Regional Spotlight Artist Profile | Val McGrath
The Regional Spotlight initiative is an opportunity for Wide-Bay Burnett artists at any stage in their career, working in any visual art medium, to receive mentorship and share their work at the gallery. Developed from an expressions of interest process, the 2025 exhibition brings a multifaceted survey of local artists sharing their personal connection to space, landscape, environment, home and time through mediums of painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture and mixed media work.
Val McGrath uses painting as a meditative act to connect to her spirituality.
How long have you been making art?
I started drawing when I was young. After I had my children I did more cartoon characters for them on mobiles, clothes and more. I started doing Aboriginal art in the 1990s where I gave them away to family and friends.
The first piece I sold was in the late 1990s through a shop in Nambucca Heads. So I suppose you can say I have been making art in some form most of my life.
What are your favourite mediums to work with and why?
My favourite mediums to work with is acrylic. I have tried other mediums but always go back to acrylic as I find it is the best to work with doing Aboriginal art.
Who/what inspires or Influences you?
My mentor encouraged me to paint from the heart and to let the story evolve as I paint.
What inspires me is my culture, the land and how I see things happening today so that I can leave that for future generations. I believe we all have a role to pass on our knowledge and experiences for future generations though the different mediums be it art, song, dance or stories.
Has your practice and subject matter changed over time? If so, how?
Due to my mentor, who also gave me permission to paint from his country, I now paint more from the heart and my feelings where as before as I didn’t really believe I had a right to paint a certain way. I also use a variety of colours now as my mentor told me to look at the colours of the land and we now have the means to use those colours.
What do you like most about living in the region?
I like living in a small town and having access to both the water and the land.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Follow your heart and learn as much as you can from your elders as once, they are gone so is their knowledge.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
I believe no matter where you come from everyone has something to offer and we can all learn from each other.
What is the most Interesting feedback you have had about your work?
Someone once told me my art inspired and spoke to them.
Photo: Lumi Creative
