Sea of Sustainability by Jean Bates
Each year the City of Salisbury hosts the Watershed Creative Prize, inviting creatives to submit artworks that best capture what sustainability means to them.
For the last nine years, Northern Living magazine has carefully selected an Editor’s Choice Award winner to publish on the cover.
This year, we were drawn to the depth of texture and contrast of colour in Mawson Lakes resident Jean Bates’ Sea of Sustainability.
Jean spent her childhood years living in Port Lincoln, and her love of the beach and sea has clearly influenced this piece.
The winning painting (featured on this month’s cover) shows the constantly changing movement of sea and sky, implemented with a relaxed freedom of expression that shows a real trust in her abilities. One can almost smell the salty sea air and feel the spray as it hits the shoreline.
No stranger to the Watershed Creative Prize, Jean has entered both poetry and art pieces in the past, she took home the Mayor’s Choice Award in 2019 for her painting Dawn’s Choice and has sold several of her entries at the large scale exhibitions in the John Harvey Community Hall.
Despite not having a ‘formal’ education in art, Jean has availed herself of various private art tutors over the years. Starting with portraiture, dabbling in oils & watercolour, then developing into inks & acrylic mediums, her artistic style has continued to grow and evolve.
Jean shares her love of art with locals of all ages, teaching a group of Aged Care residents and running ‘Mini Picassos’ & ‘Paint & Sip’ art classes both privately and corporately.
Painting is my happy place, and brings a sense of peace and contentment to my life Jean Bates
