Fern Levack likes to think of herself as an artist who is passionate about the hand drawn and hand made in this age of 'electrickery’.

Her finely detailed embroidery and illustrations have earned international acclaim and she recently became the first Australian artist to host a solo exhibition at Hawaii’s distinguished Greenroom gallery.   

Nat Young inspired illustrations and embroidery.

The exhibition featured painting and drawing on paper and canvas, hand embroideries and needlepoint that celebrate surfing in the 70s in Hawaii, California and Australia.

Although she now resides in an idyllic, A-framed wooden house on the NSW south coast, Fern suggests that her work is heavily influenced by her ‘wild and free childhood growing up on the pristine north coast of Australia during the age of Aquarius.’

A different interpretation of the Nth Shore lineups.

Fern also looks to surfing’s eclectic landscape of influential women and men, iconic locales, revolutionary ideas, innovative design and eco-politics to shape the direction of her art.

Hawaiian icon Rell Sunn at the centre of one of Fern's pieces.

Closer to home Fern finds a muse in the form of husband, Damion Fuller, whose elaborate collection of retro shapes (Damion is the behind the website www.boardcollector.com) and knowledge of surfing history can always be plundered for inspiration.    

Fern and Damion working in their A-frame home-office.

While obsessive about the creative process and an authentic representation of the subjects, Fern also likes her pieces to tell a broader story. Look closely and you will see a reoccurring theme that involves a fantastical world in which surfers and environmental activists win the battle over developers and corporate giants – art as a political tool as well as a source of aesthetic pleasure.  

An embroidery featuring the North Shore's iconic ' Keep the Country Country' slogan.

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