
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: Libby Derham
An award-winning, full-time artist, Libby Derham is a fourth-generation watercolourist. She won the Annie Tan Memorial Watercolour Award (Queensland Regional Art Awards) (2021) and has been a finalist in multiple local and national awards. She completed art training at Surrey Institute of Art and Design in the UK (1996-1998).
Pushing traditional into experimental watercolour, Libby looks for new ways of working with the medium’s dynamic fluidity and transparent qualities, mixing with pigment. An appreciation for the natural world informs Libby's practice. The work seeks to capture her sensory experience within it and the immersive qualities of En plein air.
Growing up with a forest for a backyard, Libby was drawn to the avian world from a young age. Through her unique use of colours and mark-making of the birds’ layered sounds and movements, Libby works to transcribe birdsong to line and makes commentary on habitat loss and diversity decline.
See Libby's upcoming classes below:
An introduction to watercolour over four weeks, packed with hands-on guided experiments, exercises and projects with award-winning watercolourist Libby Derham.
Be inspired by nature and use this as the starting point for each new technique.
Dates: 12 July - 2 August 2023 (4 x 3hr sessions)
Days and Time: Wednesday mornings (9.30am-12.30pm)
Venue (Studio and Field): Ginger Factory, Sunshine Coast

An introduction to watercolour in one weekend, packed with hands-on guided experiments, exercises and projects with award-winning watercolourist Libby Derham.
Be inspired by nature and use this as the starting point for each new technique.
Dates: 29 - 30 July (2 x 6hr sessions)
Days and Time: Saturday & Sunday (9am-4pm including a 1hr lunch break)
Venue (Studio and Field): The Ginger Factory
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