Charlotte Varcoe
A UNIQUE experience has been unveiled at Port MacDonnell this week with the Nature’s Bounty from Sea to Sky exhibition hosted by Port MacDonnell Community Complex.
Avid beachgoers and close friends Wendy Carne and Sue Van Der Veen will showcase their craft skills from May to July with Ms Carne’s unique dried kelp seaweed creations displayed alongside Ms Van Der Veen’s mosaics.
The artists will host a meet and greet on Sunday from 11.30am to 1.30pm.
Ms Carne said inspiration for dried kelp art hit after she was shown a fish shape crafted from kelp.
“As an artist and crafts person all my life, I love trying new ideas and when I was shown a fish shape from kelp I was fascinated and had to try it,” Ms Carne said.
“As I live on the beach at Bungalow Bay there is often kelp washed up in front of my house and I began gathering it and experimenting, cleaning, shaping, cutting and drying before preserving and painting it.”
The avid artist said no two pieces are the same with the results even shocking herself with endless ideas possible with the right amount of imagination.
Ms Van Der Veen said she also considered herself an experimental artist within the mosaic craft, using a number of surfaces and products.
Following her retirement and relocation to Mount Gambier, Ms Van Der Veen said doors opened to pursue her new creative exploration.
“Not long after my arrival here my discovery of the world of mosaics soon became a passion,” Ms Van Der Veen said.
“I have found great enjoyment in the challenge of designing for application to various surfaces and for different uses.”
The exhibition closes July 11.
