Exuberance Exhibition Catalogue

Exhuberance 

Leonie Andrews | Nicole O’Loughlin | Robby Wright | 

Nicole Kemp | Di Ellis | Dijanna Cevaal | Philomena Hali | 

Susie Vickery | Belinda Jessup | Liz Payne | Cathy Jack 

Coupland | Carolyn Sullivan | Wilma Simmons | Makeda 

Duong Liam Benson | Amy Jones | Joy Denise Scott | 

Aimee Estcourt | Carol Cooke | Sharon Peoples

Craft + Design Canberra is partially supported by the ACT 

Government, the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy - an 

initiative of the Australia State and Territory Governments, 

and the Australia Council for the Arts - the Australian 

Government's arts funding and advisory body. 

Craft + Design Canberra acknowledges the Ngunnawal 

people as the tradition custodians of the ACT and 

surrounding areas. We honour and respect their ongoing 

cultural and spiritual connections to this country and the 

contribution they make to the life of this city and this 

region. We aim to respect cultural heritage, customs, and 

beliefs of all indigenous people, 

Craft + Design Canberra 

Wednesday-Saturday 12-4pm 

Or by appointment. 

Level 1, North Building, 180 London Circuit, 

Canberra, ACT, Australia 

02 6262 9333 

www.craftanddesigncanberra.org 

Cover Image: Carole Cooke, Imagine, 2022 Photo: Courtesy of Artist.

Exhuberance 

Leonie Andrews | Nicole O’Loughlin | Robby Wright | 

Nicole Kemp | Di Ellis | Dijanna Cevaal | Philomena Hali | 

Susie Vickery | Belinda Jessup | Liz Payne | Cathy Jack 

Coupland | Carolyn Sullivan | Wilma Simmons | Makeda 

Duong | Liam Benson | Amy Jones | Joy Denise Scott | 

Aimee Estcourt | Carol Cooke | Sharon Peoples 

6 July - 26 August 2023 

Craft + Design Canberra

Image: Amy Jones, Bindweed, 2023 Photo: Courtesy of Artist

Image: Nicole Kemp, The Protector, 2023 Photo: Courtesy of Artist

Image: Robyn Wright, Use It Respect It, 2022 Photo: Courtesy of Artist .

Exhuberance 

EXHIBITION STATEMENT 

Exuberant: 1. Lively, high-spirited. 2. (of a plant) prolific; 

growing copiously. 3. (of feelings etc) abounding, lavish, 

effusive. (The Australian concise Oxford Dictionary.) 

The original concept of this exhibition, Exuberance, was to 

explore exuberance through colour and how colour is 

expressed in contemporary hand-stitched artworks. This 

exhibition brings together a group of 20 Australian 

embroiderers/stitchers chosen for their exuberant use of 

hand stitch. The goal was to work independently from a 

common springboard for highly individualist artwork. 

There were several prompts by the curators Sharon 

Peoples and Carol Cooke, from which the artists could 

begin their long stitching projects. These included colour 

as an expression of exuberance, exuberant growth of 

plants and exuberance as a psychological state or 

emotion. Many artists took up readings based on Rachel 

Carson’s Silent Spring, one of the first influential books to 

galvanise global environmental movements. This is 

evidenced in many works by the exhibiting artists and the 

way in which they carefully balanced the potentially 

negative with emotional exuberance. 

Why hand stitching? During the Covid Lockdowns there 

was a world-wide upsurge in hand crafts made at home. 

Many online courses sprang up with interest in hand made 

textiles, and in particular hand embroidery. Capturing what 

was happening in Australia at the time interested the 

curators, Carol Cooke and Sharon Peoples. 

The artists were presented with a number of formal colour 

exercises, based on the colour wheel. Some artists 

rejected this notion, yet their reasons were very interesting, 

and this aspect is explored further in the book, 

Exuberance; A Stitcher’s Perspective. This book gives a 

deep understanding of artists’ processes as they worked 

towards producing final exhibition pieces.

Image: Wilma Simmons, Process Image, 2023. Photo: Courtesy of Artist

Image: Wilma Simmons, Process Image, 2023. Photo: Courtesy of Artist

Perception of Colour 

By Sharon Peoples 

Colour is difficult to describe in words. 

The vocabulary of colour is a 

constellation, a constellation of many 

adjectives. Over the last two to three 

years, conversations between Carol 

Cooke and myself about colour have 

been surprising, and, revealing about 

the complexity of colour. ‘What type of 

red is scarlet?’ ‘You call that purple?’ 

‘Brown?’ 

Colour is subjective. Responses to this 

visual phenomenon are often 

emotional and largely based on cultural 

conditioning and visual experience. 

Colour stimulates the brain via the 

eyes. Bringing together hand stitched 

works by twenty artists highlights the 

complexity of colour. The choice of 

artists through social media and 

publications were based on artists’ 

individual perception of colour and 

capacity in stitch, their skills at mixing 

colour, the vibrancy of works and their 

conviction for conveying ideas. The 

curatorial rationale added, not only the 

suggestion of a wide colour palette of 

strong intensity, but also the emotional 

state of exuberance. 

It is difficult to pinpoint what 

exuberance is. Kay Redfield Jamison 

writes that “Exuberance is an 

abounding, ebullient, effervescent 

emotion. It is kinetic and unrestrained, 

joyful, irrepressible. It is not happiness, 

although they share a border. It is 

instead, at its core, a more restless, 

billowing state.” (2004: 4) 

For many participating artists in the 

exhibition, Exuberance, have explored 

with a child-like fearlessness as they 

produce unrestrained works. Their 

creativity abounds with some 

preferring novelty. We have often 

heard the phrase – ‘a child could do 

that!’ that!’– in relation to art 

movements such as Dadaism or 

abstract expressionism. But in 

stitching? Some artists take time 

unlearning many social inhibitions, 

coming to enjoy risk-taking in their 

work. They become intoxicated by 

finding something that no-one else 

has seen or found before and they 

grow to relish fearlessness in their 

artwork. 

When we listen to jazz music, we can 

hear risk-taking in improvisation, 

reflecting their individuality, ability, and 

style. Similarly, stitching exuberantly, 

enhanced by colourful threads seems 

to lead to an expressive flow, 

producing unique works. 

Linking up with Carol Cooke in the first 

few months added the dimension of 

producing a book on the project. This 

incentivised many artists to continue. 

Although the exhibition and the book 

were two different endeavours, they 

were nonetheless symbiotic. 

Why stitch? Working with threads, 

rather than paint or even glass 

whereby the liquidity of colour can 

morph into variations of hues, values 

and saturation; with thread, colour is 

less mobile and requires optical mixing. 

Each thread of colour retains its own 

presence. It is tempered by the 

relationship to surrounding colours and 

the textures created by the chosen 

stitch. The eye works at blending. It is 

not only the thread but the base on 

which it sits that adds to the equation. 

Experience of teaching the use of 

colour wheels had left the question of 

why textiles artists are taught colour 

through paint rather than through their 

own medium: thread. Painting a colour 

wheel in one sense is relatively easy: 

colours can be squeezed directly from 

a tube or mixed up on a palette. 

Colours can be made to blend or run 

into each other, tones lightened or 

darkened, water reducing intensity. 

With thread, the medium is not so 

malleable. The eye must do the colour 

mixing. Sampling and experimenting is 

necessary to work towards the desired 

colour outcomes. However, most 

stitchers rely on the colours produced 

by manufacturers. 

One quest in the Exuberance project 

was for textile artists to mix their own 

yarns or fabrics for colour wheels. The 

colour wheel is a tool and making such 

a tool from the media to be used has 

for me, as an artist, has led to 

expressing my colour desires through 

play by layering threads, stitching over 

and over to till arriving at the results 

pursued. 

In 2021, as we moved through climate 

disasters to the pandemic, the original 

concept of this exhibition, Exuberance, 

was to explore exuberance through 

colour and how colour is expressed in 

contemporary hand-stitched artworks. 

Originally it was the concerns over the 

destruction of nature by political and 

corporate interests that refute/dismiss 

the delicate interconnectedness of 

nature and the environment, that were 

difficult to ignore at that point in time. 

The catastrophic bushfires of the 

summer of 2019/20 left their mark on 

Australian people, on the environment, 

on the economy, the politics of our 

country and art. 

The day before New Year’s Eve 2019, 

driving along south coast of New 

South Wales, I watched a pair of 

wedge tail eagles panicking in the 

heavy bushfire smoke. Turning right on 

to the last road open to Brown 

Mountain, on passing police cars I

watched in the rear-view mirror the 

closure of the road. Looking up a huge 

pyro-cumulonimbus cloud added to 

the drama as fires totally engulfed the 

landscape. 

Many months later when the roads 

opened after the fires, in driving down 

to the coast to teach a workshop with 

a colleague, it was highly emotional. 

We pulled over and I walked into the 

totally burnt forest. The only colour 

amongst the blackened landscape 

was the intensely bright green fronds 

of the tree ferns which seemed to be 

gasping for air against the charred 

background that looked totally done 

with the world. This project, 

Exuberance is somewhat similar: a 

response to the restrains of the 

Pandemic lockdowns during 2020, that 

the notion of escape, of getting out, of 

‘growing copiously’ but with nowhere 

to go. 

During the art world stasis caused by 

the pandemic, the response to 

participate in such an exhibition was 

enthusiastic. Hand stitching is a slow 

process and required a long lead time, 

gathering up a group of artists to last 

the distance was tricky. To encourage 

a more thoughtful approach to works, 

several suggestions were made. Trying 

not to be prescriptive, but more as a 

prompt, a reading of Rachel Carson’s 

Silent Spring was offered, along with 

the play of stitching colour wheels. 

Some artists withdrew, others came 

on board as they became more visible 

on social media. Ideas developed 

beyond environmental concerns to 

more personal realms. Stitching away 

over the years, reflects the strong 

commitment each artist has. 

The final list of artists was Leonie 

Andrews, Nichole O’Loughlin, Robby 

Wright, Nicole Kemp, Di Ellis, Dijanna 

Cevaal, Philomena Hali, Susie Vickery, 

Belinda Jessup, Liz Payne, Cathy Jack 

Coupland, Carolyn Sullivan, Wilma 

Simmons, Makeda Duong Liam 

Benson, Amy Jones, Joy Denise Scott, 

Aimee Estcourt, Carol Cooke, and me, 

Sharon Peoples 

Sharon Peoples has worked as an 

artist in Canberra for over 20 years, 

exhibiting nationally and internationally 

as well as taking on commissioned 

work. She has had 10 solo exhibitions 

since 2010, the most recent was 

Working the Garden (2023, Southern 

Highlands Artists’ Collective). She has 

also participated in over 20 group 

exhibitions – the highlights being 

Stitched Art is Art with SEW (Society 

for Embroidered Work) at the 

Clerkenwell Gallery, London (2019) and 

Surface and Depth at the Palazzo Velli 

Expo Rome (2021), and the Art Textiles 

Biennale (2021) at East Gippsland Art 

Gallery. Her work has been collected 

by national (National Gallery of 

Australia, National Museum of Australia 

and Parliament House Collection) and 

state institutions.

Image: Aimee Estcourt, Amegilla Bomiformis, 2022 Photo: Courtesy of Artist

Aimee Estcourt 

ARTIST STATEMENT 

Aimee Estcourt experiments with colour and texture within 

her embroideries to bring seemingly simple subject matter 

to life, to incorporate the joy associated with personal 

experiences linked to the image. Colour is her passion and 

is used to emphasise the beauty of the subject matter. 

Stitching what Aimee loves, such as nature and travel 

memories, is a sentimental and calming process. By 

focusing in on tiny details within her stitching, ‘simple 

things’ can become surprising complex and been seen in 

a new light, full of life. 

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY 

Aimee Estcourt creates vibrant embroidery art from her 

home on the Northern Beaches, New South Wales. She 

has always loved being creative, however when Aimee 

discovered embroidery over ten years ago, it soon 

became her passion. Her designs are inspired by her love 

of nature and things that bring joy to her life. For Aimee 

being playful with colour is the most important and 

enjoyable part of the process. Being featured in a number 

of needlework and textile magazines, such as Inspirations 

Magazine has been a highlight for Aimee. She is a Primary 

school teacher and mum of two boys, and finds stitching 

in the evening the perfect way to relax and unwind at the 

end of a busy day.

Image: Amy Jones,Distintegration, 2023 Photo: Courtesy of Artist

Amy Jones 


Amy Jones’ work is predominantly based on botanical 

references, both abstract and figurative. She seeks to 

explore the notion of memory and change over time, 

creating dreamlike, abstracted gardens. The imagery 

chosen references personal symbols of remembrance, 

love, loss and renewal. Jones works primarily in textiles, 

using a mixture of new and recycled materials. The 

stitching itself is a process of reflection and meditation. 

Her current series is based on the need for green spaces 

and connection during lockdown and isolation. Jones also 

teaches textile workshops throughout Sydney. 


Amy Jones holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (painting and 

drawing) and Education COFA, UNSW (2006) and has had 

four solo exhibitions: Jewelled Botanica (2019), There are 

no birdies in my garden Japanese Dreams (2012), Places I 

have never been (2011) and Japanese Dreams (2010). Shae 

has also exhibited in over 14 group exhibitions, most 

notably as a finalist in Northern Beaches Environmental Art 

and Design Prize (2021), Petite Miniatures Textiles 

Exhibition (2020) at Wangaratta Regional Art Gallery and a 

finalist in Seed Stitch Contemporary Textiles Awards at the 

Australian Design Centre and Tamworth Regional Art 

Gallery. Aimee was commissioned in 2021 for the cover of 

“Well Hello” by Annabel Crabb and Leigh Sales for Penguin 

Books.

Belinda Jessup 


Belinda Jessup is an Australian textile artist working from 

her home studio surrounded by her garden, a constant 

inspiration. She, like so many gained a love of textiles 

through her mother and grandmother, both teaching 

Belinda many techniques including garment making, hand 

embroidery, knitting and crocheting to name a few. These 

women embedded their love of gardens, gardening, and 

the natural landscape in her from an early age. Colour and 

shapes inform Belinda’s work. With a renewed interest in 

hand embroidery exploring a more textural approach to 

bring her focuses on the natural world including tree and 

rose portraits. 


Belinda Jessup holds a Bachelor of Art (Visual) Honours 

School of Art, National Institute of the Arts, Australian 

National University and a Diploma Open Foundation, 

University of Newcastle. Her weaving training also includes 

Fondazione Arte della Seta Lisio Florence and Scotweave 

Jacquard RMIT University Melbourne. She has exhibited in 

over 20 group exhibitions, most recently Connection 

Point- Contemporary Established Fibre Textile Artists of 

ACT and NSW, Canberra Museum and Gallery (2022), Art 

Textile Biennale 2020, East Gippsland Art Gallery, 

Bairnsdale, Tree Conversations: Networking with the 

Wood-Wide Web, Basil Sellers Exhibition Centre, Moruya 

(2022) and Place Makers, Craft ACT Gallery Canberra 

(2021).

Image: Carol Cooke, Little Piece Of Me, 2023 Photo Courtesy of Artist

Carol Cooke 


Carol Cooke is a Canberra based artist who explores two 

threads of enquiry, textiles and sculpture, to create 2D and 

3D works. This is supported by a drawing practice and 

extensive journal records. Textiles are her preferred 

medium and are often incorporated with mixed media. 


Carol Cooke holds a double degree in Visual Arts (2016) 

and Art History and Curatorship (2018). She majored in 

Textiles. Carol exhibits in Canberra, interstate and 

overseas. She has been a finalist in the Small Sculpture 

Prize (2019), Woollahra, NSW and Mini Art Series The 

Corner Store Gallery (2019), Orange, NSW. She has also 

been a finalist in prizes that include the Adelaide Perry 

Drawing Prize (2019), Sydney and M16 ArtSpace Drawing 

Prize (2019), Canberra. Carol completed two residencies in 

2019: the Icelandic Textile Centre residency and the Fibre 

Arts Australia residency and sculpture exhibition. She 

published her first book Improv-Embroidery in 2022.

Image: Carolyn Sullivan, Fields, 2023. Photo: Courtesy of Artist

Carolyn Sullivan 


Hand stitching has been part of Carolyn Sullivan’s life 

since she was 8! Like many girls in the 1950’s, she was 

taught the craft at school. It was in 6th class, when she 

got sent to the “naughty corner “because I was talking too 

much, that I realised how the meditative quietness of 

being on my own, making something, was special. 

Nothing has changed - except sometimes she is allowed 

to stitch and talk! 


Carolyn Sullivan holds a Bachelor of Arts (Sydney 

University) (1972), Diploma of Education (Sydney Teachers' 

College) (1972), City and Guilds Embroidery Part 1, Opus 

School of Textile Art, London (2002) and a Diploma of Arts 

(Merit) Art History, Sydney University, 2004. Her work is 

held in the collections of Wangaratta Art Gallery, National 

Wool Museum, Geelong, Southern Downs Regional Art 

Collection, Stanthorpe, Queensland and the

Image: Cathy Jack Coupland, Coral, 2023 Photo: Courtesy of Artist

Cathy Jack Coupland 


Cathy Jack Coupland is motivated to stitch, inspired by 

nature, history, art, poetry, colour and other artists, 

encouraging further exploration of new concepts and 

techniques. Cathy’s style is relatable; her trademark is 

colour. Known mostly for her machine embroidery, 

covering and manipulating the entire surface with thread, 

she also works by hand, noting ‘that to design and work 

for either, is to live in two very different worlds’. 


Embroiderers’ Guild NSW Inc. Her most recent exhibitions 

include Finalist Stanthorpe Art Prize (2018, 2016, 2010), 

Invited exhibitor, Australasian Quilting Convention, 

Melbourne (2018) and Different Directions, Embroiderers’ 

Guild NSW Inc (2017-2018).

Image: Di Ellis, Party Days, 2023 Photo: Courtesy of Artist

Di Ellis 


Di Ellis is a Melbourne based artist with a degree in Fine 

Art Printmaking. She has exhibited both in Australia and 

internationally including shows in the USA, Denmark and 

the United Kingdom in both print and now textiles. Ellis 

hand stitches on reclaimed fabrics to suggest place. 

Through the grim days of Covid in the last Melbourne 

lockdown she reminisces both nature walks in her series 

of native plants picked in the 5 km radius of home and 

stepped back to the carefree late sixties with images of 

the first multinational influencers Barbie and Ken. 


Di Ellis is a Melbourne based artist with a degree in Fine Art 

Printmaking. She has exhibited both in Australia and 

internationally including shows in the USA, Denmark and 

the United Kingdom in the mediums of print and now 

textiles. She has had six solo exhibitions, most recently 

being Strike A Pose (2022) at Wyrena Art Lounge, Croydon 

and Vestments (2021) at RMIT Art link Space in Melbourne. 

She has participated in over 20 group exhibitions including 

[Wall]Flower (2022) at Geelong Art space, Vic, In my 

Backyard Print Exchange Show, (2021) Castlemaine Press 

Castlemaine, Vic and Front Lines: Takayna to Adani (2020) 

at Salamanca Arts Space, in Hobart.

Image: Image: Carolyn Artist Sullivan, name, Fields, work 2023. title, year. Photo: Photo: Courtesy Photo of Credit. Artist

Dijanne Cevaal 


Known for her blog “Musing of a Textile Itinerant”, Dijanne 

Cevaal is based in the Latrobe Valley area in Victoria but 

teaches worldwide, predominately in France. Her work is 

inspired by nature, her surroundings, and travel. She uses 

dye and print techniques to take white cloth into a multi 

layered textile creation embellished by hand and machine. 

Much of Dijanne’s work also incorporates stories that are 

the textile equivalent of written stories. The traveller’s 

blankets are meditations in stitch on various places 

traveled to both in reality and in the imagination. In recent 

times the nardoo growing in small dams near her home 

have become a source of fascination and something that 

proves to have a fascinating backstory of the exploration 

of Australia. Visually it is a myriad of greens as it spreads 

and adds a colourful note to the tannin-coloured waters 

of the waterways it inhabits. 


Dijanne Cevaal holds a Masters of Visual and Performing 

Art (2005) Charles Sturt University, NSW and a Bachelor of 

Arts, Bachelor of Law (1980) Australian National University, 

ACT. With over 20 solo exhibitions to her name, her most 

recent include Morning Walks in the Pandemic (2021), 

ArcYinnar, Victoria, Guest exhibitor at ChARTres, Chartres, 

France (2019), Guest Exhibitor Pour l’Amour du Fil, Nantes, 

France (2019) and in 2018 she was not only a Guest 

Exhibition but also Guest of Honour at ChARTres, Chartres, 

France. Dijanne has written numerous books on textiles 

and quilting and has curated travelling exhibitions, mostly 

to Europe and the Middle

Image: Joy Scott, process picture, 2023 Photo: Courtesy of Artist

Joy Scott 


From an early age Joy Denise Scott has had a love affair 

with stitch. Yet, it was 2019 before Scott first began 

creating embroideries. Stitch works that have an intimate 

connection to her poetry. Her writing and embroideries 

are concerned with how lived experience is shaped by 

feeling. To visually communicate the material qualities of 

such an abstract concept with integrity, Scott has 

adopted an improvisational approach. Believing it as a 

form of alchemy she sees her improvisational stitch 

practice as one of crafting a symbiotic connection with 

her poetry, stitch forms and colour palette resulting in 

embroideries that resonate authenticity. 


Joy Denise Scott holds a PhD in Social Science from the 

Curtin University, WA (2013), a Master of Business (Arts 

and Culture) (2005) and a Post Graduate Diploma of Arts 

Management (2003) from the University of South Australia. 

Her most recent creative work in 2022 includes 

TwentyFIVE + Crossover exhibition with Western Australia 

Fibre and Textiles Association, Design-Stitch-Gather, 

maker project for first- and second-generation migrant 

women with an interest in design and textiles and the 

Australian Textile Awards, juried exhibition, presented at 

the Embroiders Guild, Victoria. In 2021 her arts practice 

included The Australian Fibre Art Awards, Gallery 71, 

Sydney, and a joint exhibition with Anne Farren in TEXTILE: 

The subversive stitch.

Image: Artist name, work title, year. Photo: Photo Credit. 

Image: Leonie Andrews, My Summer Garden, 2023 Photo: Courtesy of Artist

Leonie Andrews 


Leonie Andrews is a visual artist working in a range of 

media. Her work uses stitch, print making and 

photography, to explore found objects and situations, the 

local and the mundane. 


Leonie Andrews holds a Bachelor of Arts, Visual Arts, 

Australian National University School of Art (ANU SOA) 

(2006), Canberra and a Bachelor of Arts, (Anthropology), 

ANU (1979). She has had five solo exhibitions: Abandon, 76 

Queen Street Gallery, Sydney (2022), The Opening 

Stitches Project, M16 Artspace, Griffith, ACT (2020), 

Between Here and Now, Canberra Contemporary Art 

Space, Manuka, ACT (2018), The Embroidered Truth, 

Tuggeranong Arts Centre, ACT (2014) and Substrate, 

Structure, Surface, (2010) Craft ACT: Craft + Design Centre, 

Canberra. She has been part of 15 group exhibitions and 

was a finalist in the Dobell Drawing Prize in 2019 and the 

Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award, the Gold Coast 

Art Prize and the Goulburn Art Award. In 2016 she was 

awarded an Asialink Artists Residency in Tokyo, Japan.

Image: Liam Benson, Hither, 2023 Photo: Courtesy of Artist

Liam Benson 


Liam Benson, a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice 

incorporates performance, photography, video and 

textiles. Benson’s work explores identity and culture as a 

living dualistic process which is both informed by and 

challenges historical, political, and social consciousness 

and the representation of this exchange through 

iconography. Liam’s practice is informed by working 

collaboratively with diverse communities through an 

ongoing conversation about how culture, sub-culture and 

identity interrelate and evolve. His works are held in 

significant public and private collections including The 

MCA Australia, the Art Gallery of South Australia, Artbank 

and Western Sydney University. 


Liam Benson holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of 

Western Sydney (2002) and over ten solo exhibitions 

which includes You Already Know (2022) Glasshouse 

Regional Gallery, Port Macquarie, Mapping the 

Immeasurable (2020) at Artereal Gallery, Rozelle, I have a 

wealth of unconditional love and it’s yours if you want it, 

(2017) Artereal Gallery, Sydney and Inheritance (2017) at 

Gallerysmith, Melbourne. He has participated in over 18 

group exhibitions and Benson’s works are held in 

significant public and private collections including The 

MCA Australia, the Art Gallery of South Australia, Artbank 

and Western Sydney University.

Image: Liz Payne, Process Photo, 2023 Photo: Courtesy of Artist

Liz Payne 


Liz Payne is an artist living and working in the inner city of 

Sydney, Australia. Using a variety of media from pencil and 

paint to textiles, beads and embroidery, Liz’s work 

explores abstraction through colour, shape, texture and 

form. A question of perception and expectation is a 

considered component in Liz’s work, explored not only of 

materials and medium, but the expectations of life and the 

traditions of the everyday, and there is always a pursuit of 

breaking the rules from the predicable and conventional. 


Liz Payne holds a Certificate IV in Computer Graphic 

Design, Shillington College, Sydney (2003), and a Bachelor 

of Visual Arts, University of Western Sydney, Sydney. Her 

participation in over 20 group exhibitions include Fisher’s 

Ghost Art Award finalist (2021), Campbelltown Sydney 

Remagine Art Prize (2021), Bowral Sculptural Prize finalist 

(2021), Bowral. Significantly in 2019 her work was included 

in Gorman: 10 Years of Collaboration Celebration exhibition 

at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne.

Image: Makeda Duong, Elegy, 2023 Photo: Courtesy of Artist

Makeda Duong 


Since graduating from the South Australian School of Art 

in 2013 with a Bachelor of Visual Arts, Makeda Duong has 

participated in several group and two solo exhibitions and 

undertaken a residency at Nexus Arts. She also 

participated in two mentorships, with local artists Sera 

Waters and Cheryl Hutchens. Her current practice 

attempts to unravel and represent aspects of her lived 

experience in relation to themes such as race, gender, 

and mental health. Recent themes in her work explore her 

experiences as a mixed-race person living in Australia. 


Makeda Duong holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts, (Textiles) - 

University of SA, South Australian School of Art, Adelaide, 

SA. In 2016 she successfully completed a NAVA Arts 

Business Basics Course. She has had two solo exhibitions: 

Mixed Race Female (2020) as part of South Australian 

Living Artists Festival (SALA) at Nexus Arts, Adelaide SA 

and The Cursed Boyfriend Sweater (2015) at Urban Cow 

Studio, in Adelaide SA. Her group exhibitions include 

Embroidery: Oppression to Expression (2021) The David 

Roche Foundation Museum, North Adelaide, Flotsam and 

Jetsam (2021) Post Office Projects, Port Adelaide, SA, 

Contact (2021) Kerry Packer Kivic Gallery, UniSA, Kinder, 

Kuche, Kirche (2019) Jamfactory at Seppeltsfield SA and 

Release the Beast (2018) Brunswick St Gallery, Melbourne 

VIC.

Image: Nicole O'Loughlin, Glen Dhu Photo: Courtesy of Artist

Nicole O'Loughlin 


Nicole O’Loughlin is an interdisciplinary artist who works 

across a variety of mediums to explore societal issues, 

pop culture and women’s issues. She works across 

textiles, painting, drawing and printmaking. Using 

traditional media in a contemporary context Nicole 

challenges the idea of craft and pushes back against the 

industrialisation of the hand made. 


Nicole was commissioned by contemporary feminist artist, 

Kate Just, for a piece as a real life example of the Covid 19 

quilt project, for display at the Museum of Contemporary 

Art, Sydney. Her Covid Quilt is represented in the 

Museums Victoria Collection (2021).

Image: Philomena Hail, China Bowl, 2023 Photo: Courtesy of Artist

Philomena Hail 


Philomena Hali lived in Alice Springs for 31 years, teaching 

& working in various capacities in town and desert 

communities. She is primarily a textile artist/maker, 

however, is not that easy describing what she does as 

she has learned many things over the years. Stitching & 

embroidery were learned from a young age. As her family 

are from the island of Madeira, embroidery is a way of life 

there, so she was made to learn. However, her own work 

resembles nothing of their excellence. 


Philomena Hali trained as a nurse and now works as an 

artist. She has had three solo exhibitions: Narratives of 

Cloth & Fibre (2015), Marriott Gallery, Central Craft, Alice 

Springs NT, Year of the Outback (2002) Rosny Park School 

House Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania, and Textile 

Retrospective, (2011) Shibori exhibition, Wollari School, 

Orange, NSW. Her group exhibitions include Korea Bojagi 

Forum (2023), Seoul, South Korea, Brooching the Subject, 

Timeless Textiles Gallery NSW (2023), Western Australian 

Fibre & Textile Assoc. (WAFTA) (2022), Small Works (2022) 

Brunswick St Gallery, VIC, Sustainable Couture,Fashion 

event, Alice Springs, NT (2021) and Brooching the Subject, 

Timeless Textiles Gallery NSW (2021)

Image: Robbie Wright, process picture,, 2023, Photo: Courtesy of Artist

Robby Wright 


Robyn Wright lives on the Tweed River on the New South 

Wales far north coast, about 10kms from the Queensland 

border and the Gold Coast. Although she has access to 

the coast and an unban environment, her inspiration is the 

hinterland, the tropical landscape of the Border Ranges. 


Robby Wright’s extensive education includes Teacher 

Training Alexander Mackie/National Art School Sydney, a 

Bachelor of Arts, University of New England, a Master of 

Letters, University of New England, a Diploma of Education, 

University of New England, a Master of Communication, 

Curtin University, Perth and a Bachelor of Arts, Southern 

Cross University, Lismore. She has participated in 12 group 

exhibitions that include the PAN Group Exhibition (2021), 

Roxy Gallery, Kyogle, the Australasian National Brooch 

Show, Contemporary Art Society, Richmond, Victoria, 

WRAP (2021) East Gippsland Art Gallery, the Bentley Art 

Prize (2019) Bentley, NSW and the Australasian Quilt 

Convention Travelling Exhibition (2018).

Image: Sharon Peoples, The Watering Hole, 2023 Photo: Courtesy of Artist

Sharon Peoples 


Sharon Peoples spends a lot of time wandering and 

wondering about gardens and their visitors. It’s not plants, 

so much as the labour and politics of gardening. From her 

own domestic garden to the local bushland and a little 

further afield to surrounding national parks, she is 

energised and draw inspiration by walking in these 

environments. In a similar way, she thinks about the labour 

and politics of stitching. Fragility of both the environment 

and the human condition is reflected in the media she 

uses, while oscillating between hand and machine 

embroidery to examine issues. 


Sharon Peoples worked as an artist in Canberra for over 

25 years, exhibition nationally and internationally as well as 

taking on commissioned work. She has had ten solo 

exhibitions since 2010, the most recent were Working the 

Garden (2023) at the Southern Highlands Art Collective 

and Messenger from the Garden (2020) at Timeless 

Textiles in Newcastle. Sharon has participated in over 20 

group exhibitions – the highlights being the latest Seed 

Stitch Contemporary Textile Award (2022) at the Australian 

Design Centre, Sydney, Surface and Depth (at the Palazzo 

Velli Expo, Rome 2021) and Stitched Art is Art both with the 

SEW (Society for Embroidered Art), the Art Textiles 

Biennale (2021) at the East Gippsland Art Gallery and the 

Australian Fibre Art Award (2021) at Gallery 76 in Sydney.

Image: Susie Vickery, Calyptorhynchus Iridis , 2023 Photo: Courtesy of Artist

Suzie Vickery 


Susie Vickery began this series with the title, Exuberance, 

and the themes of Stitch, Colour and the Environment, 

and then did a mind map to inspire some ideas. She had 

already been making cockatoos, as part of a fundraiser 

for the campaign to stop the logging and mining of 

cockatoo habitat in Western Australia so she expanded 

on that, trying different materials, types of embroidery and 

ways to mount them. 


Susie Vickery’s career centres on embroidery and textiles, 

both practical and academic and her core skills were 

developed over twenty years as a costumier for theatre 

and film. Over the last twenty years she has built expertise 

in two further areas: development work and fine art 

embroidery. Her awards include a finalist in the 

Ravenswood Women’s Art Prize, Cinefest Oz: Cinewest 

Best Short Film - Peregrinations of a Citizen Botanist 

(People’s choice favourite film), WAFTA Professional 

Textile Prize and Christine Risley Award, Goldsmiths, 

University of London. Group exhibitions include Influence - 

Lost Eden Gallery, Dwellingup, Twenty Five Plus - Holmes à 

Court Gallery, Perth, The Curious Five go Surfing - Indian 

Ocean Craft Triennial, Peregrinations of a Citizen Botanist - 

Art on the Move tour of Western Australia and Another 

View - Royal Birmingham Society of Arts, Birmingham, UK.

Image: Wilma Simmons, What is Within: Thorax with eucalypt leaves , 2023 Photo: Courtesy of Artist

Willma Simmons 


Wilma Simmons’ work started with observing what is 

around her - her local surroundings - her garden and her 

neighbourhood. Most of her art work begins: “I walk, I 

observe, I record ( memory, sketch, photograph), I reflect, I 

discuss, I research and then I stitch”. Changes in her 

environment correspond to changes in Wilma’s mood and 

emotions. Not only does she like to stitch Nature’s varied 

contrasts in colour and texture, she is sensitive to 

changes within herself as she responds to daily 

observations. Intuition tells us what research studies have 

proven; Nature benefits our well-being. When deprived of 

direct experiences with nature, it has been shown that 

even watching a documentary about the world around us 

can lower stress levels and evoke some degree of 

calmness and relaxation. The more she stitches stitch her 

surroundings, the more engaged she is in discovering and 

researching the impact the environment has on human 

beings. 


Wilma Simmons has been very fortunate, in the past, to 

have lived in many different places in New South Wales 

and Queensland, as well as in Finland and Papua New 

Guinea for study and humanitarian missions. She now lives 

in Newcastle NSW. After early retiring from her previous 

career as a high school principal in 2005, she decided on 

a new direction in art. Although her formal training is in 

contemporary clays and art doll sculpture, she began to 

devote more time to textiles, and stitching, Wilma felt she 

could never be classed as an embroiderer. She thinks she 

has the infamous award of being the person who took the 

longest time ever to complete the Creative Embroidery 

Course with the Embroiderers Guild of NSW - about 23 

years!

Image: Nicole Kemp, The Protector , 2023 Photo Courtesy of Artist

Nicole Kemp 


Nicole Kemp has a Bachelor of Education arts and crafts. 

She works as an artist and teacher, presenting a diverse 

range of creative experiences from formal paint draw 

classes to stitch/textiles and Craftivist workshops. She has 

worked as a textile artist and teacher for many years and 

will never get over how undervalued her work is.

Exuberance Exhibition Catalogue

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