Wander Wonder
2 - 30 August 2025 | Basil Art Sellers (BAS) Gallery, Moruya
Natalie Bateman, Patsy Hely, Deb Johansen, Julian Laffan, Waratah Lahy, Barbara McConchie
Above: Natalie Bateman, Timeless Land Layers, 2025, acrylic and photographic print on canvas, 23 x 30cm. Image credit: Natalie Bateman.
Waratah Lahy and I curated a survey exhibition of six mid career artists works, shown at the Basil Art Sellers Exhibition Centre, Moruya 2025.
The works emerge from a contemporary landscape context, in which the subject matter often responds to issues such as climate change, social cohesion, connection, acknowledgement of place, and our responsibility to the environment. Collectively it reflects the artists’ commitment to wandering, watching and wondering. The artworks allow time for reflection, to find solace through contemplating the marvels of the world.
Above: Patsy Hely, Close to home / Space scene, 2025, porcelain, ceramic pigments, 13 x 14.3 x 15.5 cm
Inspired by daily perambulations, sunshine and shadows, the sea and the sky, Wander Wonder presented a range of drawings, paintings, woodblocks and ceramics reflecting a deep appreciation and curiosity for the wonders of the world, both big and small.
Playful, thoughtful and engaging, the works looked out from our homes to the view next door, across pasture land, in parks, deep down through time, across the sea and beyond to the wilds of space.
Above: Deb Johansen, Ode to a Coastline (detail, No 131), 2018-24 ,oil on board 7.5 x 6cm
The gallery brochure produced by the BAS Exhibition Centre stated:
Inspired by daily walks, road trips, and moments of stillness, Wander Wonder brought together a vibrant collection of drawings, paintings, ceramics, and prints that reflect a deep curiosity and appreciation for the world we inhabit.
Through playful, thoughtful, and beautifully crafted works, Wander Wonder encourages us to see the familiar with fresh eyes - to notice the textures of a landscape, the rhythm of a journey, or the poetry in a passing moment. These artworks speak to our shared experiences.
Above: Julian Laffan, Clearing, 2024, inked woodblock, Blakely's redgum, 158.5cm x 190cm 5cm image Brenton McGeachie
It was a pleasure to co-curate and produce this exhibition with Waratah and each of the participating artists. The works made our idea a reality and opened up a dialogue with each other through the work and the making of the exhibition. What a privilege.
Above: Waratah Lahy, Looking, not looking, 2025, watercolour. Image credit: Brenton McGeachie
Helen Maxwell, a freelance curator, art valuer and consultant, delivered the opening talk, her thoughtful and considered remarks completed the exhibition.
A short extract from Helen’s talk:
Wander Wonder - such a lovely title, which in a way sounds quite simple – the act of wandering and the mindset of wondering - suggest quietness, the joy of being alone, with time to move around, to be in the moment, to acutely feel and observe our surroundings – to move through the landscape, looking carefully with an enquiring eye, and to be amazed.
The idea is not new. Artists and writers and musicians and dancers et al have a history of exploring the environment in this way. These words from Robert Louis Stevenson’s early evocation of wandering and wondering in Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, published 1879,
“The great affair is to move; to feel the needs and hitches of our life more clearly; to come down off this feather-bed of civilization, and find the globe granite underfoot and strewn with cutting flints”.
And this from Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain, published 1977, based on her wanderings in the Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland.
“The whiteness of these waters is simple. They are elemental transparency. Like roundness, or silence, their quality is natural, but is found so seldom in its absolute state that when we do find it, we are astonished”.
The works of the 6 artists in this exhibition are records of their wanderings and wonderings. Each is propelled by their love of and respect for the natural environment, and for Waratah Lahy merging with the urban environment. Implicit in all the works is the artists’ recognition of the vulnerability of the natural environment in this time of climate change. And they have each captured and resolved their ideas and responses in diverse ways and with a variety of mediums. A group of works by one artist speaks for itself, but the conversation also extends out across the gallery - which is a sign of a well-curated exhibition.
Above: Barbara McConchie, “There’s magic everywhere* (The Offing #1), [* Wonderful life’, Katie Melua], 2025, pencil, watercolour, 18.8cm H x 25cm W. Image credit: Brenton McGeachie
Wander Wonder exhibition images below.
Above: Exhibition installation, image credit: Brenton McGeachie
