CAS Gallery

June’s Window Feature Artists

VULA AUSTIN

DIANN BENNETT

About Vula Austin

My artistic talent first manifest itself as a child in Tanganyika (Now Tanzania), East Africa.
My father was a watercolour artist and he both influenced and encouraged me in all my art works. We lived in Lindi on the East African coast so the boats ,ships flora and fauna of Africa greatly influenced my early works. I attended boarding school in Mbeya entering and winning my first art competition. Leaving Africa in the 1960,s after independence we settled in Hastings in Sussex England where I attended school and once again entered and won art prizes. However the subject matter had changed to the beautiful Tudor houses of old town Hastings and the Seas and ships of the Hastings fishing fleet.

My husband and I emigrated to Australia in 1974 settling in Tropical Far North Queensland, Cairns. Where the climate and flora were almost identical to my old home in tropical Africa
I started painting detailed watercolours of the amazingly beautiful Cairns flora
And once again my art work was displayed in many exhibitions including the World Wilderness Congress Exhibition in the Sydney Opera House
Five of the six paintings sold including one to The Perth Botanical Gardens
My recent works concentrate on the beautiful tropical flora and coral seascapes.

About Diann Bennett

A burgeoning acrylic artist hailing from Cairns in Tropical North Queensland, finds profound inspiration in the natural wonders that surround her. Her artistic journey is a testament to the vibrant beauty of the Great Barrier Reef, the lush serenity of rainforests, and the delicate allure of floral landscapes. Diann's distinctive style emerges from her deep connection to these environments, translating their essence into abstract expressions on canvas. Her artworks evoke a mesmerizing interplay of colors and textures, where each brushstroke and hue captures the dynamic harmony found in nature.

Driven by a passion for the expressive potential of paint, Diann embraces the spontaneous dialogue that unfolds as colors interact and flow freely across her canvases. Her artistic process is a dance between intention and intuition, guided by an innate understanding of how to harness the inherent energy of acrylics. Through her art, Diann invites viewers to immerse themselves in the sensory experience of nature's beauty, inviting them to see and feel the essence of Tropical North Queensland through her eyes and her palette.