LIFE IN COLOUR

QUEENSLAND ARTIST AMY CLARKE IS INSPIRED BY HER MOUNTAIN HOME AS WELL AS THE VAST FLATLANDS OF HER CHILDHOOD.

An artist takes inspiration for her work from her mountain home and the flatlands of her childhood.

MOVING FROM AN isolated sheep and cattle property in western Queensland to the lush Sunshine Coast at age 10, artist Amy Clarke finds inspiration in the natural landscape. “I remember thinking the scenery was very exciting and different,” says Amy, whose parents headed six hours east from St George with their three young children after buying a ginger farm in the hinterland town of Yandina. “To come from such a barren setting to somewhere so tropical was quite a contrast — I love both places for different reasons.” Nearly four decades on, Amy now lives in the vibrant and historic town of Eumundi, just 10 minutes from Yandina, with her husband Ross, daughter Coco, 15, and 17-year-old son Charlie. “We were always drawn to Eumundi,” says Amy, who worked in marketing and PR roles in Sydney and abroad before moving to the acreage in late 2006. “I loved going to the markets when we’d visit, and I just connected with the community and the creative, laidback lifestyle.” The 48-year-old has always had a passion for painting and making things with her hands, attributing this creativity to an artistic upbringing. “Mum had a little shed where she’d do pottery, and later she started making jewellery,” she says. “My grandmother painted and my brother is an ornamental blacksmith. I think it sunk in through osmosis.” After completing a communications degree in Brisbane, Amy took a job in marketing at the ABC in Sydney. ”I loved it at the time, but after a while the frenetic pace of the city started to wear me down,” she says. When the kids came along, the couple decided the time was right to pack up. “We were at Yandina for the weekend and went for a walk through the forest,” says Amy. “It was just so peaceful and suddenly I thought, ‘How am I going to break it to Ross that I can’t go back to Sydney?’ He literally turned around at that moment and said, ‘I think we need to move north again.’” The couple rented on the coast for a year while they searched for a home in the hinterland, allowing Amy time to paint while raising Charlie and Coco. “The cost of living seemed to make creating art difficult in Sydney,” she says. “It just seemed more possible up here.” After almost 12 months, Amy and Ross, 52, found the six-bedroom weatherboard home on 1.6 hectares and knew immediately that it was right for their family. “I’m not sure exactly what attracted me, it was just the feel of the place and the atmosphere,“says Amy. “I grew up in a big Queenslander so maybe it has something to do with that. I like physical space.” Amy’s studio — a converted garage separate from the main house — provides a light-filled space for her to paint >

“We were at Yandina for the weekend and went for a walk through the forest. It was just so peaceful.”

and run workshops. Corrugated iron and paint-splattered concrete provide the backdrop for Amy’s colourful works in progress, as well as soft foliage and other found objects that inspire her art. “While my larger paintings are always done on an easel in the studio, I can do smaller pieces en plein air or out on the verandah,” she says. “I love the wide-open space surrounding our home and the connectedness to nature when I’m working.” Amy’s pieces hang throughout the home alongside those of various Australian artists, including two much-loved works by Aboriginal painter and weaver Regina Wilson. “We were very fortunate to inherit a collection of Indigenous artworks from my mother-in-law,” says Amy. “I feel a real connection to Aboriginal art — I think it’s because I relate to that sense of place and connectedness to the land.” Amy’s own work is inspired by Australian contemporary landscape artists such as Idris Murphy, as well as American abstract expressionists. While her hinterland surrounds offer an antidote to urban living, Amy’s early years in western Queensland continue to inspire her work. “I have very fond memories of my time there, driving up and down in the truck with Dad to check the fences and dams,” says Amy, who once finished a painting only to later realise it was an aerial map of their St George property. “A simplistic childhood view of how I would have imagined all the boundaries, but I remembered it pretty well!” she says. “We were always doing something with our hands — building gunyahs out of sticks and making mud pies. When I’m painting, it takes me back to that state of childhood play and experimentation.” To see more of Amy’s work and find out about upcoming exhibitions, visit amyclarke.com.au

Amy working on a painting called The Dam. FACING PAGE A wooden artist’s manikin and foraged objects decorate the studio.

CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP LEFT Little was done to the house after the Clarkes bought it, although Amy says the garden needed work; Amy enjoys the view of the trees that they planted soon after moving in. A 2015 painting by Amy hangs on the wall; Willow, the Tonkinese cat, sits beneath an oil on board painting, Coast (2013); next year Amy will have an exhibition with Studiodirect Michael Reid; a studio vignette. FACING PAGE A small painting on paper graces the studio wall, for inspiration.

CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE A motto painted by Coco when she was eight years old has pride of place in Amy’s studio; the sprawling grounds around the house are also home to the family’s two rescue dogs, Woody (pictured with Amy) and Banjo; a sculpture by Brisbane-based Stephen Hart sits on Amy’s bedside table; an ink drawing by Amy hangs in the living room. The teapot on the ledge was made by Eumundi ceramic artist Merrie Tomkins.