Four female artists who formed the Bush House Group in Dunsborough will open their doors to the public for this year's Margaret River Open Studios event.
Artists Janine Gasbarri, Roslyn Hamdorf, Helen Waterhouse and Glen Knight all offer guests a different perspective in their artwork.
Ms Waterhouse paints mostly still life and landscapes and draws inspiration from her family history after recently discovering her Jewish heritage.
She spent five years learning from fellow artist John Garde and is now on her own exploring voluptuous and expressive paintings around still life, landscapes and colours.
“A lot of my family disappeared in the Holocaust and one of the reasons I recognised I was so fascinated with realism and still life was because I am connecting to the heritage of the world before World War II.
“There was a different sense of what art was about.
“I am also connecting with those who did not get a chance to live their artistry because they had to survive the war and come out to Australia to make a life for themselves.
“They never got to be the artists they really were, my father was like that and I have a cousin who died a couple of years ago who was a wonderful musician effected by the war.”
Ms Waterhouse has been exhibiting in open studios since the event first started five years ago and was invited to join Ms Knight at her bush house.
“Open studios has been amazing and the best thing about it is the tremendous support it gives to people who are not known but want to get their work out there and want somewhere to show their work.”
Fellow artist at the Bush House Group, Ms Hamdorf draws her inspiration from abstract landscapes in the region and will be the second year she has participated in the event.
“Last year was really successful I sold the lot, it was great and a nice surprise I loved meeting all the people, that was the best part,” she said.
“People like listening to the history behind your art.”
Ms Hamdorf spends most of her days at the beach sketching and taking photos of the landscape and also spent time in the Great Central last year to draw inspiration for her work.
“Sometimes when you go to a gallery you see art for what it is but you don’t necessarily get to hear about the process that goes into it and people are really curious about that.”
Ms Gasbarri will be participating in her fourth open studios event, she described her artwork as bright, colourful and creative.
“At the moment I enjoy doing fish and flowers which will be the focus this year,” she said.
“I like open studios because it gives people the opportunity to go and harvest work from the artist instead of going to a gallery for a select few.
“There are so many and such a variety, it is really nice to talk to people when they visit, we get hundreds of people coming through the studio.
“It is so indulgent talking about yourself, I found it quite intimidating to start with but you loosen up and have a chat.”
Studio owner Glen Knight will also be exhibiting her work in her fifth open studios event and said her work is mostly inspired by nature.
Ms Knight paints with oils and likes to work on linen because it had a nice feel and absorbed the paint.
“I just want to get the essence of what I am seeing, especially along the coast and the bush,” she said.
