ArtsCape Wynyard's 'Undercurrent' award - Tasmania - 2022

This year, I was awarded the ' Undercurrent' prize at Artscape Wynyard Exhibition with my painting: Damaged; Tin Mine
The judge was Raymond Arnold

The Little Blue Lake in Tasmania is a spectacle of turquoise water juxtaposed with banks of complimentary colours. However, unlike the pure water of similarly coloured glacial lakes, this is a toxic mining pit. Birds and animals will die in it. Water cannot be totally contained in open pits like these and it will spill during heavy rainfall. Disturbingly, official reports say that the toxins from historical and new mines will continue to contaminate the environment in numerous ways for hundreds of years. Mining still produces open pits such as the Savage River Mine in the Tarkine of West Tasmania. In addition, the vegetation loss can never be replaced as it was before. There is not only loss of biodiversity but the old growth trees remove carbon from the atmosphere and capture it in the living tree as well as in the soil. Thus, the loss of trees exacerbates the climate change problem.

Dr Pam Schultz is a conservation ecologist who advocates environmental conservation through her paintings and artwork.

LINKS: Kuranda Arts Coop - Bluethumb - Artscape

Straight off the Easel!

Title: Deep Black Size: 89.5x120 cm Medium: Acrylic on canvas Price: $2,750 Available from August at Umami Cafe, Wynyard, Tasmania

Title: Glacial Melt SOLD Size: 61x90cm Medium: Acrylic on canvas

Title; Glacier Landscape Med: Acrylic/canvas Size 25x50cm Price $250 A view of Table Cape from Fossil Rock cliffs in Wynyard, Tasmania

"Low Tide: Inglis Estuary" $95 9x5" Acrylic on board.

'Moon on the Inlet' $95 9x5" Acrylic on Board. Wynyard's Inglis River Estuary

"High Tide, Wynyard Beach" SOLD 9x5" Acrylic on Board

"Low Tide: Gutteridge Gardens" $95 9x5" Acrylic on Board.

"Circle Song" $450 Acrylic on canvas 51x76 cm

A stormy waterscape with rocks and grasses

"Passage" $285 Acrylic on Canvas Ready to hang 30x44 cm Available: Wynyard.

Wynyard seascape with sunset clouds and rain in the distance

"Dusk Storm" SOLD Acrylic on Canvas Ready to hang Available Wynyard

A beach scene with a sole person wearing a yellow jacket

"Yellow Jacket" SOLD Watercolour 15x30 cm mounted

Close up of the rainforest floor in Speewah FNQ

"Debris" $295 Watercolour framed 55x40 cm Available: Bluethumb & KACL

"Jet Stream" $145 Watercolour 20x24 cm Available: Wynyard

Title: Habitat VII; Cardwell Lillies Med: Acrylic on canvas Size: 40x30 cm Price: $395 (framed) $295 (unframed) Available: Wynyard Tasmania

Habitat VII: Cardwell Lillies in situ

LEFT: Each year, around Christmas time, the Cardwell lilies bloom after the first wet season rains. First, the lilies emerge, then the shimmering bright green leaves. The leaves persist for months after the flowers die, then nothing until the next year. We see in this painting, native Wet Tropics World Heritage Area flora softly framing the man-made waterfall that flows into the fauna friendly pond. The pond attracts musky rat-kangaroos, red-necked crakes, buff-breasted paradise kingfishers (amongst numerous other species of birds), snakes and goannas.

Title: Habitat V: Back to Nature Medium: lead pencil Size: 41x54 cm Price: O/A

Habitat V in situ. This drawing is unframed.

LEFT: Five years ago, I was attracted to this scene of the old car in the bushes. At the time, I thought it would make a good painting but the thought became more urgent when it was quickly being covered by foliage and even more urgent when the property sold. It is a common scene on rural properties.

Pam Schultz Paintings for SALE

All paintings for sale include freight within Australia. Some paintings are framed behind glass but can be sent unframed in a tube.

Dr Ray Pierce works in the Wet Tropics, Australia as well as in the Pacific. This painting portrays his relaxed demeanour. As an ornithologist, Ray has travelled the world and is an expert in conservation biology. The bird, Cardinal Myzomela and Ray are vitally important (Two Cardinals) to Lake Tegano on Rennell Island because it is a World Heritage Area. The puffed-up feathers of the bird indicate alarm for the state of the environment. Ray is the researcher who monitors the health of both the bird and its habitat.

This is my backyard. The bird that you will have to ‘look’ for is a spectacled monarch. On some mornings, birds are seen bathing on the dew-sodden fern fronds. I wanted to capture this moment amongst the flowering Tibouchina shrub and Alstonia tree. Usually, smaller birds of the Wet Tropics gather for safety when they eat, drink and bath. Thus, when you ‘see’ movement in the garden, take a closer look and ‘you will see’ not one but often several birds and this gives the viewer a lovely experience.

The Hmong People of Northern Laos were brought to Australia as refugees at least 30 years ago. Located in Innisfail, North Queensland, I was their ethnologist in 2005 to record their cultural codes of marriage, death and funeral rites. After gaining permission, I was able to paint this scene of a drummer, the primary player, and two Qeej players. Their performance is to assist the deceased to return to their homeland so that he/she does not cause harm to the family. The Qeej player dances with swaying motion to evoke the spirits. The mortuary practices can last up to twelve days where animals are sacrificed, shamans douse with bamboo sticks to receive instruction from the spirits and the community gathers to share food.

Nestled in remote NT, the Chinese-owned Wollogorang Station has hidden treasures. We were part of a Carpentarian grass-wren team who were searching for the illusive little birds to make sure there were sufficient numbers for their survival. Tramping over difficult and rocky terrain for kilometres, we surveyed wilderness areas where they were previously recorded. Some sites successful, some were not but oh, the fabulous discoveries of hidden gorges and clear-water-lily ponds were glorious visions of Australiana. Then, the absolute thrill of the tingling song of the grass-wren was heard and yes . . . the often-solitary bird was seen and photographed – triumph! Highly commended in 2020 for the Cairns Art Society annual exhibition held at the Cairns Regional Gallery.

India has always fascinated me and my travels took me there four times. The Ajanta Caves, in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state, India, is one of the most fascinating places because of its antiquity and style of the paintings on the walls. I superimposed the new home frontages over the ancient wall paintings to emphasize the quotidian between these two worlds. The hand-carved caves date back to the 2nd Century BCE.

This 60th birthday portrait of Annie Wonga was painted in 2000, before she received the Cassowary Award in 2006. It is set on her property beside Babinda Creek, close to the small township of Babinda, North Queensland, which is about 65 kms south of Cairns. Annie’s traditional name is Murrai, which means unconditional love of dogs. She is a descendant of the Madjanydji People who were custodians of the Lower Russell River and Woolanmarroo South to North Bramston Beach.

This award winning painting is a self portrait (of me Pam Schultz). It has been in my collection for many years and is a part of my portrait series. Eventually, I changed direction to create a series of conservation ecologist of which this is one.

Olive Tau-Davis is from Papua New Guinea and lives in Cairns. She started a dance troupe to teach her children and others more about their PNG culture. I was inspired to paint Olive because of her energy and drive to maintain her colourful and unique PNG culture. Awarded FIRST PRIZE for portraiture in Cairns.

Whilst in the Northern Territory on an extended painting trip, the savannah landscape with its grasses, pandanas trees and insects were ablaze with bright colour in the “morning glow” of the first light. The buzzing insects and the steamy conditions played amongst the foliage creating movement and colour change.

Nourlangie Rock is an iconic feature of Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory, Australia. When I chanced upon the wallaby while walking on the track to Nourlangie Rock, I stopped in my tracks. I slowly took out my camera, so as not to alarm the animal, and quickly took a photo just in case it jumped away. Amusingly, the wallaby was probably used to all the tourists passing on the track because it just sat and watched me for several minutes, as I did it. It was a lovely experience being in outback Australia.

FIRST PRIZE PAINTING in Artist's of the North, Cairns 2019. Gerry Turpin is a Mbabaram man from north Qld and a renowned Ethnobotanist. Gerry has been employed by the Queensland State Government for about 30 years and has previously been involved in the Queensland Herbarium’s Vegetation Surveys and Regional Ecosystem Mapping Project in Queensland. I wanted to attract attention and promote the value of people working in the environmental field and is part of a series of 'conservation ecologists.'

The Noisy Pitta of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area of North Queensland, Australia, has a loud call sounding like; walk to work, walk to work. The birds forage the rainforest floor looking for juicy food such as snails that they break open with an anvil or rock.

FINALIST in the prestigious Holmes Art Prize for Excellence in Realistic Australian Bird Art, held in Melany in 2019. While on a grasswren survey in the Northern Territory, I ventured into the creek to cool myself down after an arduous 8km trek over rocky ground. I noticed something splashing in the water in the distance, so I took several photos of the bird and was able to capture the bird in action, a very rare thing indeed!

A remote Aboriginal community at the Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland, Australia is Kowanyama. This is where you will find the endangered White-bellied Crimson Finch. The bird is confined to a small area there, along with other finches such as the Star Finch (endangered), the Black-throated Finch, the Chestnut-breasted Mannikin and the Red-browed Finch. Crimson finches are more common with a black belly but the finches in my painting have morphed with a white belly. They are like their southern cousins, the Black-throated Finch, whose endangered relatives have a white instead of black rump. The presence of Finches in the landscape indicates that the country is relatively healthy. Finches Queensland is an organisation set up to survey and monitor finches and their habitat.

Dr Ro Hill - FINALIST- Percival Portrait Prize and the Stanthorpe Art Prize 2021

In this portrait of Ro, the hard-edged and wired office is juxtaposed with the soft organic environment. The melding of the two environments illustrate that one needs the other in Ro’s world. Ro is passionate about academic writing because, as she states, ‘I was blessed with a good brain and I want to use it for the betterment of people and the environment.’ The crochet bee earrings represent the demise of bees and other insects that are essential for the reproduction of flora as well as food for many birds and lizards.
Beginning in the 1970s, Ro was influenced by “the flowering of scientists like the Ehrlichs’ and the Meadows’ who wrote books like The Population Bomb and The Limits to Growth respectively.” These books influenced her to join other activists to form part of the blockade to stop the logging of the Daintree Rainforest in North Queensland. This action was perhaps a two-edged sword as it did secure protection for the Daintree, but it also made it world famous and a destination for eco-tourism.
A mother of two girls, Ro continues to work beyond her retirement age as a researcher as well as a volunteer who has already spent thousands of hours throughout her life for numerous conservation actions.
This portrait is a part of my series highlighting conservation ecologists who volunteer in Queensland, nationally and internationally.

Kuranda Arts Coop is open seven days a week.

Limited Edition Prints

$25 (reduced from $50) 'Brolgas and Ibis on the Common' Limited Edition Print 31.5x43.5 mm unframed including postage

Limited Edition Prints

$125 'Jabiru and Dragonfly' Limited Edition Print 31.5x43.5 cm unframed including postage/OUT OF STOCK

Pam Schultz/Landscape & Portrait Artist

My artworks hope to promote the merits for preserving what we have left of the natural environment as well as tolerance and equality between people with different cultural backgrounds. Through my portrait paintings, I aim to highlight those people working in the environmental conservation field by bringing the viewer’s attention to what they have worked on and the contribution they have made during their lives. #pamschultzgallery; #ozwilderness

Finalists for the Cairns Art Society Annual Art Awards 21 Jan - 4th Feb 2020

FINALIST at the annual Cairns Art Show - HIGHLY COMMENDED

FINALIST at the Holmes Art Prize For Realistic Bird Paintings and the Cairns Art Show

$1750 Grasswren Country Laid Down Acrylic on stretched canvas. Ready to hang. Contact Pam

$2990 Brown Goshawk at Wollogorang. Acrylic on stretched Canvas. Ready to hang. Contact Pam

FIRST PRIZE PAINTING at the Artists of the North 2019 & FINALIST at the Stanthorpe Art Prize 2018

Title: "The Ethnobotanist: Gerry Turpin at his Yidinji homeland Barney Springs" FIRST PRIZE PAINTING at the Artists of the North exhibition 2019. FINALIST at the 2018 Stanthorpe Portrait Prize. The painting was also featured at the 50th Anniversary celebration exhibition of Heinz Steinmann, The book "The Art World of Heinz Steinmann" features his friends and colleagues and is available for sale from his website.

From The Beginning to the End

Sketches

Very rough sketches are made to determine composition

Halfway

Ideas change as the painting progresses

Nearly Finished

The end result may be different from the original concept

Finished
Even when thought to be finished, there are still final touches to be added

Contact Pam
Email: pamschultzgallery@gmail.com
Post: PO Box 73 Kuranda 4881 North Queensland, AUSTRALIA
All artworks by Pam Schultz© are covered by copyright law and cannot be reproduced without the artist's permission