87-year-old artist’s extraordinary journey from wartime Amsterdam to nature-inspired exhibition at Coorabell Hall

DUTCH-born artist Rina Genis has lived a life as colourful as the intricate watercolour mandalas that now line the walls of her home studio in Possum Creek.

The 87-year-old’s remarkable journey spans wartime Europe, migration across continents and decades devoted to art, culminating in a new exhibition celebrating nature-inspired creativity.

Genis grew up in Amsterdam during the second world war, where her father restored classical paintings, instilling in her a lifelong appreciation of art.

But her childhood was marked by tragedy. When Rina was just four years old, in 1944, her mother took her own life after witnessing a German soldier execute 10 people in front of her.

Unable to feed his children during the war, her father placed Rina and her two brothers in an orphanage. Her youngest brother died of diphtheria at the age of three, while her surviving brother, Peter Zonneveld, went on to become a world-renowned press photographer.

Genis met her late husband, Fred, when she was 15, but the orphanage matron refused to allow them to marry until she was 19.

The couple first came to Australia in the early 1960s before migrating permanently with their three daughters in 1979.

By then, Fred had established a successful career in lithography in Europe and the United States. In Australia he collaborated with some of the country’s best-known artists, including Brett Whiteley, John Olsen, Tim Storrier and Lloyd Rees.

Before settling in the Northern Rivers two decades ago, the family lived on a property at Kenthurst in Sydney’s Hills district featuring three caves, one of which Rina transformed into a pottery studio.

It was only after retiring to Possum Creek that she discovered her passion for watercolour painting, later enrolling in a course on the art of mandalas.

“I love the geometry, the balance and what the colours do with each other,” she said.

She also regularly volunteers at Connecting Generations Bangalow’s seasonal events at Bangalow Heritage House & Museum, where she teaches children nature-inspired arts and crafts.

After building a collection of dozens of mandalas over the years, Genis spoke to Coorabell Hall president Lissa Coote about holding an exhibition.

But as she didn’t want to do a solo exhibition, the idea expanded to a showcase including six fellow artists whose work is also inspired by nature.

Around half a dozen of Genis’s watercolour mandalas will be exhibited and available for purchase as part of the Elemental: Conversations with Nature exhibition.

The launch will be held at Coorabell Hall at 5pm on Friday 24 July, with the exhibition continuing from 10am to 3pm on Saturday 25 July and until Sunday 26 July.