Gum leaves: Sonya Else is inspired by the natural environment.
Rochester textile artist Sonya Else is revisiting the Kyabram Town Hall Gallery with a wonderful display of innovative textile art after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of her exhibition in 2020.
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The exhibition, Art of Nature, explores the natural world through textile art.
Ms Else loves natural landscapes and finds inspiration when walking outside near where she lives.
She has a particular interest in gum leaves, a theme in many of her works, with the geometry of the leaf determining the shape and pattern that her piece takes, as demonstrated in her mandala.
“I’m very inspired by our environment and nature,” Ms Else said.
“I like to make it look real in my artwork.”
She goes beyond traditional realism through use of texture and sculpture; much of her work appears to jump off the canvas.
Colour is another powerful tool in Ms Else’s creative arsenal, which she uses to depict feeling and emotion.
She mixes paints to create the colours that she envisions during her walks through the environment.
Ms Else also uses pencils and water colours for shading to create depth in her art.
In one piece she utilised this technique to get the curls just right on the Holly Hobbie images that she used to depict her three daughters, Bianca, Kahla and Steph.
Holly Hobbie: Images Sonya Else used to depict her three daughters Bianca, Kahla and Steph.
This three-piece series is inspired by three smaller pieces that Ms Else created as a 10-year-old girl, which were three Holly Hobbie girls — a brunette, a blonde and a redhead.
Holly Hobbie was a trend in the 1970s, and Ms Else says memories are another powerful influence on her creativity.
She painted many pieces with Hobbytex in her youth, but found the most enjoyment in painting Holly Hobbie girls after a childhood of collecting Holly Hobbie swap cards.
“What I’ve experienced in the past, I’ll try and incorporate that in my art,” she said.
Ms Else has always been interested in art and has been creating artwork since she was a little girl.
She started quilting about 18 years ago.
“A lot of free motion, just using my machine in different ways ... a lot like drawing,” she said.
You can see the exhibition from Monday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm.
Ms Else wasn’t looking to display her work after her first exhibition was cancelled, but the women at the Kyabram Town Hall, including Anne Churches, approached her and with a little bit of convincing managed to get her to come back.
