SHIRLEY CAMERON-ROBERTS 'PART OF THE LANDSCAPE' at BREEWOOD GALLERIES, RICHMOND APRIL 5 TO MAY 4 2003 About Shirley Cameron-Roberts Shirley completed a bachelor of Commerce degree at Melbourne University in 1967 and then undertook various courses in painting and drawing at the Victorian Council for Adult Education, the Victorian Artists’ Society and Prahran Technical College while pursuing a business career. She began exhibiting as a professional artist in 1988 and held her first solo exhibition at the Manning Regional Gallery in Taree in 1992. Solo exhibitions since then include von Bertouch Galleries, Newcastle in 1995/97/99 and 2001 and Breewood Galleries, Leura in 2000. Her many group exhibitions include the Portia Geach Memorial Award in 1992/94/95 and 2001, the Newcastle-Ube 20th Anniversary Exhibition in Ube, Japan in 2000, the 2002 Swan Hill Print and Drawing Acquisitive Awards and the 2003 Portrait Artists Australia Inaugural Exhibition. In 2002 she was awarded first prize in figurative painting at the Sydney Royal Arts Show. Other awards include the Maitland acquisitive drawing prize in 1996 and 1994, the Newcastle drawing prize in 1996 and the Walkom Manning Biennial Art Prize in 1994. Her work is represented in the collections of the Maitland City Art Gallery, ABN Amro Merchant Bank, Ellemby Management Pty Ltd and private collections in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia the UK and the USA. This April 2003 exhibition at Breewood Galleries Richmond and an exhibition at Swan Hill Regional Gallery in Victoria in September are on the theme Part of the Landscape. Through her landscapes Shirley hopes to convey her belief in the importance to us of the natural environment and our dependence on it. Her empathy with the landscape springs from a childhood on the Murray River reinforced by the natural beauty that surrounds her home near the Barrington Tops State Forest and National Park. Shirley has been interested in portraiture since her first portrait class at the Victorian Artists’ Society when she became fascinated with the struggle to portray the person behind the face. She is also interested in portraiture of animals having found that the challenges are similar. Her portrait, Part of the Landscape: Self Portrait with Memories of the Murray, is included in this exhibition.