Maria Heaton is one of its original members – Maria's love affair with paint began almost 40 years ago when she began to paint as a hobby. It organically grew to an art career of painting and teaching. Always keen to extend herself and learn new brush and paint skills, Maria travels to study in workshops with many of Australia’s best artists. Maria is a local award winning and internationally collected artist and enjoys painting many styles. Earlier in her career she mostly painted birds, animals and flowers but the last decade has seen her move to both traditional and more creative still life, landscape and seascape styles. Maria’s paintings are infused with luscious light and shade! “It's a lifetime of learning” is Maria's favourite saying. Over the years Maria has developed a fine foundation of skills in acrylic and oil and has shared her knowledge with countless students. Although Covid brought a reduction in the amount of time Maria is teaching now she keeps a foot in the door at local art clubs occasionally teaching . “I love to keep people guessing “Maria muses “I refuse to be pigeonholed!”