Joanna Tucker, Yorke Peninsula Country Times
Self-taught Wallaroo artist Debbie Seater has her art projected on the iconic Karoonda Silos in the Murray Mallee for all of January.
Her eleven artworks have been created in multiple mediums —which is not uncommon for Ms Seater.
“Melding individual art forms and traits is a natural process; instinct and fluidity transforming the diverse into assimilated work,” she says.
Ms Seater’s artworks are being displayed as part of the 2025 silo projection calendar series, created by art specialist Illuminart to highlight and support South Australian artists by projecting their artworks on the silos for a full year.
For her submissions, she took existing A4 line works that were already coloured, and amplified them into A3 artworks by placing them on coloured A3 paper.
Ms Seater says she then used a paper mosaic technique to surround them, so they all “move.”
“My process is instinctual and explorative,” she says.
“I don’t have barriers that inhabit where the work wants to go.
“The ultimate aim is to make artwork with a narrative that allows dialogue between the artist and the viewer — highlighting the seen and unseen.”
Ms Seater, who began working as a full-time artist five years ago when she moved to Wallaroo, says she does not like to limit herself to one medium.
“I have a roving perspective — everyday life throws ideas at me and I can catch them or leave them to roam in my consciousness,” she says.
“Eventually, they need to emerge and develop.
“Having several concepts on the go is exciting and vital to encourage the work to speak.”
Ms Seater’s mediums can include large canvases or wood, discarded house paint, line work on paper, illustration, reverse glass painting, reverse glass paper mosaic, paper mosaic, 3D assemblage with found objects, upcycling items with paint and more.
She has previously won the 2023 Kernewek Lowender acquisitive art prize and has successfully received grants for her work from a 2023 Country Arts funding round.
Since 1985, Ms Seater has held exhibitions on Yorke Peninsula including at Edithburgh, Kadina and Moonta and at other locations across Australia.
Ms Seater will be hosting a free, invite only exhibition in the Moonta Gallery of the Arts on February 8.
This exhibition, titled Outsider In, will display 37 of Ms Seater’s artworks.
“The exhibited work will show a diversity of mediums and processes which will highlight a fluidity of being,” Ms Seater says.
“I see myself as an outsider artist with an unorthodox perspective, enjoying freedoms that a conventional artist may not.
“I don’t consider the work to be decorative, but experiential and an immersion into a secretive world.”
Her exhibition will include mediums uch as photography, multi-layered canvases, line work with graphic marker and miniature works in upcycled frames.
Ms Seater will release her third colouring book, Nurture and Nature, at the exhibition.
Ms Seater’s silo artworks are available for viewing from sunset (around 8.45pm) on the Karoonda Silos for the rest of January.
The artworks can also be seen here: https://www.karoonda.com/see-do/art-galleries-sculptures/silo-art.
This article appeared in Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 14 January 2025.