Collection: Petra Meikle de Vlas

Inspired by the waters around her , Petra Meikle de Vlas creates mixed media works in her coastal studio approximately 25km from the beautiful Great Barrier Reef.

Petra rarely follows conventional art methods and has developed techniques that create different effects that closely resemble reef and ocean-like formations. The texture is the exposed reef and rocks, liquid paint is the water, the spray bottle is the force of nature such as rain, the hairdryer is the wind, the blowtorch is the sun, gravity (tilting the board back and forth) is the tide. Petra is constantly experimenting with different methods and tools and is constantly learning.

Besides brushes, she uses her hands, air guns, spray bottles, a blowtorch and gravity. Petra usually works on large formats and 'sculpts' her paintings, starting with a board on which she places different materials on top of each other.

The results of applying mixed media, where the chemistry between pigments creates dynamic compositions as they attract and repel, resulting in beautiful formations. Each work can have multiple layers, starting with the original layer of paint poured in place.