UNDER THE SURFACE – A COLLABORATION We are proud to present Under the Surface, an exhibition showcasing the work of four talented Western Australian artists who have come together in a celebration of creativity, collaboration, and a shared connection to the Perth Hills. Featuring three ceramic artists — Liz Berry, Rebecca Tester and Lee Woodcock – alongside painter Johanna Zeelenberg, the exhibition brings to life the textures, tones, and stories inspired by their local environment. Each artist explores new realms of artistic expression, interpreting the landscapes and atmosphere of the Hills in deeply personal and imaginative ways. Visitors are invited to immerse themselves in a world of limitless creativity. From richly layered, earthy paintings to intricate ceramic forms and sculptural pieces, Under the Surface offers fresh perspectives on how place and passion are expressed through diverse mediums. The exhibition challenges conventional boundaries and encourages viewers to broaden their horizons. Under the Surface is a tribute to the depth, diversity, and vitality of the Perth Hills artistic community – a celebration of what lies beneath the visible, brought to light through the hands and hearts of its artists.

LIZ BERRY Born in London, UK, Liz Berry has expressed her creativity through art for most of her life – whether it be through painting, drawing, or design. After attending art college, she embarked on a career in graphic design, where she honed her eye for composition and detail. Ceramics, however, found her a little later in life. With a mother who was a ceramicist, the medium had always held a quiet fascination. As a child, Liz would spend hours in the garden, digging Under the Surface, unearthing rocks, stones and fragments of broken china and earthenware that had lain buried for decades – sometimes centuries – sparking a curiosity that stayed with her. Today, Liz works from her studio nestled in the Perth Hills, where she creates ceramic pieces that reflect her deep appreciation for ancient Chinese, Greek, and Persian ceramic forms. These cultural influences inspire her to experiment with glazes and decorative techniques that evoke a sense of age and weathering. “I love the notion that in 3000 years someone may dig up one of my pots,” she says. Drawn to the colours and textures found in minerals and eroded rock formations and the natural palette of the earth itself, Liz’s work feels both timeless and grounded – artifacts of the present, echoing the past.

REBECCA TESTER Rebecca Tester is a ceramic artist based in the Perth Hills, where she works from her home studio. Her introduction to clay came at the age of 16 while studying Fine Arts at Midland Tafe. She returned to ceramics in 2017, undertaking further study in Advanced Ceramics at Central TAFE under the guidance of Warrick Palmateer and Belai Kotai. Rebecca is currently the Studio Manager and a tutor at Canning Arts Group. Her practice centres around wheel-thrown ceramics, often combining sculptural and hand-carved decorative elements to enhance form. Inspired by the natural landscape and her deep connection to the ocean, her glazes evoke sea tones and textures, particularly evident in her large bowls and platters. Rebecca’s large-scale pieces can use up to 20kg of clay, wheel-thrown and shaped in a single day. She also explores the coil-and-throw technique to create expansive forms with fluid rims. These pieces serve as canvases for her atmospheric glazing, transforming functional objects into visual landscapes that invite contemplation. Her works are created in series, with each grouping reflecting the rhythm of her making process and her skill as a ceramicist. Whether functional or sculptural, her pieces embody a deep connection to place, process and form.

LEE WOODCOCK Lee is an exciting artist and active ceramics lecturer at North Metropolitan Tafe. He enjoys witnessing how handling and creating with clay can be so grounding for one’s psyche. The creation of his woodfired functional wares is fulfilling for himself and the collectors that desire them containing beautiful surfaces from the accumulation of wood ash and heat work over several days and nights but Under the Surface his pieces contain a hidden story about a theory of how mankind was created through the alchemy of clay and a source of superior intelligence. Lee incorporates this story into the creation of his “Elementals” which are representation of the clay theory. The Elementals are created with the intentions of a certain energy or meaning that one can truly feel.

JO ZEELENBERG Johanna Zeelenberg was born in the north-west mining town of Wittenoom in 1973, and has lived in Kalgoorlie, Chidlow and now Piesse Brook, Kalamunda WA. She has been painting and drawing most of her life, exhibiting in solo and group shows for the past 25 years. As a child, she remembers often using fallen branches from ghost gums and drawing into the Pilbara red dirt, making marks using feathers, leaves and creek bed stones to form rhythmic patterns that echo the landscape and the living creatures that cling to it. These early experiences continue to influence her artistic process, and now, living in the Mundaring Hills, she is inspired to draw from the local environment. “My landscapes are sometimes ambiguous, dream-like places that seem to have amalgamated from the places that I have lived and travelled to”. Johanna also likes to paint larger abstract work from smaller detailed studies of plants, an