WENDY Martin and Ian Lewis have been painting landscapes of the Far West for decades, and showcase their art in their converted miner’s cottage turned gallery, Bush and Beyond.
The pair have been together almost thirty years, meeting in the 90s at the Willyama Arts Society where they met with other artists to paint.
Mr Lewis began painting while living in New Zealand.
“There were some artists there whose work I saw that I was impressed with, so I took it up,” he said.
He said he hadn’t made art since high school but he enjoyed it and so picked it up again, originally painting mostly trains and aircraft.
He moved out to Broken Hill in 1994, following his two brothers.
“My brother Paul had the Browzers bookshop, and my other brother used to organise swap meets in town,” he said.
He’d been used to painting the greens of New Zealand, and was thrilled to have the opportunity to change up his palette.
“Coming here was a whole new experience with the reds, I just loved the reds!” he said.
Ms Martin has lived in Broken Hill for more than seventy years, and has been painting for close to fifty.
She studied art at the local TAFE under a wonderful teacher who inspired her.
“I’d always wanted to paint when I was a child,” she said.
“I was artistic, I wasn’t very sporty. I was always drawing and making things.”
She said growing up in the Outback had strongly influenced her work, which is predominantly “realist” landscapes of local rivers and the bushland.
“My parents loved the bush so most of our holidays were spent camping in the bush,” she said.
“So I grew up with nature all around me. I just loved the Outback and bush and river, that was where my initial inspiration originally came from.”
Ms Martin said almost all of her subjects are from the Far West, and that the light and big skies are unique to this part of the world.
“The light out here, there’s no pollution, and people comment on the light and the skies,” she said.
“I like painting dramatic skies, and people from the city often look and say, do you really get skies that colour? You can’t help but be inspired by it.”
The gallery came about by chance, when they were offered the sale of a house almost thirty years ago that included an old cottage on the property for free.
“The house next door came as a bonus,” Ms Martin said.
“It was a bit run down but on the same title, and we could see the potential of it.”
She said the former owners had suggested they knock down the old cottage and build a shed, but the two decided instead to convert it into a painting studio.
In the beginning the old cottage was mostly reserved for space to paint with a small gallery in the front, however over the years the gallery has become bigger to accommodate for the pair’s original art, prints, and Ms Martin’s handmade jewellery.
A few years ago, after she underwent surgery on her shoulder and was unable to lift her arm to paint, Ms Martin discovered jewellery making.
“Rather than sit idle I started making jewellery which has continued on,” she said. “Lots of it is made from polymer clay.”
She stocks a range of her handmade jewellery in the gallery and shop, and said she hopes to offer something for everyone, regardless of their age.
Mr Lewis said the art scene in town has changed hugely in the thirty years the gallery has been there.
“There were lots of brick and mortar galleries back then,” he said.
“Something like thirty of them. But nowadays all the up-and-coming artists use online platforms to market and sell their work.”
He said most of their clients back then had been grey nomads who wanted an original painting from the Outback to take home, but tastes have changed and mass-produced art has taken some sales away from local artists.
When possible, the pair enjoy travelling “out bush” to paint en plain air.
“Occasionally we sit out on location which we really enjoy,” Ms Martin said.
“You don’t have to travel far to find your subject out here!”
