Featured Artists of the Month
Rose Knight
Winner of the 77th Annual Art Awards Best Oil Painting award.
Born and raised on the Mornington Peninsula, Rose has been painting since 2000. She began painting under the guidance of Terrence J Hadler at Manyung Gallery Mt Eliza Victoria and joined that gallery’s stable of artists in 2005 She has exhibited successfully at the Galleries of, Seaview, Linden, Manyung Gallery Mt Eliza, Ryazanoff Gallery Albert Park and Gallery Oscar Sydney, Steps and Oakhill galleries. Rose was born and raised on the Mornington Peninsula which is a constant source of inspiration to her,however her subject matter ranges far and wide as she visits and is influenced by the contrasts of this country. Now living in Atherton she is a regular exhibitor and member at Cairns Art Society and Mission Beach Arts.
Since arriving in FNQ in 2018, Rose has been a finalist in several prestigious art prizes including the Glover Prize, John Villiers Art Prize, Soho Art Awards, Lethbridge Landscape Awards and The Doyles Art Prize. She has also won awards such as the Tyto Annual Art Prize, Central Highlands Art Awards, Mission Arts Annual, and CAS Art Awards. Rose has held successful Solo Exhibitions at Tanks Art Centre Cairns, Tableland Regional Gallery, Hinchinbrook Regional Gallery and Mission Beach Arts.
Most admired artists are Arthur Boyd, Fred Williams, John Olsen, Geoff Dyer and Phillip Wolfhagen and her preferred medium is oil paints. Rose is also an active member of the Atherton Tablelands Lapidary club and when she isn’t painting she is either fossicking gems, cutting and polishing them, wire-wrapping and silversmithing.
“As an artist I explore the landscape, deliberately disassembling,
rearranging, deleting the clutter and working with what essence remains
in the head and the heart.... (seeing things that often are seen only with
peripheral vision.) It is the artist’s mission to attempt to convey what is
inexpressible in words, allowing the subject to speak. Paintings of such
energy charged places wish to relate the response of the force or mood
found there...in subliminal messages and resonating memories (for both
the artist and hopefully the viewer)”
Pat Wilson
Pat is a self taught artist who has been painting only since 2000, when her sisters presented her with paints and an easel for her 60th birthday, because they said she could draw well as a child and that they thought her talent was being wasted.
She joined the Cairns Art Society in 2002, and displayed some of her works in group exhibitions at the Tanks Art Gallery, and at Art on Aplin in Cairns where she won awards.
Pat was successful when she exhibited work in the Cairns Art Society’s Cairns Regional Gallery in 2002 winning the Warren Enstch Award for Local Landscape with her “Lake Morris, Copperlode Dam” entry.
Pat presented a solo exhibition “Windows to the North” at Art on Aplin in 2004.
Her work involves mostly old buildings, flora, fauna, and the magnificent scenery of Far North Queensland. She dabbled in water colour and oils but found that acrylic is the most practical medium to use in this humid climate.
Pat was fortunate to receive a commission by the Croydon, Qld. Shire Council to paint twelve paintings of turn of the 20th century Croydon buildings for their Q150 celebrations in 2008. Those paintings are displayed in the Court House Museum in Croydon.
The Cairns Art Society accepted an offer to open a Gallery in the DFO Shopping Centre in 2009 where Pat has been volunteering her shifts and exhibiting there ever since. She has been very successful with sales at the gallery, and her volunteering involved becoming Vice President of Cairns Art Society for some years. She handled the Gallery Bookkeeping for many years, and also organised the duty roster for about 60 volunteers from 2010 right up until 2025. She was also involved in the organisation of the annual Tanks and Regional Gallery Exhibitions.
In 2023 she was awarded a Life Membership to the Cairns Art Society, and is still involved at the DFO Gallery.