she is surrounded by the natural beauty of the Australian coastline. She sees herself as a shapeshifter of colour and form, through which she explores relationships and connections between herself, her work, the spiritual and the viewer. Her eyes are drawn to the spaces between things or the shapes that different forms create, her practice founded in her love and understanding of colour, using visual forms from her imagination, subconscious and daily environment in collage and painting. 

Employing a playful approach, Diana starts her paintings with no predetermined outcome, drawing on her instinct and curiosity. Beginning initially on the floor before taking her linens to the wall, Diana works quickly with brushes, cloths and fingers. She is interested in the deconstructing and reassembling of elements in her practice via the layering, covering up and wiping away of paint to achieve her unique style of abstraction. Diana’s paintings combine gestural, textured components with shapes and bold, flat spaces of colour that create depth through their juxtaposition. 

Ash Holmes

Ash Holmes (she/her, born 1994) is a self-taught Sydney/Eora-based artist. Drawing on colour psychology and her environment, Holmes’ practice on Guringai land, on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, is an ever-evolving source of inspiration in her abstract paintings. 

Creativity runs in her blood. As a fourth-generation artist, Holmes practises across large canvases with acrylic and oil paint. The texture is built through gestural mark-marking to imprint the canvas, eluding a sense of time and place. Holmes encompasses her research in colour psychology to give the works a sensory effect - the harmonious tones of the environment connect her audience to the landscape she creates within. 

In 2021, Holmes was selected as the resident artist for the Harbord Hotel, and has been a Mosman Prize finalist, a Lloyd Rees Memorial Award finalist and a Combat Prize finalist. 

Tiarna Herczeg

Tiarna Herczeg (she/them, born 1999) is a proud Kuku Yalanji and Hungarian artist living on Gadigal lands. Their mob’s land runs along the east coast of far north Queensland and includes the land and waters between Port Douglas and just south of Cooktown. Kuku Yalanji Country is tropical, rainforest country. 

Tiarna’s work is often understood with a comprehension of Indigenous, non-western maps. Maps that follow paths, Songlines and significant places. Tiarna’s practice is intuitive and instinctive as they paint often without a direct idea, rather using their practice asa ritual for connecting to Country. Tiarna’s approach to painting also comes from a sense of urgency regarding their spiritual and cultural identity. 

Tiarna works to disconnect from the idea of ‘painting’ and instead tap into their spirituality, losing the fear of painting a perfect artwork. This fearlessness shows in loose, large, gestural brush strokes with vibrant colours and organic compositions highlighting the familiarity, richness and vitality of Country. There is a spiritual exchange of energy between Tiarna and their work. Tiarna listens and opens up to be guided by cultural intuition. They are left with their own sacred depiction of Country that cannot be told by anyone else.