Open Studios arts trial marks 10 years in Margaret River

From disused dairies to funky sheds, this group of WA painters, drawers and sculptors are taking cues from their rural environments to produce works that reflect all the nature on their doorsteps.

And we've all been invited to step through their doors, as part of Australia's largest open studio trail.

The Margaret River Region Open Studios marks its 10th anniversary this year, with a bumper 166 artists participating - a third of them for the first time.

Some 44 new studios have been added to the list and for the first time, it will have two art ambassadors: renowned Queensland painter and sculptor Michael Zavros and Perth-based designer and art champion Andrew Thornton Hick.

Deputy chairwoman Jacquie Happ said this year would be a celebration in more ways than one.

"For an event of this kind, managed by a volunteer committee, 10 years is a milestone achievement,'' Ms Happ said.

"Thirteen artists have been participating in the event each year since it started and there are many who return each year.

"There has been substantial growth in the quality of artworks as it is a unique opportunity to reach a broad audience."

This year, artists will be opening their studios from Busselton to Augusta, to showcase an exciting array of art forms, including drawing, glass, jewellery making, mixed media, mosaics, painting, photography, pottery, ceramics, printmaking, sculpture, textiles, upcycling and woodwork.

"And we have launched a new website this year which will allow visitors to take a deeper dive into our creative talent pool and make it easier for them to plan their artistic adventure," Ms Happ said.

This year's trail runs from September 9-24 and will provide a significant boost to local tourism and support for the South West arts community - with plenty of visitors coming with credit cards at the ready and intending to buy.

Last year, visitor numbers increased by 50 per cent, with 130,000 studio visits and an economic benefit estimated at more than $10 million.

Karen Seaman

Self-taught artist Karen Seaman, who started her art career while at art school in the 1980s, is among the artists busy putting the finishing touches to her exhibition, to be held in the her studio at the end of the paddock on her family's farm.

Ms Seaman and her family have lived on the 57 hectare bush block since 1991 - it is in the middle of Busselton's dairy area and backs onto the State forest.

So there's plenty of inspiration on hand and her art is informed by all the natural things around her - from leaves and flowers, to birds and fungi.

The property has an aquaponics sheds and orchards, but is mostly used as land for wildlife, with a focus on rehabilitating the understorey and replanting areas that have been cleared in the past.

"I walk through this land every day with my dogs and a lot of what I do, my art, is informed by the natural environment,'' Ms Seaman said.

"I use small things from the bush in sculptures and I paint a lot of scenes from around the areas that I am in.

"A lot of it is skyscapes, which is talking about climate change and how the weather is changing."

Ms Seaman started her arts practice with ceramics and glass, then moved into sculpture, but now mostly paints in oils and water colours and draws.

She has a large series of works on the forest floor, reflecting the high biodiversity value of her property, with a focus on fallen leaves, fungi and orchids.

"Often my paintings are small, I do small sculptures and I have been doing a large series of works in bell jars,'' she said.

"They are called Remnants.

"It's about the small things that we often over-look.

"My work really is informed by the environment and where I live, it is consistently inspiring me.''

Ms Seaman said one of the amazing things about Open Studios was that visitors got to see "a massive variety of people's places'' - and having herself worked in sheds for years she now has a purpose-built, light-filled studio.

"I think I am in one of the most isolated studios and when people come out to my place, they go 'wow, it is so quiet','' she said.

"You really can't hear anything, except for nature.''

For Open Studios this year, she will create a sculpture walk on the property, with other artists invited to contribute their work.

"There will be a series of paintings, small sculptures and silly dogs.''

Alice Lindford Forte

Ms Lindford Forte is a large-scale abstract landscape painter, who works out of a character-filled, converted shed on her family's 128ha farm at Forest Grove.

The family has owned the property for 28 years and offers short-term holiday accommodation on the "quirky hobby farm", filled with donkeys, alpacas, chickens, horses, pigs and peacocks.

"I have the perfect space, I don't really need to paint anywhere else,'' Ms Lindford Forte said.

"I paint large scale, so I have the space to stretch 10 large canvases and work on them at the same

time.''

Her studio is in the midst of it all and was built for her by her dad out of salvaged materials.

"It is an old cow barn, my dad converted it into a gallery and studio space for me,'' she said.

"It is built out of salvaged materials, such as corrugated tin.

"I had my first exhibition in that studio in 2010.

"It's a great space and I'm lucky to be able to hang onto it.''

A self-taught artist, who turned to painting more seriously in her early 20s, Ms Lindford Forte said her style was unconventional.

She uses oils watered-down with turpentine to build up layers, which gives a lot of depth and colour to her artwork.

She said she had been in a very abstract mode lately, but was now working on a big landscape.

"Nearing Open Studios I need more landscapes, because people like them,'' she said.

"It is my best, biggest event of the year in terms of sales.

"It is great and sets me up for a while.''

Nigel Lullfitz

SCULPTURE is one of Nigel Lullfitz's three jobs - his other jobs are in metalwork and community support - and this year he became a mini partner in a new community art gallery space in an old dairy shed.

The Fugazy Gallery is in former dairy farmer's Paul and Trish Miller's shed, in which they used to host milking demonstrations.

They now run Millers Ice Cream from the Cowaramup property.

"It is a fantastic little spot,'' Mr Lullfitz said.

"It has worked out really well."

Mr Lullfitz started sculpting as a sideline business about 25 years ago, inspired by his creative new wife, and has developed it over the years.

It has turned him into "a professional scaveneger'' who is well-known locally for collecting all sorts of junk.

"People know that I do that,'' he said.

"I am definitely focused on farm stuff, I love old farm stuff.

"I was born in the country and mum and dad were in the farming industry.

"I like funding stuff, often it is a rusted hunk of something, and you try to find out where it is from and give it another life."

Mr Lullfitz's work often has a science-robot theme, but he also likes to make birds, fish and whales.

"A lot of it comes down to what you find and how it fits into something and what it could be,'' he said.

"I am always looking to do something a bit different.

"That is part of the appeal to me... of trying something new."

Mirella Prolongeau

Ms Prolongeau lives on a one hectare property at Margaret River, with plenty of chickens and birds.

"We are very country and there is lots of land out the back,'' Ms Prolongeau said.

She turned full-time artist this year and has, after a labour of love, now made a lot of her work available as prints.

Her aerial coastal scenes are inspired by her favourite thing to do - going down to the coast, exploring the landscape and picking up shells.

"There are endless places I can go and I find never an end to the things to explore,'' she said.

"I just love it so much, I don't think I'll ever get bored of the aerial landscapes and no-one really does them like this.

"I feel like the perspective of it, as an aerial view, you find all the patterns and colours of the rocks."

Ms Prolongeau finds sites to explore on Google maps, and has a friend who can take aerial photos for her.

She will exhibit for Open Studios at the Fugazy Gallery at Millers Ice Cream, and after the event plans to buy her own drone, so she can explore further, in more inaccessible places along the Cape to Cape track.

"I have people asking me for specific areas to paint and there are definitely areas that I am keen to do,'' she said.

Lisa Donegan

FOR the past six years Ms Donegan has lived on a rented farmhouse on a 242ha property at Burnside.

She works out of a nearby old dairy shed, which is still pretty original, down to the holes in the walls, through which they used to pump the milk.

"It is such a nice space,'' Ms Donegan said.

"It is surrounded by paddocks and grass and you can see the forest and hear the ocean."

Ms Donegan has a farming background - she spent as much of her childhood as she could on her grandfather's sheep and cattle farm at York.

And now her work reflects that.

"I draw lots of cows, I am always taking photos of the cows,'' she said.

Very unusually, Ms Donegan works in coloured pencils on black paper.

"I always loved drawing, since I was little, and when the kids where little and were colouring in, they would get me to do drawings for them to colour in,'' she said.

"I was drawn to it, because no-one else was doing it."

Ms Donegan also creates trinkets with air-drived clay and makes jewelry with hemp and gemstones.

"I try to keep it to what people might see locally if they were here,'' she said of her drawings.