Irene Lehmann, is a First Nations woman, born and raised on Horn Island in the Torres Strait, Cape York and northern Queensland, Australia. Her First Nations family originates from the Umai (Dog) clan from Saibai Island in the Torres Strait, and Irene’s father was a Germany immigrant who was a self-taught artist and her inspiration. Irene’s Indigenous and multicultural heritage plays a big role in Irene’s artistic expression, and as seen in vibrant and colourful artwork. With a contemporary style using mixed media (watercolours, acrylic, acrylic ink, alcohol ink, spray paint), on 300gsm paper and canvas, sharing her Torres Strait Islander culture, lifestyle and spirituality. It’s only in the last 3 years Irene started to seriously focus on further developing herself as an artist and designer. This led to her undertaking her lastest project involving the creation of mixed media paintings that have been used in illustrating six recently published childrens’ books by Professor Kerry Arabena, a Meriam woman. The books will be part of a 10 book learning set that aims to share traditional Meriam Mir language by including them in short early learning stories about contemporary Torres Strait Islander families and lifestyles.
Irene prefers an unrestrictive, intuitive, free flowing and eclectic style of art, that embraces and blends First Nations Australians, Eastern, and Western cultures, that are reflected in her family’s heritage and that of many Torres Strait Islanders. Always drawn to art at school, Irene decided to take up painting, drawing, and pottery while studying to be primary school teacher in the early 1980s, and later in 1995. Since this time, Irene has mainly enjoyed her artwork as a hobby in her free time over the years, creating paintings as gifts for her family, while working as a full-time, as a teacher, educator and public servant. Irene finds inspiration from the joys of life and love of nature, the rivers, creeks, oceans, especially the unique and beautiful flora and fauna of Australia. The beauty and colours of the tropics, rainforest, deserts and the Great Barrier Reef are the inspiration for her art, with a large range of subjects. Irene has a passion for connecting with others on a deeper and more spiritual level through her art, and creating a shared understanding of the true meaning of life. A love of Earth, place and living shine through her art as she explores and plays with colour combinations, shapes, perspectives, lines, and space to create inspirational artwork. Irene loves the patterns found in nature, in the flora and fauna, landscapes and seascapes, and sometimes describes her art as abstract and postimpressionistic. Some of the early art also include illustrative art have been created specifically for a Torres Strait children’s book set for early learning. As a part-time artist, Irene is still growing her art and enjoys exploring and learning about how to work with different medium, surfaces and styles.