Inspirational rock art

Carole has always loved inspirational sayings because so they’re so wise and uplifting. She likes them so much she collects them. Her mind is tuned to hearing them; from stray snatches of TV or from talking to people, it’s all recorded. Carole also likes to make sayings of her own. When Carole and Rob saw a Maori lady selling rocks decorated with a saying and a traditional design at the Riccaton Market in Christchurch, they knew they had found the perfect medium for Carole’s collection of sayings. They invented their own techniques to paint and decorate their rocks, which now carry the name of Apollo Bay as far away as Europe, Asia, the U.S.A. and elsewhere.

Rob was a Melbourne boy who did a lot of growing up in Apollo Bay. The family had a holiday house in Montrose Avenue, neighbouring the Nosedas, so Rob spent a lot of his time on farms and enjoying days on the ocean with the local fishermen. He was one of the earliest members of the surf club and always had one foot in the country and one in the city. Carole loved the Bay because it reminded her of many wonderful beach holidays spent at a town very similar to Apollo Bay called Kaikoura in New Zealand, where she grew up.

In 1993 Rob bought a 40-acre bush property, situated off the Barham River Road, which is now a B&B named Ellura Retreat. Being a builder, Rob did all the work on the property himself. Around 2000 he and Carole had decided to leave Templestowe for the permanent move to the Bay.

Rob and Carole are inspired to paint and decorate their rocks by sitting on their veranda, in the peace and tranquility of the bush, with birds and wildlife for company. Another buzz is seeing people take the time to stop and read the rocks at their community market stall; some of them read every rock. It all comes back to making people happy, which is the reason Carole collected sayings in the first place: to remind us of the many reasons we have to be glad and grateful to be alive.

Handbuilt ceramics

Cheri remembers a time on the Mornington Peninsula when there were no traffic lights between Dromana and Sorrento. When the first lights came in, Cheri went out. To Gellibrand. In 1988 there wasn’t much in Gellibrand but there was creative community and there was peace and quiet. With her family grown, Cheri had the freedom to live her life on her terms. She turned the paddock she bought into a bush block planted out with natives, which is now home to a new generation of wildlife.

There was never going to be much paid work at Gellibrand, so like many people who come to the district for its natural beauty, Cheri invented her own work. She had sewn before, making hats, but she preferred to “play with clay.” Even before she started, Cheri knew she was always going to make something that honoured women in all their glories and imperfections. She dabbled with different forms of goddesses but in 1996 she created the distinctive style of free-spirited women bathers that attracts customers today. The bathers made a lot of sense for a seaside market. They fit into the beach theme but, like Cheri, they celebrate women who are happy and free to be themselves. No surprises that it’s mostly women who buy the colourful ceramics. Cheri imagines they end up in bathrooms or on the walls of holiday homes, because they can fit in most spaces and are easy to keep clean.

Although Cheri still loves making figures of uninhibited women, she is developing a new form now. She wants to make little clay altars, maybe 50cm high, with space for mirrors and places to hold incense. She sees them as objects of reflection, for contemplation and meditation in favourite patches of garden. Just the kind of thing Cheri would want for her own bush block.

Glass art and hand-built ceramics

You won’t see much of Inge at the market but you will see her work: she does the ceramics and Dominic does the glassware. While Dominic tends the community market stall, Inge keeps their Beech Forest home and gallery open for visitors to view her exquisite paintings.

Dominic came to Australia from London at 20; Inge comes from a small fishing village in Denmark that was surrounded by farms. They met working at the Ansett Terminal bar and bistro at Mascot Airport in 1969 and have been partners ever since. In 1970 they moved to Melbourne to work in quality restaurants. After a holiday at Skenes Creek in 1978, Dominic and Inge went back to Melbourne and drew a circle around a map of Apollo Bay. If anything came up for sale within that circle, they’d be interested in buying. Within a year they had bought the place at Beech Forest that’s still their home today.

It became a gallery and studio much later, in 1994, when they lost their jobs to so-called “restructuring.” Out of necessity Dominic and Inge reinvented themselves. Inge had always painted but couldn’t imagine she could make a living out of it, although she had sold some pieces when she ran the post office at Beech Forest. Dominic had a fascination with glassware but had no experience making it. When a cricket mate mentioned mucking about with glass making leadlight, Dominic was inspired to enroll in a three-day course at the Meat Market Craft Centre. Long-term mentor Graham Stone put him through the paces but after the three days that was it. Learning done, Dominic was told to “go away and play.” Which he did. The sheer volume of experiments led to expertise. Save for those three days, Dominic is self-taught. Judging by his glassware at the market and on commission around the state, he turned out to be a very fine teacher.