Amanda Marburg’s Newham studio space is small. It’s dominated by a couple of desks, covered with tiny plasticine models, multiple jars of brushes and a few scattered photographs. There are a few paintings on the wall behind. At first glance, you could be forgiven for thinking she is a sculptor. But Amanda is quick to point out that she’s “a terrible photographer” and she’s “definitely not a sculptor.” Nor is she an animator. She considers herself a painter and the ‘naive scul

Tim Jones was taught the art of wood engraving by one of Britain’s best known pop artists, (Sir) Peter Blake, best known for co-creating the sleeve design for the Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. His other best known works include the cover of the Band Aid single "Do They Know It's Christmas?", and the Live Aid concert poster. Tim was around 15 at the time – the son of a creative Welsh couple who restored and sold gypsy caravans in the picturesque area of

Photographer Ellie Young is fascinated by the detail of things – the structure of a fly’s wing, the inner shapes of a halved onion, the ‘skeleton’ of a shell. She rarely photographs people, declaring herself “no good at people or landscapes.” “For me, it’s all about organic things – bugs, flowers and working close up with Nature. Small intimate things draw the viewer in,” she says. Ellie became hooked on the intimate detail of the macro world when she studied applied science

At 30, Arkeria Rose Armstrong says she is considered “a baby in the art world,” especially in Aboriginal terms, but having grown up with a strong sense of her Aboriginal identity – who she is and where comes from – she feels blessed and excited to be able work fulltime as a painter. Talking about her life during her exhibition “Black Soil,” at Dudley House Gallery in Bendigo, Arkeria pays homage to her parent and grandparents and the key role they’ve all played in her develop

Yvonne George came to sculpture in a roundabout fashion but now that she’s ‘there,’ she never wants her creativity to “stay still.” The key she says, is going with your instincts and inspirations, and embracing change. Change has played a major role in the course of Yvonne’s life. Born in New Plymouth, New Zealand and brought up on the North Island’s west coast at Raglan, she moved to New South Wales in 1980. “So many New Zealanders were setting off to make their fortunes in

Chris O’Donnell first visited Clunes on a day drive from Melbourne to attend the town’s first Booktown Festival eleven years ago. She felt drawn to the place, so when she started looking to buy land for her ‘place in the country,’ Clunes is where she headed. That was four years ago and oddly, soon after she arrived, Chris discovered that her great-great-grandmother had emigrated to Clunes from Ulster in Ireland at the beginning of the gold rush. She ran a pub in the town’s ma