Local artists on show

AN exhibition that weaves together the artistic visions of Jane McCumstie, Chris Hollingsworth, and Margaret Hage is set to be unveiled at the Millicent Library and Gallery.

The exhibition, titled Unfolding Nature, will be opened by local artist Merilyn DeNys on Sunday, March 22, at 2pm.

“It is a privilege to open the Millicent Gallery with an exhibition that reflects the quiet power of our natural world and the creativity it inspires,” Ms DeNys said

Each artist brings a distinct yet deeply resonant approach to interpreting the natural world and together creating a collective experience that invites viewers into a more personal relationship with nature.

Unfolding Nature explores how the environment shapes individuals with the artists differing mediums united by fine detail, a respect for natural forms, and a quiet dialogue between people and the landscape.

Jane McCumstie presents contemplative works that explore subtle transitions of light, tone, rhythm, and atmosphere, inviting viewers into gentle, immersive encounters with place where landscape softens into feeling, beauty and colour.

Her sculptural female figures add another dimension to this exploration, each carrying a quiet strength.

Through measured colour, layered surfaces, and intuitive mark-making, she creates meditative scenes shaped by what she describes as ‘the small moments when landscape becomes feeling, when light shifts, edges blur, and something familiar reveals itself as new’.

Chris Hollingsworth offers layered, expressive works that capture movement and the vibrant tempo of natural environments and bird life, along with the everyday objects in which birds find a home.

Through gestural marks and tonal shifts, Chris’s pieces reflect nature’s changing pace and dynamic energy, what she describes as ‘catching its tempo, how a place breathes, changes pace and leaves a trace on the body’.

Margaret Hage brings narrative rich textile and mixed media works shaped by her deep connection to story and material.

Working with textiles, handmade papers, oils, watercolours, charcoal, pastels, thread, and photographic imagery, she explores detail, pattern, and texture drawn from natural and built environments – Unfolding Nature.

Margaret views textiles as cultural vessels, threads to our past that continue into our future, with each stitch acting as a visual word shaped with intention.

Together, the three artists create an exhibition that encourages viewers to pause, observe, and consider the many ways nature unfolds across surface, season, material, and memory.