Monte Lupo artists have done it again! For the 17th consecutive year, the team has exhibited in the SWELL Sculpture Festival at Currumbin Beach.
This year’s creation titled - Macro Floristic Mapping – was an eight-metre square sea of Australian wildflowers. Each flower was carefully crafted from clay and enlarged to 10 times its actual size.
Multicap's Creative Arts General Manager Fiona Haynes said the Banksia flowers and Pigface ground cover are found naturally in the coastal regions of the Gold Coast.
“Each year we try to do something completely different,” Fiona said. “We work as a team to come up with the idea that has a link to the location and that tells a story.”
Over the years, the Monte Lupo team has created everything from nocturnal Australian animals to giant children’s books.
“It’s such a fun exhibition for us as we get to think outside of the box and go big with our designs,” Fiona said.
“And we love that parts of each creation are sold and take pride of place in backyards across Queensland and further afield.”
Along with the sculpture, Monte Lupo hosted workshops as part of the festival’s ‘Kids Elements’ program.
More than 600 people of all ages took part in the Monte Lupo workshops, painting their own dog or cat bowl, making mosaic steppingstones and mermaids and getting their hands dirty with clay play.
Nearby at the Oasis Shopping Centre, Monte Lupo and Madison’s Café & Patisserie hosted The Art of Tea Workshop with more than 20 people joining in for high tea and a guided art session painting their own ceramic teacup and saucer.
This year’s creative team behind the Macro Floristic Mapping swell sculpture included: Anderson Skinner, Chris Chan, Helen Gaffney, Jackie Elvery, Rory Clayton, Levi Diball, Matthew Henry, Michael Rubio, Myles Barabas, Natalie Day, Nathan Peters, Paris Jones, Paul Yik, Peter Hughes, Sam Stanford, Sean Davenport, Jai Phillips, Kimberly Oberlin, Amanda Winyard, Bianca Sammut, Vicki McJarrow, Dylan Gorry, Kimberly Green, Molly Smith, Katie Stevens, and Fiona Haynes.
SWELL Sculpture Festival is held annually at Currumbin Beach, Queensland. For more information visit: https://www.swellsculpture.com.au/