#brigalow scrub

[drea-darling]

Black-striped wallaby with brigalow wattle. The black-striped wallaby (Notamacropus dorsalis), also known as the scrub wallaby or eastern brush wallaby, is a medium-sized wallaby found in Australia, from Townsville in Queensland to Narrabri in New South Wales. In New South Wales, it is only found west of the Great Dividing Range. @withlovetattoo #tattoos #ink #tattoo #wallaby #wallabytattoo #blackstripedwallaby #australiantattoos #australiantattoo #wattletattoo #brigalowwattle #neotrad #neotraditionalaustralia #botanicaltattoo https://instagr.am/p/CWCXvVUPOd2/

[steliosagapitos]

    Cathy McClelland 

Australian Painter

    Cathy McClelland is a contemporary realist, wildlife and landscape Australian artist, working in acrylic, oils and mixed media.

A member of the prestigious International Guild of Realism, Australian Guild of Realist Artists, Wildlife Art Society of Australasia and Queensland Wildlife Artist Society Inc. and is a globally collected painter with work in private and corporate collections Australia wide and worldwide.

     Cathy’s goal is to capture that fleeting moment in time that causes us to stop and pause from our busy day to appreciate nature and God’s beauty around us.

The paintings of Cathy McClelland show her love of the landscapes that surround her, she is a fifth generation cattle farmer at Bell where her pretty farm is snuggled into the foothills of the Bunya Mountains National Park and surrounded by beautiful views. It is here with her husband Wayne they raised four wonderful children, multitudes of animals, and have happy contented cattle grazing throughout their pastures. Cathy loves family, animals, photography and travelling.  

Owning a cattle farm in the Western Downs, Queensland and being surrounded with big skies, wide open spaces and beautiful panoramic views, Cathy is passionate about country life and all things rural. Horses, dogs, old sheds, family farms and people are some of the subjects in her western paintings.

Being outdoors is her favourite place, it motivates her and is the source for studio work, the challenge is to capture that magic moment in time that caused her to go 'Wow look at that!' To capture the light that is flitting across the landscape or the birds that are singing around her, whether she's in a tangled rainforest or out in the wide open spaces of the Australian outback, the challenge is to paint what she's seeing and feeling at that present moment. Cathy is generationally tied to the local landscape as her ancestors were loggers and bullock team drovers on the Bunya Mountains cutting down the rain forest for their survival, and now she paints the wildlife and landscapes to help protect and bring awareness to them worldwide. Here you can journey with her as she hikes with her brushes through this beautiful national park discovering never ending vistas, secluded corners, trickling streams and tumbling waterfalls.  

The Tapdancer paintings have proven to be very popular with Cathy's collectors and this idea was birthed after a long morning mustering in the hot summer sun, Cathy and her family were resting in the cool shade of an old tank stand, having lunch and watching a little Blue Wren playing around an old tap, her youngest daughter said, 'look Mummy he's a Tapdancer' and as they say the rest is history!

A new chapter in her life has started as Cathy and Wayne moved to the beautiful garden city of Toowoomba, she is enjoying hiking with her camera and painting en plein-air, discovering historical quaint cottages, tree shrouded streets, hidden rainforest gullies and magnificent panoramic views. These historical buildings invite us to enter into the world of earlier Australians. We stand where others stood. We see their homes, their gardens, their workplaces, some restored to their former glory and some as they stand, being weathered by time, but all inviting us to ponder for a moment about those who have journeyed before us, the lives they lived, the times they had and the work they did.

COMMISSIONS ARE AVAILABLE SUBJECT TO SIZE, COMPLEXITY AND SCHEDULE. If you wish to order an original 'Memory Painting' of your favourite place maybe the family farm that's been in your family for generations, the family home or somewhere that's incredibly special to you, your favourite animal, bird or the unique Australian countryside, please feel free to contact Cathy and you can discuss your ideas for your original commission painting. Cathy Creates Memories in Paint!

Cathy has exhibited in International Exhibitions in New York and London and won many awards, her works hang in private and corporate collections worldwide.

She paint’s with honesty and integrity the subject of choice with a flowing composition that sits easy on the eye. She has a gift of portraying the essence of the place, “You feel like you can walk right into the painting” and she has a natural ability to see beyond the ‘picturesque’ beauty of a scene. She can also feel the spirit of the landscape and paints this feeling – an emotional response to the scene – rather than painting a literal depiction”.

Born in Dalby, Queensland, Australia and being the fifth generation to live and work on the family farm, she has always had a passion for nature. As a child Cathy rode and hiked around her farm and local National Parks, observing and drawing the birds and wildlife in their natural habitat. This passion has turned into her life as she now paints what she has seen and experienced, her paintings are the diary of her life lived through the brush. They show and embrace the awe Cathy feels when out in the landscape; it is the little things that inspire, a sunbeam lit up through the clouds, a scene that is touched with golden light, the unique flora and fauna of Australia. Cathy has had the opportunity to closely study how animals and birds relate to each other and observe the ever changing effects of the beautiful landscapes and this observation shows in her artwork.

As with most Artists, Cathy’s work is ever evolving, developing interesting textures, new colours and experimenting with new techniques. She paints as she feels on the day and is not constricted by a singular style, just enjoying the freedom to experiment and create pictures that are often sentimental, compelling, soul stirring and memories for collectors.

Cathy McClelland is the fifth generation to own the family farm since selection in the 1860s in Bell, Queensland. A beautiful spot in the hills, cloaked with sub-tropical vine scrub, Brigalow and Bottle Trees in an area surrounded with character, history and faded beauty but all of that adds to the charm of this small community in the foothills of the Bunya Mountains, to the north east of Dalby, that is being overseen day and night by the brooding mystery and grandeur of the Bunya Mountains and it is here that her love with painting began.     The Bunya's are in her blood with her ancestors being bullock team drovers and loggers on the Bunya's, Cathy now paints to protect this unique environment. This passion, when combined with a natural talent for art and a flair for color, was apt to become a potent force. Inspired by the native birds and animals that visit her farm to the panoramic views of the local region, she started creating visual stories through her paintings, creative narratives that explore her emotive responses to the landscape and her experiences within it. Cathy loves the wildlife, the chaos of the bush and the vast outback panoramas and her generational connection to the land adds layers of history and culture that are intricately woven together within her art.     Her love of color originally attracted Cathy to training as a beauty therapist; then motherhood took command of her creative energies for many a year raising four children. During those years she tinkered with painting. But now devotes herself full time to what has become a lucrative expression of her deep and abiding knowledge of the local countryside of which she is so intrinsic a part. While working on the farm at Bell or hiking in the National Parks; Cathy is always observing the natural environment, a student of nature. This time spent studying the landscape, birds and wildlife has ensured authentic paintings that are rich in color and reflect her knowledge and innate understanding of her subjects.     This passion has turned into her life as she paints what she has seen and experienced; Cathy's paintings embrace the awe she feels when out in the landscape. It is the little things that inspire her, a sunbeam lit up through the clouds, a scene that is touched with golden light, the unique flora and fauna of Australia. Cathy is always searching for that ‘special moment’ and uses photography as a reference tool to capture that split second movement of a bird or animal flitting through the bush. Cathy is fortunate in her lifetime to witness platypus playing in the cool Bunya Mountains streams and have dingoes, wallaby's, kangaroos, koalas, emus, pelicans, brolga's goanna's, shingle back and blue tongue lizards, sugar gliders and a myriad of birds visit her farm from the tiniest of superb blue wrens to the soaring majestic wedge-tailed eagles. While exploring the Australian countryside, she has loved discovering the amazing Great Barrier Reef ecosystem, the little fairy penguins coming ashore to their nesting burrows at Phillip Island, mutton birds at Muttonbird Island Nature Reserve, fur seals at Port Fairy, the endangered rufous bristle bird and the wandering albatross along the Great Ocean Road scenic drive. Cathy believes the national parks in Australia are essential for our native flora and fauna to survive and continue to thrive in a protected environment for our future generations.     Being inspired by such great artists as J. M. W. Turner & Robert Bateman, Cathy's work is quintessentially about trying to capture the poetic subtleties of the light and the beauty of the moment. Although her paintings vary in style and subject the underlying concept remains the same, she is exploring that particular moment in time through the essence of who she is, negotiating different ways to find the poetry and truth in the subject. This process enables her to connect on a deeper level where she can tease out the individual likeness of what she sees: exploring marks, color and texture to bring the subject to life. Demand for Cathy's paintings continue to grow as she strives to create artworks for the discerning collector, her Tapdancers are proving very popular among her collectors.