My visit to Nalbarra Station in 2015 has inspired many of my artworks in the past seven years and it deserves to be highlighted as a must visit destination in outback Western Australia.
 
In the wildflower season it comes alive.
  
You turn left at the letterbox 60km south of Mt Magnet. 
 
You are greeted by Emus and their chicks on the long driveway in to the Homestead and shearers quarters where you can stay and even book in a meal and wake up to the mass paddocks of pink Calandrinia that greet the morning sun.

"September went so well I decided to stay!"
October is also such a beautiful time to head up into the hills of Perth to Mundaring and I couldn't resist the opportunity to display more of my artwork with the members of The Mundaring Weir Gallery.There is  such an amazing collection of Artisans showcasing their work. I am delighted at the opportunity to exhibit in the Gallery with them again for the month of October"

Opening Hours Friday - Saturday - Sunday 11.30 to 5.30
Halls Road, Mundaring, W.A.

Debra Scidone is a West Australian Artist with over 20 years of story-telling as a visual artist.
Debra takes you into the Australian landscape and celebrates some of our unique Flora and Fauna. .
As guest artist for October Debra would like to extend an “Invitation to be Curious”.

“There is no better place to get inspiration than a trip in the Western Australian bush so I feel right at home in the Mundaring Shire.”
“Sharing my love of art and the world around us my art practice takes me on a journey of discovery that I love to share. Photography, travel and my imagination culminate in a diverse range of subjects, styles and media.”
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Debra opens her Art Studio to the public each Sunday in November and has a special theme this year 
'Nalbarra Nuances' Series. Paintings titled from A to Z of all the  things that Nalbarra Station special, the Station is just a few clicks South of Mt Magnet, Western Australia.

York is only a one hour drive from Perth and showcases some of the most beautiful historic buildings and a has a lovely country feel. The York Art Societies annual Art Exhibition is held every year in the old Town Hall and opens this Saturday 9th October.
I have entered 4 pieces across three categories , Oils, Pastels and Textiles. There special theme this year is titled "Isolation" in which I have entered my Oil piece titled 'Meditative State'
If you are after a show of wildflowers there are plenty in bloom the way up and if you stop for a stroll in the bush there are plenty of orchids too

The Kondinin Art Group are having their annual art exhibition. I have three entrees in this year and took a lovely drive up on the weekend to drop them off. There are still some very good spots along the way to see our Western Australian wildflowers, our farmers great looking crops and you can take in the exhibition as well. Opens this weekend through to Wednesday 13th October. 
The links below give you all the details for an enjoyable trip.
​australiasgoldenoutback.com
www.kondinin.wa.gov.au 

My piece titled 'Stirling View' received a highly commended in this years exhibition and was sold at the exhibition. Thank you to all those who made the exhibition possible. The pastel artwork was a result of a trip to the Porongurups with our beautiful grass trees(Xanthorrhoea Preissii) and wildflowers in the foreground the view of the Stirling Ranges in the background

Judges comments: A classic bush scene- a true joy for the viewer. The detail and technical proficiency makes this piece a visual delight.

'WET' is for watercolours, 'DRY' is for Pastels and 'OILY' is for Oils
...just in case anyone was wondering...
 Debra’s journey… for ‘Wet, Dry and Oily’ Exhibition
I had just finished an overseas Pastel commission when Lawrence approached me to be the Pastel artist and I thought what an opportunity.
I had 3 grandchildren under 2 which included a set of twins. Everybody said I’d be too busy but I was determined that I would stay on course and accepted the challenge.
It did mean I squeezed a lot of my work into the wee hours of the morning (I am typing this at precisely 3.51am) after having them visit all day yesterday but I wouldn’t change a thing.
So what made me choose my Theme?
A very small painting that I had recently finished, it was small but it had some punch and it had a couple of Grass Trees in it!
I loved my new colour palette and the mood it created and funnily enough it was already titled “Defiant”

I decided I would like to do several others as I love our unique Australian landscape, flora and fauna.
The next piece I did was the grass trees on the cusp of a hill with the eerie moody sky from burn-offs and without too much thought it was titled “Resilient” (there was definitely a theme starting to emerge)

This then took me on a journey of discovery as I began to research our beautiful grass trees. I found that there are at least 30 different species of Grass Trees in Australia. Our most common in the South Western corner of WA is “Xanthorrhoea Pressii” commonly referred to as “Balga”.
The other most amazing and enlightening discovery was that I had grown up believing that there were male and female grass trees which had different flower spikes but in fact they are known now to be totally unrelated with completely different DNA and although look characteristically the same they now have their own classification and are termed as Grass Trees and Grass Plants!

Having found this out I have taken it on as my mission to educate others of this fact through my exhibition. So the next two pieces are painted as a diptych each with their own title. “Xanthorrhoea” and “Kingia Australis”
Then it occurred to me that they are so much like my new set of twin granddaughters, they may have been born on the same day and both girls but they have their own unique DNA.
 
 

These five plus one more titled “Smoke among the Grass Trees”, which is also very current as we have lived with the smoke haze in recent weeks, make up my themed two metre square panel on our feature wall.
 

You might find that a few more Grass Trees have found their way into a couple of other pieces hanging in the gallery too, but the others show my journey with Pastels through the years. Each has a story to tell and I’m happy to share them with you when you come to visit.
You’ll have to visit to see how my Challenge pieces for Lawrence’s “Bird” theme and Gordon’s “Chidley Point” theme stack up…