Situated in tranquil Lovett Bay, on the edge of Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. This beautiful gallery and studio features ceramics and textiles by Rouge.
Artspace Rouge has much more to see. Take in photography by June Lahm, paintings by Marion van den Driesschen, Ellie Shore, Carole Corrie, and acclaimed children’s author Annette Lodge. Also see sculpture by Nick Creech, and artists Heather Macorison and Hilary Macorison.
- See Rouge’s bio
- See June Lahm’s bio
- See Marion van den Driesschen’s bio
- See Ellie Shore’s bio
- See Annette Lodge’s bio
- See Carole Corrie’s bio
- See Nick Creech’s bio
- See Heather Macorison’s bio
- See Hilary Macorison’s bio
Bios: artists at this stop
Rouge is a contemporary ceramicist, using the clay as her canvas. She creates individual expressive pieces which evolve in the process of making. She creates her ceramic pieces with an emphasis on balancing form, design and surface treatment.
Rouge decorates her work by using a combination of contrasting coloured slips, under glazes, oxides, local clays and glazes. The designs are a combination of overlapping shapes and textures. These are brushed, stamped, slip trailed and drawn into and onto the clay.
Inspired by colour and texture, felting also seemed an obvious choice for Rouge to express herself. By combining wool and textiles she designs playful yet delicate wearable pieces.
Rouge was born in Melbourne and spent her school years growing up in Europe. She now resides and works from her home studio in Lovett Bay on Pittwater.
June Lahm studied design at East Technical Sydney College (now the National Art School, Sydney). This lead to a career in Gallery Management in London and Sydney. She has lived on Scotland Island since 1976 and has followed many creative paths.
June’s abiding interest in photography led to her resuming studies to learn the new technologies of the digital age. She describes her work as “painting with pixels.” She loves colour and is fascinated by texture and nature’s patterns, so the surrounding bushland and sea provide constant inspiration for her colourful work. Watery elements often form the essence of her images.
June is also documenting the many activities and personalities of her lively local community. This is a work in progress.
When not at home on Scotland Island, June enjoys travelling, with a special passion for Italy. These travels are a further source for the images she creates as limited edition prints and a unique range of greeting cards produced under the banner of Purple Basil Editions.
June is an inaugural member of the Pittwater Offshore Artist’s Community and has been an organiser and participant in its many successful shows. She is a member of the Gone Fishing Gallery at Church Point.
Her work has been published in Crafts Arts International (No. 26, April 1992) “Chair Up” Exhibition; “Water Access Only” (2006), and “A Life on Pittwater” by Susan Duncan (Nov 2009).
Marion van den Driesschen came to live in the Pittwater offshore community with her husband, film-maker / cinematographer Michael Edols, in 1998. She has since been an active member of the artist community, exhibiting with fellow artists and teaching art to both adults and children.
A semi-abstract painter in mixed media on paper and oils on canvas, Marion’s home on Pittwater has inspired several major bodies of work. These include Tidal Gardens (joint exhibition with photographs by Michael Edols), Wabi Sabi ( solo exhibition) and most recently Reflections.
Kathleen James has written of her work, “The artists’s joy in nature is celebrated with a Zen-like freedom of execution. She invites us to contemplate and savour these melting colours and the rhythmic movements of water, wind and tide. Marion has been exhibiting in Sydney in numerous solo and group exhibitions since the mid-1980s.”
Her work will be exhibited at Artspace Rouge, and the Gone Fishing Gallery.
Ellie Shore was born in Holland. She immigrated to Australia as a child and has studied and practiced art since high school. She is interested in different mediums and takes the time to explore various methods involved with each one. Classical training, however, brings her back to traditional mediums such as oil.
Ellie has spent years hand-mixing and grinding her own paints. This results in intensity not usually obtainable with commercially available paints.
Fourteen years ago Ellie moved to a water-access only home in Pittwater. She has grown to love and respect the world around her, and this has permeated her art. Ellie’s studio is on top of Scotland Island. As a result she has 180 degree views of the areas which surround it. “Nowhere is the light so fleeting, nor so humbling,” she says.
Nettie Lodge was born in Nowra, NSW, Australia. Her family moved to Perth WA in 1969 where she finished high school and obtained a Bachelor of Fine Art at John Curtain University. In 1980, she was accepted into a Post Graduate programme at the Banff Centre of Fine Arts in Alberta, Canada for which she was awarded an Overseas Study Grant from the West Australian Arts Council.
Nettie says, “Travelling has always been a potent source of inspiration to my work and I have often used places I have visited as a theme for my paintings and stories. They become the journey itself with all its unexpectedness, a parallel road that allows me to reinvent the place in my own way using the symbols and images that have touched me. My paintings are narratives, an extension of my somewhat imaginary friends.”
Nettie’s art is represented in public and private collections around the world. For the past 12 years she has worked in Sydney as a freelance illustrator and a part time lecturer at the Billy Blue College of Design. She exhibits regularly at the Soho Galleries in Sydney where she has held numerous solo shows since 1995. Nettie is currently working on a new solo exhibition to open at the Soho in October 2011.
Additionally, for the past 7 years Nette has written and illustrated childrenʼs books. In 2005, her childrenʼs picture book BIRD, published by ABC Books, won a NOTABLE BOOK MERIT at the Childrenʼs Book Council of Australia Awards.
Her most recent book NATEMBA, published by ABC Books is based on the plight of orphaned animals in Africa, for which she researched as a volunteer at a Vervet Monkey sanctuary in South Africa.
Nettie is presently working on a new picture book for children based on THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER by Coleridge. She lives and paints in her studio on Scotland Island in Pittwater.
Artist Carole Corrie was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1957. She attended Art and Design at Brighton Technical College and Graphic Design at Swinburne College of Technology, Victoria.
Carole moved to country NSW in 1978 and has since undertaken many, various artist workshops. Carole now lives and paints 
plein air at her home on Scotland Island. She also paints at Hill End, the Hunter Valley and Stradbroke Island.
Carole has exhibited in various groups and individual shows since 2004. She was selected as a finalist in the John Glover prize, Tasmania in 2008 and finalist in NSW Parliament Plein Air Prize May 2009 and Finalist – Muswellbrook Open Art Prize 2011.
Artspace Rouge will also feature sculptor Nick Creech.
Nick lives and works from his home studio in Lovett bay. From his tranquil environment he produces dynamic, large scale sculptural work.
Nick’s works are often from local found wood and metal.
I have had a lifelong interest in art but as a Medical Practitioner and working mother of three did not pursue this interest at a practical level until my retirement from General Practice in 2004.
I have lived at Rocky Point Elvina Bay for 30 years being nurtured and stimulated by life on Pittwater. Its incredible natural beauty ever changing with the tides, weather and seasons is inspirational to my artistic practice and the colours and play of light are a daily source of wonder.
The artists who have most influenced and inspired me are Paul Klee, Kandinsky, Seurat, Rothko and Georgia O’Keefe. My work explores colour both in the landscape, still life and abstraction. I also seek to capture the power and intrigue in black and white works.
I enjoy and explore all mediums but my passion is oils.
Since retirement in 2004 I have acquired a Diploma in Fine Arts at Northern beaches Tafe, a Diploma in Visual Arts at Northbridge School of Visual Arts, attended many workshops in all media and exhibited in 5 group Exhibitions.
I grew up in the UK and always had a passion for drawing. Throughout my teaching career I have been interested in art, organising and teaching art workshops for children in a variety of media.
After teaching in Sydney for a year, I decided it was time to 
reawaken my creativity and pursue art full-time. I’m passionate about the environment and my art is inspired by a love of Pittwater, as seen in the body of work exhibited, ‘Icons of Pittwater,’ drawn in charcoal.
I have worked in all mediums and am currently experimenting with pastels, excited by the richness and intensity of colour. I try to draw in my studio each day.
I admire many artists and love the drawings of Michelangelo and Van Gogh, the works and intellect of Kandinsky, the creativity of David Hockney.
