Artworks are first available for purchase by sponsors and dignitaries before being available in person at the Exhibition in Brisbane. Unsold artworks can also be purchased online following the event.
"My favourite mediums to work with are oil pastel combined with watercolours. These two mediums, which are opposite in composition, repel each other on the paper to represent the conflict of my mind. However, they marry each other on the page.
When I start a portrait, I begin with the eye. The rest flows from there and I do not focus on gender. Sometimes my portraits are androgynous. However, this piece seems to capture a tribal feminine, hence the title."
Kimberley Richards is a 40-year-old artist from Annerley. Her mental illness has impacted nearly her whole life, as she struggles with psychosis and mood fluctuation on a daily basis. Her artwork is often shaped from these struggles.
Kimberley hasn't exhibited art in almost 20 years. Her life is often closely linked with the magic of nature, the cycle of the moon and tapping into the collective consciousness of the universe. With an inherently spiritual nature, one of the signature marks of Kimberley's artwork is a fascination with the mystery of the eyes.
Kimberley is eccentric and believes that her individuality is accentuated rather than defined by her illness. She lives alongside it.