Dr. Ursula Betka

Dr. Ursula Betka is a medieval art historian and practicing artist who works with egg tempera on wood panel with decorative gold leaf and draws inspiration from the related traditions of Eastern icons and Italian medieval panel-painting. She teaches art history at the University of Melbourne and Council of Adult Education and also conducts art classes in egg tempera and icon painting. Her doctoral research involved the study of fourteenth century Italian icons and illuminated music manuscripts associated with the laude-singing lay confraternities–the Laudesi–in Florence and Siena. As both an artist and historian she continues to explore the relationship between images and sung prayer, and the interface between eastern and western cultures.

Hannah Blackie

Hannah Blackie was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1970. She studied graphic design at Monash University. Hannah currently works in her own graphic design business, but her first love is painting and drawing.

Kay Blackie

Kay Blackie was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1945. She currently lives and works in Hampton, Australia, where she teaches painting at the Blackie Realist Art School, established in 1975. She has won many awards, as have her students.

Bibi Ostermark

Bibi Ostermark was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and immigrated to Australia in 1974. She blends the experience of two cultures in her work. A keen observer, Bibi attempts to capture the idiosyncrasies of life and its players through body language instead of detailed facial expressions. Her ideas are drawn from everyday life events, emotions and those moments when life comes close to fantasy. Filled with strong shapes and intense color, many of Bibi’s works encourage viewer interaction through humor and conceptual content. She exhibits regularly.

Donald Ramsay

Donald Ramsay is a contemporary painter who draws inspiration from the Australian wilderness, the outback and the ocean. He was born in Melbourne, Australia, and has held many solo exhibitions around Australia. His paintings have received numerous awards, and he is represented in private and corporate collections around the world.

Helene Seymour, V.A.S.

Born in Cornwall, England, in 1942, Helene Seymour was transfixed by the movement of animals, particularly horses, from an early age. By the time she moved to Australia at the age of six, she was continually drawing. After the birth of her fourth child, she painted in oils and acrylics and exhibited regularly. No longer satisfied with the demand for “popular” works, Helene has allowed her recent work to rely on intuition, spontaneity, design and the quality of paint itself, sometimes leading to abstraction. Corporate and private collections throughout the world represent her work, and she has received more than twenty-five major art awards.

Rynne Tanton

Rynne Tanton is one of Australia’s most prominent ceramicists. Over a period of more than thirty years, the Tasmanian-based potter has been involved in research and exploration of the medium. Formerly head of the University of Tasmania School of Art, he runs his own pottery studio, Crickhollow Pottery, and frequently holds workshops and demonstrations. He has received numerous awards and has held ten solo exhibitions and many group exhibitions in Australia, United States, Canada and Japan.