Dawn Stubbs

Renowned artist and activist

Words and Photos, Ken Roberts

Becoming the well-known artist she is today has been a long and slow journey for Dawn. Formerly from the Melbourne suburb of Chelsea, she now lives with her husband Chris on a 26-hectare property in Munro, just past Stratford in East Gippsland.

This verdant oasis of untouched bushland is where they raised their two daughters and son, where they once ran a gallery and both have studios. Their eclectic home is an artistic explosion of their own and other artist’s work that includes paintings and sculpture in many forms.

Without any formal training or qualifications, it took winning a prestigious art prize for Dawn to finally overcome a serious case of artistic inferiority and accept that she was a skilled and talented artist.

Dawn’s artistic journey began in childhood with a love of art and creative endeavours. She recalls cutting her hair to fashion makeshift paint brushes and making pictures. Despite her humble attempts she kept painting. After visiting a local Rotary art show, where she saw a painting of a native animal, she thought, ‘Maybe I could do that’.

Dawn’s Father was a timber cutter in remote Powelltown where they lived during her first few years and the bush was a constant in their lives. This sparked a lifelong love of nature and the Australian native environment. Painting creatures of the bush became an ongoing obsession. Despite an innate artistic talent and ability, it was her dogged determination and nonstop effort that has made her successful.

The move to Gippsland over forty years ago was a major catalyst in her artistic journey as Dawn slowly became immersed in the local art community. She initially felt intimidated by the skilled artists around her but after attending many workshops including those by the late Charles McCubbin, an artist, scientist and environmentalist, her work improved and began to be recognised.

She concentrated initially on painting native birds and spent much of her time studying them in detail taking countless photos to use for reference. She established a niche as a local wildlife artist while also exhibiting her work in Melbourne with the Wildlife

Art Society of Australasia. These paintings were popular and with a growing entrepreneurial streak, Dawn had some of these works reproduced as prints. The sale of these reproductions paid for a studio and gallery to be built onto their home.

She initially became nationally recognised after becoming a finalist in the 2011 Blake Prize for Religious Art. She entered a realist painting of three primates with halos and a biblical inscription. Although it was a reference to Noah and living creatures, critics saw it as a reference to the Holy Family painted as apes. This was perfect controversial media fodder and her work was featured across many print and television news outlets at the time. “I was even called Godless by a Catholic publication,” Dawn stated.

On the eve of her 60th birthday, Dawn received a call insisting she attend the announcement of the Black Swan Art Prize winner in Perth — and she won. This prestigious national art competition with its $40,000 first prize was highly competitive and winning it gave Dawn the self-recognition she needed. Her unassuming portrait titled ‘Black and Blue’ was of Max, » her father-in-law dressed in his old garage pants and braces. As with her wildlife paintings, Dawn had begun painting portraits just to give it a go and proceeded without any formal training, just her skilled eye and bucket loads of patience. The works, in particular those of everyday people, are outstanding. She recently asked her reluctant mother to pose and the result is a stunning portrait, with an emphasis on her hands showing years of toil.

Living in the bush and painting, developed Dawn’s interest in nature, which slowly rose to her becoming a passionate vocal protector of the environment.

Through her advocacy, Dawn has met many people in public office and while once speaking to Kay Setches, a Victorian government minister at that time, Dawn asked her if the former State Premier Joan Kirner would possibly sit for her. She travelled to Joan’s home in Williamstown where Joan agreed to pose for her and the portrait she painted was another amazing work. When Joan passed away, the painting was placed beside her casket at her funeral and the striking image of this was plastered across the media. The work was later purchased by the state government and hangs in Parliament House. It was a welldeserved honour and recognition of Dawn’s prodigious talent.

Many of her later works reflect environmental causes. In her early paintings she would cheekily insert small comments that would be hitherto unnoticed. She has lent her voice to protests on many environmental issues and became a freelance activist.

She created CARE (Concerned Artists Resisting Extinction) in 2019 as a way for artists to have a voice over their environmental concerns. She organised a delegation to Canberra with the work of many artists in a recreated Dodo Egg. This was presented to the Minister of Environment to highlight their concerns about neglect of the environment. Since that beginning, there have been coordinated ongoing exhibitions across Gippsland and they hold a ‘Threatened Species’ project every year in September with several schools in the Bairnsdale and Sale areas involved. This will hopefully be expanded in the future. Dawn has been fearless when working for the preservation and protection of the environment, never afraid to put herself out there to further the cause. She even walked the length of Swanston Street in Melbourne dressed in a greater glider possum costume that she and Chris had made.

Dawn was a past committee member of Gippsland Art Gallery in Sale and her voice can be heard fortnightly on ABC Radio Gippsland about happenings on the local art scene. She also conducts occasional workshops from time to time to share her skills with others. She works tirelessly to give back in so many ways.

Dawn’s husband Chris is also a talented award-winning artist and sculptor. His work concentrates on nature as well, with his animal sculptures being highly collected.

Dawn in Canberra with Darren Chester MP for Gippsland and Sussan Ley former Minister for the Environment preserve the bush for future generations."

The couple are a dynamic artistic duo supporting each other with a lifelong passion for art and nature.

Dawn reflects on her life, proud of the fact that she and Chris have been able to raise their family while both working as fulltime artists, an extremely difficult task. She has experienced a rollercoaster of trends and fashions in taste and has kept going, her name now a recognisable constant in the local and national art scene. She has continually reinvented herself and her work, currently describing herself as a ‘watercolour tragic’ as she explores another new medium. Of course these new works are already accomplished and stunning. She also has a passion for painting miniatures, an age-old tradition. Her ingenuity, exploration and interest is endless.

Her artistic passion has spilled over into her pursuit of protection for the environment, her seven grandchildren being an added factor in wanting to preserve the bush and wildlife for future generations. She is a dynamo with whatever she does and has a steely determination to succeed, which she has done in spades. She is a living local treasure who truly deserves the accolades bestowed upon her. gl