BERNI AYREART
Painter, Printmaker, Photographer and Artist bookmaker. b.1961 -
Berni's early Art practice prior to1980 included group exhibitions around Sydney and suburbs, including popular exhibitions in Hyde Park, Birkenhead Point, the Sydney Showground and public painting alongside other practising artists on footpaths around Sydney.
In 1984 Berni is a Bio Medical Forensic Photographer, and parttime Photo Journalist. It is Photojournalism and her weekend rural travel that provided Berni with an extensive photographic portfolio depicting land and life of country Australia that would inspire a reinvigorated passion to paint once retied after 1990.
Berni's paintings and prints, reveal her connection to Indigenous culture, respect for country and an affinity with multiple art techniques to achieve alluring landscapes and detailed illistrative fauna and flora.
Viewers are enticed to closer view works seemingly invited to consider the Artist's journey and sensory experience when immersed in nature.
Berni's technique usually includes first painting or sketching traditionally "en plein air". Back in the studio using a variety of techniques, her works are then semi abstracted, layered with marks and additional brush work that provide unexpected detail, patterns, and imaginative light play. Occassionly works include shredded natural materials, a deliberate choice by the Artist to further document "place".
It is to be noted that Berni is primarily self taught, with only early instruction from her school Art teacher, the Avant-guarde artist George Balyck. Later incidental friendships with Artists she found painting around the Sydney's habourside led mostly to encouragement, providing Berni with their old brushes, tubes of paint and discarded unfinished canvases. Some of these Artists included James R Jackson, and Luna Park artists: Martin Sharp and Peter Kingston.
In 1977 on leaving school Berni was invited to exhibit at the prestigous Artarmon International Art Gallery where she was awarded an 'Encouragement' certificate and a Scolarship to study overseas. Her parents declined the scolarship opportunity citing her age. Seeking further inspiration Berni participated in public weekend market workshops at the Woolahra School of Art, and studied Graphic Arts in the evenings, achieving a Diploma of Printing and Photography.
Forty years of creativity sees Berni's paintings and commissioned murals in Government collections, work spaces, museums and conference centres. Her landscapes and detailed Fauna and Flora illistrations, prints and photography are exhibited across Australia in regional galleries as well as private collections and galleries in Great Britain, Canada, the Royal collection of Tonga, and the City collection of Rotorua New Zealand.
Berni is a frequent entrant in the Maritime Art Prize, Archibald, and various Australian Landscape Prizes, Rotart Art Shows and an exhibiting member of the Victorian Artists Society.
She is a commited volunteer mentor for VCE Arts Students, isolated regional and indigenous students, and those with additional needs, Berni welcomes students into her studio and conducts student and adult tours of Galleries, offering inspirational guidance hoping to fuel others passion to create. Berni also continues her volunteer role as an Arts Culture and Heritage Adviser for local and state Governments.
'My aim when I paint is to respectfully record what surrounds me and share my sensory experience with others the best way I can through my art. I am continually inspired by the Australian landscape, its unique fauna and flora, the seasonal changes, textures, colours and light play. I am guided by cultural understanding from a First Nation perspective and my love and care for 'Country'. While my early works were influenced by the city and suburbs where I spent my school years, I have found my true place in rural Australia where I am more comfortable to immerse myself in my work surrounded by all that nature offers.
Updated Dec. 2025
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