About

We all travel our own path, oftentimes surprised at the end to see where we have arrived. And without necessarily always knowing the particular detour or side-road that led us there. Meron’s journey has been no different.

My first interior design job was with Sabien Interiors in Brisbane. They were in Park Road, Milton where Mary Ryan’s is now. I’d previously studied for two years at a design institute in Sydney. After that I worked with architectural companies before setting up my own business, Meron Somers Interiors, where I dealt directly with clients on a referral basis. They were mainly busy people who just wanted the job done so I was happy to stretch myself in the design world with styles and products - things that were always challenging and exciting to me. Trying out new ideas.

 After 30 years of that, Meron turned her attention to something that had always been part of her life but had taken a back seat - art.

I started painting in the 70s when you had to paint a picture of the interior, usually in water colours, for the client to see the concept. When I moved to Brisbane in 1980 many real estate agents wanted sketches of the houses that they were selling instead of taking photos and often I would do water colour paintings for people who had renovated their homes. So I’ve always liked the idea of painting but had been reluctant to go to art classes... until I saw an ad for Jacqui Coates, the owner of Blooms Painting in Kapunda in the Barossa, South Australia. Jacqui has extraordinary talent and is also a wonderful teacher. She became my mentor and is encouraging me to find different directions to develop my own style. I’ve reached that point now and have the confidence to go forward with it.

Meron does much of her painting in her home in Brisbane’s Teneriffe, but a lot of her inspiration comes from the seven acre farm she shares with husband Tom just outside of the village of Tyalgum in the increasingly artist-friendly Northern Rivers of New South Wales. Here they have created a complex network of paths and gardens, leading to a pond that would be pleasing to both Monet and Thoreau. The farmhouse looks east, directly at Mount Warning.

My love of the garden is obviously a factor in why I paint flowers, but it also has to do with the early projects Jacqui gave us. She told me to get the backgrounds right and then focus on the details. Interestingly, I liked the backgrounds best and they have become something of a feature of my work. I do them first which is the opposite of how most artists work and now they have become an important part of my evolving style. It shows where the light is coming from and where shadows fall.

For Meron, it’s the attention to detail that she admires most in many of the Masters.

I look at Renoir’s work and I’m amazed at his brush strokes - how a few little dots with the brush can have such a powerful impact. The work that goes into shadow and lace. So little can mean so much. Tim Storrier is my favourite artist. I love his humour and awesome talent.

Art, in one form or another, has always been part of Meron’s life, as it has her family’s. Her great uncle, Walter Withers, helped establish the famous Heidelberg School in Melbourne.  Meron’s work is a long way from that of Withers, Arthur Streeton, Tom Roberts and Frederick McCubbin but it resonates with her love of all she sees around her.

If I’m surprised by anything I’ve learned about myself it’s that I have the patience to spend hours at a time immersed with fine brushes and detail. My past was about doing things with big brush strokes and finishing them and moving on to the next thing. Now I really enjoy the solitude and the experience. It’s an incredibly satisfying feeling to finish a painting. A bit like an author who knows when to put in the final full stop.

 It makes you want to keep going.