Greetings from TERAVARNA USA! We’re delighted to bring you the exciting news that you have won an award in the “10th ANIMAL” art competition. What wonderful news for “Pete” – Australian Pelican painted in oils. It is always a great honour to receive an award particularly when competing at an international level. Thank you Teravarna [ more info ]
“Waratah” Best of Show – grey Cube Gallery USA – fifth Nature online art show October 2024.
How absolutely fabulous to receive First Place in an International Nature Art Competition. My oil painting of a Tasmanian Green Rosella called “Macca” Jury Judged – First Place amongst hundreds of entries. Thank you US based Gallery4Percent and the panel of judges for selecting my artwork as the overall winner. I couldn’t do what I [ more info ]
“Waratah” Awarded 2nd Place in International Wildlife Competition – International Artist Magazine USA.
My painting called “Jacko” is now the label for delicious Korijekup Honey created by Exploration Honey, Harvey, Western Australia. The land around Harvey was named Korijekup by the Nyoongar people, which means “place of the red-tailed black cockatoo”. Exploration Honey bees have foraged from the forests around Korijekup to produce this beautiful raw honey. Black [ more info ]
Finalist – Holmes Art Prize for Excellence in Realistic Australian Birdlife 2023. Australia’s preeminent bird art competition. “Waratah” painted in oils is one of 40 selected finalist artworks. This painting depicts a pair of Rainbow Lorikeets sitting on one of Australia’s most iconic flowers, the floral emblem for New South Wales. Rainbow Lorikeets are known [ more info ]
How absolutely fabulous to be the featured as the avian artist in the January – February 2023 edition of Parrot News Magazine. The article gives some background on my bird art journey and features many of parrot and cockatoo paintings all lovingly painted in oils. Hude thank you to Parrot Society of Australia Inc. for [ more info ]
A great honour to have my oil painting called “The Stockman” selected as a Finalist in the Collie Art Prize 2023 – theme being Identity. This is the only portrait ever painted of Ray Macnamara – an iconic Australian Stockman was selected as one of 47 finalists jury selected out of 377 national submission. Ray’s [ more info ]
It is is always an honor to be re-invited to teach at the annual Albany Summer School. This year I returned for a third time to celebrate the 63rd anniversary of one of Australia’s longest running Summer School Events. Once again my class was fully booked with a team of 12 talented and enthusiastic students [ more info ]
My oil painting of a female Gang-gang Cockatoo called “Cherry Ripe” received an Award of Excellence at Australia’s preeminent bird art competition the Holmes Prize for Realistic Australian Bird Art 2022. Just to be chosen as one of the 35 competition finalist is a major achievement. To receive an Award of Excellence amongst Australia’s leading [ more info ]
“Chick Pea” my painting of a smiling Carnaby Cockatoo is now the Currambine Primary School Emblem. Thanks to Natalie Heartcliffe – Art Specialist at Currambine Primary School a print of my painting of “Chick Pea” will be the face that welcomes everyone to the school. With my permission the print of “Chick Pea” has received [ more info ]
Nominee for APIA Get Set.60 2022 Awards
This year a record 168 artists will be participating in the largest Open Studio event in Australia, possibly the Southern Hemisphere. This is a fabulous opportunity to meet the artists in their creative space and discover what drives their passions. My studio – “The Aviary” the creative home of my birdlife artworks painted in oils [ more info ]
Finalist – Holmes Art Prize for Realistic Australian Bird Art 2022
Translating a client’s vision can be fun and challenging all at the same time. In this instance my client awoke to a vision following major heart surgery. My job was to translate the vision onto canvas. From obtaining a written brief, sourcing reference photos, developing conceptual ideas for client approval and creating a significantly personal [ more info ]
“The Art of Birds – Meet Nicky Shelton” A few weeks ago I was approached to do an interview with Bird Buddy . If you haven’t heard of Bird Buddy the product is a smart bird feeder that notifies you of bird visitors, captures photos of birds who visit the birdfeeder and organises the photos [ more info ]
Noongar bird stories – from an article by Peter Hancock, Sydney Morning Herald, April 5, 2014 When the birds were competing for their colours, the most difficult colour to obtain was blue, which was kept in the sky. The birds realised that only the highest-flying bird would be able to snatch some of the sky’s [ more info ]
Every West Aussie is familiar with the melodious chortling of the magpies’ “dawn chorus”, but few know that in Aboriginal stories these birds are credited with creating the very first sunrise. According the Noongar Dreaming, the sky was once so close to the ground that trees could not grow, people had to crawl and all [ more info ]
“Swoop” – Wins his second international Award. He has been awarded Hon. Mention in the Traditional category of USA based Fusion Art – 4th Into the Wild Art Exhibition. This is a jury judged competition and the second international award this painting has received. “Swoop” has previously been jury judged “Best Painting in Show” by [ more info ]
Commission above was created for a client who requested a series of bird artworks – Birds specific to the Margaret River Region. Thank you to photographer Judy Walker for graciously allowing use of your Scarlet Robin image used as inspiration. During a hugely successful 2021 Open Studios, I was commissioned to complete a number of [ more info ]
As a thank you to all who visited my studio during the September 2021 Open Studios event, I ran a competition to win a print of The Chaperone. We had nearly 400 entries, and estimated our total number of visitors at around 500. Charlie and the other fur kids (Goblin and Spike the Alpaca’s and Sheep) were [ more info ]
2021 will be my first year as a participant in the Margaret River Region Open Studios. This year will be the largest and most exciting Open Studios event in Australia. With over 140 artists opening their doors to the public showcasing a huge diversity of amazing artistic talent including glass blowers, tattoo artists, carpet makers, [ more info ]
Nicky Shelton Australian Brid Artist selected as Featured Artist – Artsy Shark
“Lenny” the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo has been successfully selected for inclusion in the Capecare acquisition project 2021. Capecare is today the largest regionally based independent aged care provider in Western Australia. They are an organisation dedicated to supporting the local art community by acquireing and displaying art throughout their residential care buildings for residents, their families, [ more info ]
The conversion of our old rustic stables into my new artist studio is a dream come true! Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would one day have my very own dedicated creative space (40 square meters) to splash paint, display my Birdlife artworks and share my oil painting techniques with like minded [ more info ]
