Cloncurry artist Ruth Chaplain has held her first art exhibition in western Queensland, showcasing the beauty of station life.
The Our Colourful Station Life exhibition opened on March 26 at Grasslands Art Gallery in Tambo, featuring acrylic artwork of life on Ms Chaplain's cattle station Wynberg, 30 kilometres south of Cloncurry.
Ms Chaplain said everyday life at Wynberg Station was the inspiration for her artwork.
"I just took normal subject matter from our everyday life and painted it in my style," she said.
"There are so many moments that I love to capture, like aerial views of cattle mustering, the sunsets, men on horseback or my daughter holding a chicken; so instead of taking photos I paint.
"It makes me take a step back and look at those normal moments and paint them as vibrantly as I can."
Ms Chaplain said hosting the exhibition in Tambo, away from known family and friends, gave her the opportunity to receive authentic feedback from customers about her artwork.
"Tambo was an exhibition where I had a heap of prints for sale and it was a really good test of how my artwork was received with customers who don't know me; people just coming in taking the art by its merits," she said.
"Tambo is big on the arts and culture scene and its gallery gets a lot of people through it during the tourist season. I am not known personally to the area so I could receive authentic feedback and response to my work.
"Also Tambo is still in the Outback, so the artwork isn't completely foreign to their area and was a good fit. About 50 people came to the opening of the exhibition and I have sold 17 out of 27 pieces. It has really validated that people do like my artwork and they aren't just a friend of a friend.
"Artwork will be on display in Tambo until June 4."
Ms Chaplain's artwork is renowned for its vibrant colours and contrast of landscape and single subject pieces.
"It's the colour that I think catches people. The feedback that I've received is that they like the vibrant colours," she said.
"When I first started painting, I naturally went to colour. I am a person who wears a lot of colour and really enjoy it.
"Today a lot of trends of acrylic artists have moved towards the neutral colour palates of sage green and earthy tones, and I get that, but I don't want to do that and it's not natural to me. Also the landscape I capture at home isn't like that, we have the vibrant green of the wet season and the bright orange dirt, nothing is subtle."
Ms Chaplain said she always had a passion for painting but became more permanent in 2019.
"I've always been creatively inclined. At the end of 2019 my youngest child was one and I felt like I needed to start doing something for myself and I wanted to just pick painting up again as a hobby.
"I was chatting to my husband Rob and I started to post a bit on social media and it got some traction and people loved it.
"I did some training in abstract colour and it just hit home so I narrowed in on that type of art. From then interest has grown with many commission pieces being ordered, paint and sip events and my most recent exhibition."
Ms Chaplain said through hosting paint and sip events, she had created a business community.
"This event includes a group of people coming together to paint on location while enjoying each others company and some wine," she said.
"Paint and sip events have been critical in establishing my community, and I decided to host them because they take people away from their busy, hectic lifestyles and get to switch off, refresh and be creative .
"I have been doing a lot of these on location, as we can absorb the beauty of the landscape around us."
Ms Chaplain said next she would like to host an exhibition in Cloncurry.