It’s not often we draw attention to individual members of our community, but
we couldn’t let the occasion pass without celebrating with the Bradbury family
following Heather’s success at being accepted as a finalist in this year’s Glover
Prize held on the March long weekend.

In mid 2012 at Poatina’s Artist’s Retreat Heather picked up a paintbrush for the
first time in 17 years and began to rediscover her love for this particular art form
which had lain dormant while she pursued training in graphics and spent all of
her working life until recently in the area of photography and graphic design.

Forgiven, the fourth painting in a series which has focused on the life giving water which sustains our lives, showed water trickling over her feet on a rock in the stream which feeds Poatina’s water reservoir. Having lived in Poatina for 15 years and been an integral part of the community and its leadership, the Bradbury family moved into Launceston just three months ago, and it was in the middle of the upheaval of moving that Heather was encouraged to submit the painting for entry into The Glover.

With over 300 entries to be considered depicting Tasmanian landscapes, some from well established artists, the whole community was over the moon when we heard her painting had been accepted as one of the 43 finalists. The Glover, named after local artist John Glover, is Australia’s richest annual award for landscape painting, so with only four recent paintings to her credit, Heather was in a state of shock to be included amongst the country’s best.

We are naturally extremely proud of her accomplishment and many took
great delight in attending the exhibition. In the stiflingly hot pavilion, one of our
residents chatted to patrons as they stood in front of her painting, asking one
woman if she’d love to be there right now in that cool setting, and she responded,
“Oh, I can just feel the water trickling over my feet.”

It is testament to Poatina’s growing Arts Colony that individuals are rediscovering their God given creativity within, enriching both themselves and those around them in the process of sharing the release of new insights and discoveries.

Author: Di Adams

You can read more about the Glover Prize here   and to read more about Heather’s paintings you can click here.

There is a rumor also that Heather will be having an exhibition at ‘The Poatina Tree’ Gallery in July.

Stay tuned for more details.