Adele Chapman-Burgess descends from the Ngarrabul, Gamilaraay, Yuwaalaraay and Kooma clans, custodians of the New England area of NSW and belongs to the Ngarrabul language group of the Gomeroi Nation. Within Adele’s bright universe, she makes her impact through teaching, with 35 years in education, feeding and moulding young minds. Her artistry, which takes on many forms, Adele elegantly brings a modern expression to ancient customs like weaving and painting, and not to mention she is a gratified and nurturing mother to awe-inspiring quintuplets. It’s agreeable, Adele encompasses superhuman capabilities.

When it comes to her artistic practice Adele cannot be boxed in, she works splendidly across multi-mediums. Inspiration pours from her many moral tiers, Adele explains,

“I have always had an interest in art, and I have been painting on and off all my life. My paintings are about my many journeys and the many hats I wear – it is my spiritual strength and learning more about my family connections to the places, we visit. My spirit has grown stronger and wiser over time (55 plus years) as I continue to gain more knowledge of my Aboriginal cultural heritage. Connection to country is inherent, we are born to it, it is how we identify ourselves; it is our family, our laws/lore, and our legacy.”

In the beginning, Adele believed her art was personal, for her eyes only. After being persuaded into exhibiting for the first time it’s no surprise to us, Adele sold everything on the gallery floor. She has since decided to welcome the world to her art, which leads us into the success Adele has experienced over her career as an artist.

Prospects for the future see Adele retiring from her extensive, successful and fulfilling career as a teacher and settling into her own studio where she can facilitate workshops and share the gift of visual arts with her community. Feeling the wheels of her caravan touch road visiting all corners of the nation, connecting with artists and indulging in art from all over Australia.

vril Chapman is an exceptional yinaar, born and still living in the New England Region of Northern New South Wales, with Ngurrabul/Yuwaalaraay /Kooma ties.

Avril’s creative ideas are often channelled through water, that’s her inspiration. Freshwater rivers and being by them, swimming or listening to the swells of the river and the wildlife it harbours. Her family would always be fishing and camping, her most vivid memories of growing up all take place by the water. Even as the years went on and Avril started a family of her own, she introduced her sons to the water quite early, carving out grooves in the sandy bank to hold her newborn sons while fishing took place.

There is no limit of mediums Avril hasn’t worked with, acrylic paint, oil paints, natural resources e.g., feathers, gemstone, man-made beads, wire work, rocks, driftwood, nuts, leaves and shells. Drawing, weaving and has recently picked up the art of animal skin cloak making and decorating.

With an ecofriendly outlook on art, Avril love to recycle and repurpose natural objects and manmade items like rusty wire, timber, and materials (recycled clothing) etc. The depths of her art circle around a cultural meaning as her ancestors also used what was around them and utilised everything that was available to them. Certainly, doing her bit to heal country, reduce landfill and contamination.

Avril’s first exhibition was in 2018 at the Armidale Aboriginal Keeping Centre with her sister Adele and one of her pieces was bought by the Tamworth Regional Gallery. She has had pieces commissioned by with Hunter New England Health, specifically for The John Hunter Hospital where they were asked to create a weave piece for the new grieving room with cultural sensitivity in mind. She has private commissions from Joselyn Clark in Sydney for one of her ‘Dream Weaves’ and possum skin designs and Fiona Richardson of Red Range for paintings. Avril delivers artistic workshops to communities, one of the highlights was being invited by the Oorala Centre of the University of New England to deliver a Virtual workshop for the Oorala Youth Program in 2020.

Tania Hartigan is a woman of the land with great knowledge of bush foods and owner of ‘The Artshack’ at Wallabadah, a paradise with deep history in its soils. She grew up in Woolbrook and belongs to the Gamilaraay people with family ties connecting her to Barraba, Quirindi and Gunnedah in the New England North West. Tania grew up surrounded by family and strong role models, with grandparents who always put family first, aunties and uncles that contributed her growth and cultural knowledge.

Those same priorities of a tight knit family have been instilled in Tania, she started her family tree as a young girl and has been adding to it ever since. “I love organising family reunions, I am moved to inspire my kids, nieces and nephews to keep their family close.”

Tania uses these bonds as inspiration, capturing family portraits in pastels. Amongst her other inspirations, she describes herself as being earthy, connected to country and all it’s whispers of history and life. ‘The Artshack’, Tania’s farm, is her happy place, “It feels like equal part luck and fate that I ended up here. The terrane the country the trees the ruggedness of the land felt instantly like home.”

Tania loves to be immersed in the landscape, around the gum trees and native plants and lively nature. While on a walk around her property, she discovered evidence of sacred sites that is evidence Gomeroi people have travelled through and lived there for thousands of years. Tania says, “We all look, but we don’t see. Art has taught me to slow down and take in the little details that slip past you when life is at full pace.”

Tania loves working across the board with mediums, painting is her go to and getting lost in the tones and hues. She also has a talented hand for portraits, print making and weaving.

Keep an eye out for this artist, she has some card up her sleeve that some would say is revolutionary to art. She is determined to push her versatility to its peaks.

Tess Reading, a proud Gomeroi woman and mother of three. An artist, established graphic designer and photographer with more than 10 years experience held in her hands.

Putting a modern spin on century old traditions, Tess is the founder of Without Fear Photography and Art Without Fear; both platforms allow her to combine culture with art and technology. Circling in on her Gomeroi heritage, Tess says there's always more to be interpreted than meets the eye when viewing her pieces. Like the river runs, flowing narrations live within her art.

Tess fell in love with the pigments of acrylic paint; using vibrant hues to capture portraits of loved ones, while sitting in yarning circles with strong women of her community. From paper to pixels, Tess has recently moved into digital art as her primary medium. Reaching new audience demographics by taking advantage of the ever evolving technologies of the world.

On her own journey through lore and all interconnect aspects of tradition, Tess says the key objectives and ideas illustrated passionately in her work are those of emerging cultural knowledge. Archiving trans-generational knowledge for those living off country and providing an immersive experience of culture to their fingertips.

With a streak of creativity running through her veins, Tess explains,

"I have always had art in my life, my mother is an established artist, so we have always been encouraged to create and share our emotions and culture through art. I am a quiet person, so I value this form of expression".

Proving where words fail, art speaks.

With her sights set on the future, Tess' vision includes developing larger scale digital pieces and displaying them at iconic art celebrations such as Vivid or Parrtjima.

Under the wide skies of Texas, Queensland is where Vicky Duncan took her first breaths in this world. It was early in life when she started to dream her artworks into existence. Self-taught across multi mediums, Vicky has drawn a lot of attention to her talent in the visual arts.

Ochres, Acrylics, Natural fibres and scavenging for materials to recycle and transform into art, the inspiration was all around her, and to gaze at her art is to take a glimpse of the world through Vicky’s eyes. She describes her work as ‘traditional meets unorthodox’ which some would say reflects Vicky’s dignified and cheeky character with stories entwined in every piece.

As a descendant of the Gomeroi and Bul nations’ strong connections to her culture and traditions Vicky believes, “Yinaar are the backbone of traditional and modern tribal ways.”

Feeling like creativity was always on her path, she says, “I was moved to art. I watched my elders and drew from their teachings. I find tranquillity in the trust that art does not judge you.”

Vicky’s ambitions and talent has led her to have local and regional exhibitions at ‘Ceramic Break’, Inverell art Gallery and Ashford LALC just to name a few. Forecasts for Vicky’s future are bigger stages, metro galleries and grand commissions.

There is no one more approachable than Vicky Duncan, get to know Vicky through her art, see her authenticity in her connection to culture, identity and spirituality.