Artist with a little ‘a’ – Kathleen Ann Quinert

Ark Hill Farm sits upon the crest of a hill in South Gippsland, Victoria, overlooking a wide vista of glorious landscapes. Our home, the property’s original farmhouse, is surrounded by the young trees and new gardens we have planted. This simple rural life with its seasons of planting and harvest lends me time to pursue a passion to create.

I have always sketched as a way to express my thoughts about a place. A drawing to capture the visual memory, and then words to describe the emotional pull or hold it had on my heart. I can fall in love with a place so easily when its somewhere rural, colourful, welcoming – somewhere I wanted to live until we moved to Ark Hill Farm.

I was first called an ‘artist’ with a little ‘a’, for the ‘art’ of writing, as an author. I think there will always be a book in me, pages flowing from my fingers as I click away at the keys. The latest words you’ll find on the Journal page. It was this little ‘a’ that trained my imagination to pull forth snippets of thoughts and feelings and mold them into something tangible. Those developed thoughts, became full, clear images that wanted to be birthed and this brought me to painting.

There is so much wonder in the world but not everyone takes time to gaze and see; like the morning light on translucent petals, the colour and joy fresh flowers bring to a room, the brightness and comfort of a sunlit landscape. I want to express the beautiful things I see around me, all that is lovely and good.

Watercolour is my medium of choice, I don’t think I will ever choose another, I’m very loyal. The wash of water across a page, the rush of pigments one into another, the blending of colour and separation of granules as they flow in tiny river-lets along the paper’s grain gives every brush stroke a nuance of expression beyond what I can bring.

A lifetime is so few a trips around the sun I never want to waste a moment of the journey. I want to run this good race in robust pursuit, to live everyday a good life, to capture wonder and create a place for it where it never fades or changes, so that whenever you pass it by it speaks – sings even – of a moment of joy, of beauty and peace of heart, of love never ending.

That is my aim anyway – I hope I can do it well.

Kathleen