EARTH : SKY : SEA : ME
Featured Artists
2025 Graceville Art Festival Featured Artist – Allison Clarey
Allison (Ally) is an Indigenous artist whose mob is from Yugambeh.
Ally loves art because it provides her with an opportunity for self-expression and a way to share her stories as a First Nations woman living with a disability. She feels her artwork is a means of connecting to her culture, helping her build resilience and self-esteem. For Ally, art is her time to relax, and de-stress. Painting allows her to explore her culture and understand who she is.
Ally is a founding member of the NuunaRon Art Group, an Indigenous art group for people with disabilities. She is also a carer for her two children, who live with disabilities and chronic health issues.
Over the years, Ally has exhibited her work in numerous exhibitions both nationally and internationally. Some highlights include the “Culture Is Inclusion” exhibition held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, where one of her artworks, Raising Son, was purchased by the Australian Embassy in Switzerland. This piece now hangs outside the Ambassador's office. Ally has also showcased her work at Parliament House in Brisbane and Queensland Government offices as part of the International Day of People with Disabilities.
More recently, her artwork was included in the exhibition Reflection of the UNCRPD, held in New York as part of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People Living with Disabilities. This exhibition was also displayed at the South Korean Parliament House as a side event connected to the Asia-Pacific Disability Symposium.
Ally’s artwork is part of private, corporate, and government collections worldwide. She has participated in multiple community projects across the Sunshine Coast, where she shares her culture and promotes the resilience of First Nations people living with disabilities.
2024 Graceville Art Festival Featured Artist – Robert Maas
Bob successfully exhibited and sold multiple pieces at the 2023 & 2024 Art Festivals.
Bob works primarily in oils and pastels and loves the outback and the great outdoors. Bob has always been keen on artwork and showed talent from a young age. His grandfather was an artist, and an Uncle who lives in Spain is a professional artist. Bob’s talent in art is a great strength and outlet for his creativity. He is a prolific artist and has a strong drive to continue drawing and painting. Bob uses pastels with excellent results and has won awards with them. He has a great understanding of mixing colours and is particularly skilled at painting trees in his colourful landscapes. Bob loves outback scenes as he lived in Cobar NSW as a child. He enjoys painting on a large scale on unframed canvases.
Bob paints from life and photographs and exhibits every year in the MIFQ Art Exhibition in Brisbane. In 2015, Bob was chosen as Supporting Artist for the MIFQ Exhibition which was a great success. In 2016, Bob was again invited to exhibit along side 24 selected Artists to represent 25 years since the MIFQ Exhibition started. He also exhibits in the Atrium Gallery at Buderim Craft Cottage and over the last two years has sold paintings and cards at the Gallery and has his own exhibition there. He also has sold his work at art exhibitions in the local area and at Nambour Show. Graduated from Queensland College of Art with a certificate in Applied Art and Honours in Drawing, Painting and Illustration, in 1986 -Steps Disability Award 2004- Awesome Aussies- Artist of the Year Award - Third Prize Pastel- Nambour Show 2010 -Highly Commended Pastel - Nambour Art Show -Commended Pastel- Glasshouse Country Festival 2011 - Highly Commended Oil - Nambour Art show 2015: third place for pastel 2016.
View Bob talking about his art and process here.
