Plein Air Artist, Landscape Painter.

David Badcock (1960 - ) was born in Dunedin, New Zealand. The well-established fine art gallery in his family home in South Island's Queenstown was no doubt an early inspiration. As was the stunning landscape.

As a boy David went to watch his father work. Douglas Badcock is one of New Zealand's finest landscape painters and was a strong influence on David's formative years. With both of his older brothers being artists as well, David decided to break from the homeland and identify himself individually. He arrived in Sydney in 1977 to begin establishing himself as an Australian landscape painter.

David's career began as a commercial illustrator, however his early landscape artwork in Australia can be seen in his Flinder's Ranges collection. The Elder Fine Art Gallery in Adelaide exhibited David's location paintings for the first time in 1981, alongside the foremost in Australian landscape art.

By the late 1980's, David gained nationwide media recognition as a landscape artist. Under the directorship of The Upstairs Gallery in Cairns, a series of televised documentaries was made, featuring an expedition in Kakadu, Cape York and The Valley of the Lagoons.

On the opening night of David’s first solo exhibition, the traditional Aboriginal custodians of the Territory commented to the artist, "You capture our land".

Professionally painting in the tradition of plein-air for over 25 years, David occassionally uses location studies and photos as reference material to execute paintings in the studio. David is currently based in the Blue Mountains in NSW.

In 2008 Archers Fine Art editions published David's first plein-air art book - a stunning catalogue of 100 paintings by David Badcock from the Blue Montains, Kakadu, Cape York, Charters Towers, Gordonvale, Cooktown, North Queensland to Mt Isa, Alice Springs, Sofala, Manly and Bondi.

David Badcock’s work depicts Australian landscapes, executed using the now rare art of Plein Air. For this, together with their attractive qualities, David Badcock’s works are an excellent purchase for investment or simple enjoyment.

Watercolour Painter, Interior Designer.

David Beschi (1941 -) was born in London, and is a former Blue Mountains artist. David is an Associate of the Royal Art Society of NSW (A.R.A.S.). He exhibits at the Australian Watercolour Institute’s annual exhibitions and his works are in collections throughout the world.

As well as painting, he is a successful interior designer; decorating public and private buildings in the UK and Australia.

The art of David Beschi typically features charming, timeless, everyday scenes. Many works are wonderfully animated and whimsical. Others contrastingly quiet and sensitive. His skilfully executed paintings reveal a lifetime of experiences & memories, yet cleverly conceal the private painter.

As the artist himself says, "This latest collection of my ‘stuff’, I find rather difficult to explain. In fact, it may not even need an explanation. It just sits there in frames... as we all do, one way or another.

This body of work speaks of both past memories and present musings. The inspiration for most works came from my sketchbooks – all 56 of them to date! Plus jottings on restaurant napkins, envelopes, backs of bills and scraps of paper that I had doodled or drawn on over the years. As a result, this collection is not only of now, but also of the past, found in the memories and drawings from Morocco, London, Paris and many other places I have journeyed.

The work itself is uncannily becoming more and more obscure, presenting itself as a fight with light and atmosphere as much as with the subject matter. I find painting obscurity difficult, yet painting reality seems unnecessary to me – it already exists! I realise that the point when you put brush to paper matters. But the point you decide to pick it up, matters even more."

Mixed Media Artist.

James Blackwell (1967 - ) is a Katoomba based artist whose artwork centres on themes of nature, silence, structure and meditation.

Utilizing natural materials gathered from the Australian bushland and other resources, he reconfigures the materials into grid-like formations often in a 3 dimensional manner with the use of textured and handmade papers as a support. The overall effect produces intimate assemblages offering a contemplative space to reveal an aspect of tranquility and stillness. In addition to conveying calmness, the work implies the passage of time. The objects intricate detail and evident focus on process reveal a steady hand and time spent engaging with the material. The ephemeral nature of the artist's material also invokes our own sense of transience or impermanence, bringing to our attention the degenerative nature of our own physicality.

Despite this sombre thought, there is also a playful aspect to the artworks; gum leaves become written text, tufts of fragile stalk fluff balance precariously on tightropes of grass tree stems. "Part of the joy in creating theses works is seeing what can become of the easily discarded or ignored." Bushwalking in the Blue Mountains has become part of the artists lifestyle "I like to think of the valley floor as my art supply store!".

James engages with the natural world through his work, which cultivates his great respect for it, as well as his thoughts on his place in the world. He says, "With the growing awareness of global warming and climate change, any focus on the natural world and its fragility, beauty and importance is a valuable tool for re-establishing the general public with our natural world.

We are bombarded with imagery of a negative bias from the media, which fills us with a sense of hopelessness and inadequacy in regards to how we may reverse the situation. This negative imagery places a larger gap between our perceptions and our actions. The scales have been tipped perilously close to disaster in favor of consumerism and industry for far too long and now we are witnessing a measured transition in attitude and policy to a more favorable and responsible way of living. Ecologically responsible art practices and artworks are becoming a positive way to reinforce our relationship to nature."

Painter

Jane can be seen hurtling along in her little van with her two poodles – visiting out west or up and down the coast. Jane works in various ways – but the constant is always sketch book and camera in easy reach.

“My background as a graphic designer and years of absorbing from different influences, whether it’s the ink on the printer’s mixing table that I had to stop myself sticking my hand right into; my obsession with architecture, or growing up surrounded by my father’s art – it all comes out in different ways in my work. Sadly, it was after the passing of my father, that I felt the urge to pick up oils. I think that starting my career in painting a little older, has combined to give me the confidence to follow a style that may not have been there earlier in my life.

“I am inspired by peaceful places and areas of human habitation that we sometimes discount as not attractive. I am inspired by the work of the Impressionists, the Fauve Movement, the Art Deco, and the Japanese style, in particular of the Ukiyoe prints of Kawase Hasui; and the Australian women artists of the 20s to 40s.” Jane has exhibited out west, through the mountains and to Sydney and Victoria; she has works in collections nationally and internationally.

AWARDS/COLLECTIONS

– Cittaslow (Katoomba) gift to Cittaslow (Italy).

– 2008 winner BMAN Crockett Prize – Contemporary, acquisitive.

– 2008 highly commended, Winmalee Art Fest.

– 2007 highly commended, Winmalee Art Fest.

– 2006 finalist, ‘Signature of Sydney’ Art Prize.

– Penrith City Council Sister City Collection.

– 2005 merit award. ‘Calleen Acquisition Award’, Cowra Regional Art Gallery.

– 1987 Blue Mountains City Flag Design Winner. – 1992 print media award winner, North Queensland Tourism Awards.

Painter, fashion and fabric designer.

Robyn Caughlan is an accomplished Dharug indigenous artist who works in a variety of techniques to achieve unique outcomes. Robyn's work includes murals, textiles and visual art. Her paintings often depict the natural and spiritual environment of her local area and of her people. Her paintings have been exhibited at Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative, the Australian Museum, and the Art Gallery of NSW. nline

Robyn is an artist whose bright colours and weaving stories can be seen in her art and fashion creations. She has exhibited many times since 1986, including Jeans4Genes and the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Robyn's culture is interwoven throughout her pieces, with the Powerhouse Museum obtaining two of her indigenous works for their 10 year exhibition. She was the first indigenous woman to enter a ready-to-wear collection for Mercedes Fashion Week.

Painter, Sculptor, Etcher & Drawing Artist

Adam Cullen (1965 - ) completed a BA COFA and a MA COFA and is currently researching for a PhD. Prizes include amongst many the Archibald Prize 2000, Woollahra small sculpture Prize 2007 and the Mosman Art Prize 2005. He represented Australia in Sao Paulo Biennale Brazil in 2002 and received an Australia Council Grant in 2007 and went to Spain. Adam is represented in every Australain State Gallery and in corporate and private collections in Australia and internationally. In 2009 he had a mid career retrospective at the AGNSW called “Let’s Get Lost”.

Cullen is most known for winning the Archibald Prize in 2000 with a portrait of actor David Wenham. He is also known for his controversial subjects or work. His style has at times been called simplistic, crude, adolescent or puerile, though he has been voted one of Australia's most collectible contemporary artists.

His studio is in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. He says that he paints to the music of punk bands The Meat Puppets, Black Flag and the Butthole Surfers He has painted such things as dead cats, 'bloodied' kangaroos, headless women and punk men, many of which represent what he calls 'Loserville'.

Rob Fisher is a photographic artist living and working in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area of NSW, Australia, who specialises in digital photography.

His unmistakable signature artworks are wide-format landscape panorama images stripped back to reveal subtle, skeletal detail within the landscape at a scale that envelops the viewer:

“Wide-format panoramas are able to generate a feeling of limitless, horizontal space for viewers”, says Fisher. “They allow us to imagine a scene that extends beyond the extremities of the image. Good panoramas make us wonder, ‘What’s inside that door?’ They make us want to know, ‘What’s around the corner?’ Good panoramas give us information that makes us want to extend them with our imagination.

“With my work, whether it is a photo-realism piece or photo-expressionism piece, the integrity of the lines of the landscape, objects and people are maintained. The decisions I make are primarily design decisions about variables such as the scale of each work, the resolution, which elements will remain visible and which combination of colours I will use to accentuate aspects of the lines.”

The advent, and more significantly the ongoing refinement, of digital photography over the past 10 years has provided Fisher with the tools and acquired skills to produce affordable, unique art through the use of digital cameras, image manipulation and enhancement software, and inkjet printers.

Fisher holds a philosophical belief fostered at art school that “quality, unique art should be accessible to and affordable for everyone" and has a vast portfolio of work, gathered from more than eight years of extensive travel both within Australia and overseas. Each of his artworks is presented as a signed and numbered edition.

Pen, Ink and Pencil Artist; Oil and Watercolour Painter; Sculptor; Etcher; Illustrator; Author; and Essayist.

Norman Lindsay (1879 -1969) is widely regarded as one of Australia's greatest artists, producing a vast body of work in different media, including pen drawing, etching, watercolour, oil and sculptures in concrete and bronze.

A large body of his work is housed in his former home at Faulconbridge, New South Wales, now the Norman Lindsay Gallery and Museum, and many works reside in private and corporate collections. His art continues to climb in value today. In 2002, a record price was attained by his oil painting, Spring's Innocence, which sold to the National Gallery of Victoria for $AU333,900.

His frank and sumptuous nudes were highly controversial. In 1940, Rose took 16 crates of paintings, drawings and etchings to the U.S. to protect them from the nascent war. Unfortunately they were discovered when the train they travelled in caught fire, they were then impounded and burned as pornography by American officials. His older brother Lionel remembers Norman's reaction was, "'Don't worry, I'll do more.' And he did.”

Lindsay's creative output was vast, his energy enormous. Several eyewitness accounts tell of his working practices in the 1920s. He would wake early and produce a watercolour before breakfast, then by mid-morning he would be in his etching studio where he would work until late afternoon. He would work on a concrete sculpture in the garden during the afternoon and in the evening write a new chapter for whatever novel he was working on at the time.

Lindsay’s work adds a touch of bohemian decadence to the decoration, and his rarer and original works are certainly highly collectible and a wise investment.

Landscape, Portrait and Scene Painter

Colin Ross Parker (1941 -) is one of Australia's foremost artists, depicting Australia and its people.

Colin has been painting since his late teen years, and is still regularly exhibiting and painting. He’s a member of the highly talented Parker family, featuring Colleen Parker, Adrian Parker, Dudley Parker, Clarendon (Clarie) Parker, and Helen Parker (nee Seisler). This family represents artists and craft workers, and is the establishing family of Parker Galleries, framers (originally S.A.Parker) and art suppliers.

Best known for his figurative depiction of outback Australia, Colin has more recently produced numerous pieces based on his travels to Central Australia, where he has been artist in residence repeatedly. Colin has also extensively depicted rural areas of Australia, inspired by regular trips to these areas. He mainly uses oil paints on board or canvas.

Colin’s trips abroad include France, Italy and Spain, where he has exhibited extensively. His European works capture the majesty and romance of historic sites, as well as everyday scenes of Europeans.

Colin has had a long association with the Australian art world. He is a respected judge and has recently completed four years as President of the Royal Art Society of New South Wales, of which he is also a Fellow. Colin is a Fellow of and past Chairman for the Royal Society of Arts (NSW Chapter). In 2006, Colin Parker was selected as one of the three preliminary judges for the “Signature of Sydney” Prize, featuring $200,000 for the winner.

Colin has won many art prizes and has had multiple portraits hung in the Archibald Prize, NSW Art Gallery, and landscapes in the Wynne Prize. He has won first prize in Sydney's prestigious Royal Easter Show Art competition numerous times. Colin's works also hang in many corporate collections both in Australia and overseas, in State Government collections, and Commonwealth Government collections.

Colin Parker’s paintings not only aesthetically depict various scenes of Australia and the world, together with its people, but represent a worthwhile investment.

Painter, Original Screen Printer.

Wendy Sharpe (1960 -) is an Australian artist who produces sensuous paintings and screen prints. WorldHeritageArt.com features screen prints produced in Katoomba, Blue Mountains, NSW.

She won the Sulman Prize in 1986 with Black Sun - Morning and Night and the Archibald Prize in 1996 with Self Portrait - as Diana of Erskineville. She has entered the Archibald Prize at least six times and been hung at least three times. She was interviewed in the 2005 Peter Berner documentary about the Archibald Prize called Loaded Brush.

Wendy’s work often uses sensuous nudes and voluptuous women as her subject matter. Bold block colours add an attractive vibrancy to her art. Early in her career she travelled on scholarships to Europe and New York, and was subsequently influenced by her trips. Her style has evolved since being one of Australia's official war artists sent to East Timor in 1999.

Art collectors have taken to Wendy’s work, especially since achieving her notable awards.