Community & Business
27 August, 2023
Region’s beauty focus of exhibition
AN exhibition aimed at encouraging people to go out and explore the environment of Far North Queensland is now open to the public for the next three weeks.
Rose Knight’s “Treasure Hunting” exhibition, which is now on display at the Tablelands Gallery, is based on the sentiment of finding beauty in your surroundings and seeing the riches in your everyday life.
Rose has been painting for the past 23 years and exhibited in Melbourne and Sydney before leaving her birthplace on the Mornington Peninsula for a relocation to Far North Queensland five years ago.
Having won awards both down south and in our region, Rose says her proudest achievements to date were being selected finalist in the prestigious Villiers Outback Art Award, The Doyles Awards, and the Lethbridge Landscape Awards.
“Since arriving here my artwork has been injected with fresh inspiration from my new surroundings as well as echoing favourite themes of outback and ocean and open spaces,” she said.
“My solo exhibition ‘Big Sky Country’ at Tanks Art Centre in Cairns last year was enthusiastically and successfully received, encouraging me further to condense my efforts on themes that are dear to me.
“The “Covid years” have been seen as a bonus to me, as interstate travel plans were dropped in preference for exploring our own surrounds more intensely.
“The result has been a profound appreciation of our life here in FNQ, the Tablelands and beyond.
“Its cultural heritage, pristine countryside, geological treasures and unique habitat, and even its isolation allow us to rightly dub it ‘Gods Country’ which I feel blessed to be part of.
“My hope is that the exhibition encourages visitors and locals alike to go out and explore all we have to offer in Far North Queensland.”
Rose says she joined the Tablelands Lapidary Club this year, as she has a keen interest in silversmithing and cabbing (polishing cabochon stones from local finds) as well as wire wrapping so the jewellery she has been creating complimented and merged perfectly with the exhibition theme.
“The pieces I have in the exhibition are all precious stones - amethyst, Citrine, topaz, ametrine and Australian opal and have been wrapped in sterling silver and copper,” she said.
The exhibition paintings are all oil on canvas, inspired by the Tablelands, the Central North (Winton, Cobbold Gorge) Savannah Way and the Cape.
“Treasure Hunting” is on show at Tablelands Gallery in Roberts Street, Atherton until 16 September.
