Signed with a crown

Written by

Signed with a crown

Another of our future Waterbrook Bowral Residents is the enormously talented Maria Kroon, who lives here in the Southern Highlands. Born and educated in the Netherlands, Miel, as she is better known, started her career as a pre-school teacher. But art was never far from her mind, and her creativity with the little children encouraged her to pursue her studies in art.

During 30 years in Australia and 10 years back in the Netherlands, Miel painted and studied with many professional artists, including Alvaro Castsgnet, Helen Cottle, Lucy & Barry McCann, Charles Sluga and many more. As such, she has developed a great variety of themes and styles as well as the ability to create using many mediums. Miel has exhibited many times in the Wollondilly Shire, Macarthur region and, of course, the Southern Highlands. Many people who visit her showings can’t believe the same artist is responsible for all the works, so diverse are the styles. Miel always signs her surname on her artwork as a crown, which is what “Kroon” means in Dutch.

Once a year, Miel and a friend go to her home in Sydney to paint – “We put tarps throughout the entire living space of the apartment, we get up in the morning, paint, have lunch, paint, have dinner, paint and then go to bed. We do this everyday for the week, and we absolutely love it” says Miel.

As in previous years, Miel will participating in the very popular Southern Highlands Art Trail, which will be held over the weekends of 7th-8th and 14th-15th November 2020.

Through the photographers lens

Written by

Through the photographer’s lens

“I have been a photographer for most of my life. In that time, I have always worked from an intuitive perspective rather that from an intellectual one.”

Ashley Mackevicius discovered photography at the age of 15 while still in high school. With a darkroom set up in the laundry and a hunger to experiment and learn, this newfound ‘hobby’ soon overtook more mundane pursuits such as homework.

In 1975 he enrolled at Prahran College of Arts majoring in photography, where he studied under icons of Australian photography such as Athol Shmith, Paul Cox and John Cato.

Needing to make a living Ashley Mackevicius turned his skills to commercial photography where a career spanning 40 years blossomed. Gaining numerous awards including ‘Australian Photographer of the Year’ his commercial work ran in parallel to his artistic work. “My aim is to challenge the viewer to see beyond the object as a ‘thing-in-itself’ through the  manipulation of scale and the abstraction of recognisable forms.”

Ashley recently spent a day photographing inside and out of the old school buildings at our Waterbrook Bowral site. The results are an array of tonal emotions that are atmospheric, melancholy and invite contemplation of the past lives of the buildings and the people that inhabited them.

The images are available as large, framed prints (as seen above) or as a collection in a hard-cover book of which we have a copy of at the display residence.

Ashley has a permanent gallery and studio at the SHAC in Robertson and it is well worth the visit!  Please contact Lizzie at Waterbrook if you are interested in viewing or ordering the book.  hello@waterbrook.com.au