After having admired each other’s work on Instagram, Vyvian and Samantha finally met at a CSA Artists Forum. Since then, they have developed a close and supportive friendship with the making of art at its centre.

Despite very different approaches to their work, both artists share a strong commitment to devoting time and energy for their creative practice, a challenge for Samantha as she balances her art practice with full-time teaching and motherhood.

Such is their friendship that Samantha is sharing her Woonona studio with Vyvian. The natural progression from this generous act was to work together on an exhibition at Clifton School of Arts.

A finalist in several national art prizes, Vyvian’s abstract paintings and drawings articulate her emotional responses to the Australian landscape. “My works speak to the looming escarpment, the ever-changing creeks and ocean. They represent both a celebration and lamentation of the beauty and fragility of the natural world as it competes with extreme climate.”  

Samantha will present eloquent works that articulate her devotion to process, materials and objects. Samantha’s practice revolves around her archive of collated and curated objects, she believes “making is a way of seeing”. Samantha’s work was recently selected as a finalist in the national group show Inside this Box at the Cornerstore Gallery in Orange.

Attend opening night of new work at Clifton School of Arts, 6pm on Friday, 8 March