The diverse landscape of Ipswich is being brought to vivid life by local creative and SPARK Ipswich 2024 Feature Artist Renee Yates.
Renee is one of the many thousands that calls Ipswich home. She has lived, worked and raised her family there for 16 years and expresses a true fondness for the region in a four-panel mural aptly titled Home, which will be the centrepiece of this year’s Ipswich arts and cultural SPARK festival.
“I really do love the town and I’m a passionate advocate for what it has to offer,” Renee says. “It’s a nice place to be.”
Home is a mixed media artwork incorporating coloured pencil drawings and cut paper collage to represent four distinct landscapes of the Ipswich region, which captures its historic pastoral past, the area’s growing urban sprawl and its exciting future as a developing urban centre.
“One panel represents the natural landscape,” Renee explains. “So, Flinders Peak, which is a mountain that’s iconic to Ipswich, and there’s a brush-tailed wallaby there, which is native to the area.”
“The second panel is representative of the newer suburbs in Ipswich, like Springfield and Ripley, so I took inspiration from the new developments, the growth that’s happening in the region, the different types of places people are making home.
“The third panel is the city itself; the historic part of town called the ‘top of town’. It’s all based on reference photos I’ve taken. If you look at that section of the [mural], they are all based on real city views of St Mary’s Church, the trains, the jacaranda trees down by the park, coffee shops, the art store on the corner.
“The last panel represents the old big blocks with the big trees and old Queenslanders and heritage cottages the city is known for. Definitely got the jacaranda trees in there, which are a beautiful part of town.”
Home is being animated by students from the local SAE Institute and will be projected as a main feature of this year’s SPARK Ipswich festival. The students are also using the artwork as inspiration for animated light works as part of the Pixel exhibit.
Now in its fourth year, SPARK Ipswich has become an annual celebration of the region’s iconic arts, music and culture, along with its rich heritage and history. The festival showcases the vast array of creative talent that resides in Ipswich across various disciplines, from the visual arts to theatre and live music.
“It’s certainly grown over the last while,” Renee says.
“There is a really wonderful creative community of people who do some fabulous things, and the [Ipswich City] Council is really supportive of the arts, which is wonderful.”
Home provides a fitting visual narrative for the greater Ipswich region as it embarks on a process of urban renewal and development, shedding its implied image of Brisbane’s country cousin.
“I want to encourage the people to come out and see all the different artists that are having their work projected,” Renee says.
“Come out, support, see the work, ask questions and be curious. And keep making things.”
Learn more about Renee Yates.
SPARK Ipswich is on 4-14 July at various locations throughout Ipswich.
