Sollys Shed is excited to have Llewena as a resident artist and mentor.

Llewena Newell has a colourful family history with her ancestors arriving in Tasmania in 1857. She was born in South Australia and has spent time in Western Australia and the Northern Territory and has lived for 37 years in the Clare Valley.

With a career spanning over 69 years Llewena Newell is a prominent and much admired artist across the mid north of South Australia and one who has made a signficant contribution to the regional art collective in our region.

Her work has been featured in exhibitions across South Australia and the Northern Territory and she has received a wide array of awards that include recognition from the Royal Society of Arts, SA Studio Potters and the Araluen Arts Centre.

Llewena participated in the first Ceramic Conference held by the University of Adelaide , is a founding member of the Riverton Art and Craft workshop and held the position of President of SA Studio Potters for a period of 2 years.

Having studied Arti Liberali at The University of Adelaide Llewena boasts a career filled with teaching silk painting, pottery, spinning and weaving and her own unique ability to harness the beauty of Australias botany to create functional pieces using wool, silk and clay. Her silk pieces are undoubtedly her most prolific work with each piece being created by the botany in her own garden.

Encaustic painting has a rich and interesting history dating back to the 1st – 3rd centuries AD, from Egypt and Ancient Greece. It is a painting technique which combines beeswax, damar and then either oil paint or natural powdered pigments to give it colour. Encaustic wax is a hot wax method, where the medium (beeswax and damar) is heated to around 170 degrees Fahrenheit, on electric frypans and then colour is added to make a hot paint.

Patricia graduated from the University of South Australia in 2006 with a Bachelor Degree in Visual Communications and Graphic Design and worked as graphic designer and photographer before becoming a full time artist. Her unique art comes from a love of the natural beeswax material, experimentation and exploration. Wax goes through several transformations from soft to solid, by way of heat and fire. The Encaustic process is a physically demanding layering process, where each layer is fused to the one below with a blowtorch.

It is a co creation medium, as the natural force of fire and wax has the ability to surprise and transform instantly. It is flexible, adaptable, and has the most beautiful texture and surface quality. The medium changes colour depending on the light source and illuminates with direct light, viewers are encouraged to use their phone light and lightly touch work as a sensory experience.

Patricia’s work is driven by a spiritual and intuitive journey of discovery, including the physical experience, of scraping past layers, building up and burning down layers.

She strives to ensure that her work is simultaneously contemporary, abstract and modern and her aim is to produce work that takes the viewer on an endless journey of discovery.

Her work is being recognised in galleries across South Australia and she was recently awarded special commendation by judge and artist Georgia Button for Egg series collection.

Having Patricia on board is a bonus for everyone involved in Sollys Shed and we cant wait to learn more about her art and see many more brilliant works.

Vicki Moroney is an emerging acrylic artist who is living and working in the Clare Valley in South Australia.

Giving up the corporate world and the subsequent move to the Clare Valley enabled Vicki to look at creative options as a hobby and she joined a couple of art groups and received lessons from her mentors Gerald Moore and Kerryn Hocking in the use of pastels for works featuring landscapes and flora.

When COVID hit, and her classes were cancelled, Vicki sought out online courses and discovered artists Rod Moore in Noosa Australia and Alison in the USA.

Both artists worked in acrylics and used a looser abstract style than she was used to be she loved the vibrancy of colour and the more abstract way of approaching a painting.

Vicki usually identifies a theme and produces a series of works in both larger and smaller pieces and to date has been selling most of her works in person at galleries. She is excited about working with Sollys Shed and is now considering online options as an additional way of promoting her work.

In June this year Vicki won the Clare Valley Portrait Prize for her portrait of “Dan” a well-known and much-loved chef in the Clare.

Vivienne Churchett was born in Adelaide has been working with clay for over 40 years.

As a degree qualified Special Education teacher significant experience in the Arts and languages such as AUSLAN and Kaurna, Vivienne excels in working with children and adults and uses her art to help them bridge communication difficulties and to learn to collaborate with others in projects whilst still using their personal art style.

Over the years Vivienne has been involved in many SALA events and has exhibited in venues in the Fleurieu Peninsula, Port Adelaide and throughout the Clare Valley.

Vivienne uses primitive decorative effects and natural oxides to produce unique, individual pieces. Ceramic glazes are also used to create colourful contemporary wares that are hand built using traditional coil and pinch techniques.

Vivienne facilitates a wide range of workshops for all ages and teaches from her studio in Manoora South Australia. Her contributions to the mid-north community are extensive and her work is prominent in the Clare Mill Street Gallery (Arts Collective).

Working with clay inspires Vivienne to experiment and to be challenged by the processes involved to create artistic outcomes and she has travelled extensively in Europe and studied how different cultures use the functional and versatile medium of clay.

She creates functional pieces, sculptures and artistic works and Sollys Shed can’t wait to learn more from Vivienne’s experience and stock many more of her pieces for sale.

Born in South Australia, Darian studied at the Adelaide Central School of Art and is a prolific artist who paints almost daily.

A qualified art teacher, Darian taught in regional South Australia before moving to Adelaide to work as a cartographer for the SA Department of Mines and then transferred to the Graphics Section of Department for the Environment.

In 1984 Darian moved from Adelaide to Sydney and worked as a book designer, was appointed as the Art Director for Wheels magazine and continued on to work as a freelance graphic designer, designing book covers for many Australian Publishers, Random House, Allen & Unwin, Harper Collins & Hachette.

Darian has exhibited across regional NSW and SA and was ‘highly commended “ for the Gosford Art Prize.

Darian shares his time between the South Coast of NSW and Watervale in South Australia where he has created the iconic SHED Series portfolio of work.