Luminous Frogs

All in together: it's getting quite raucous.

The colours in this painting are pretty strong, but it makes for a very deep and interesting night-time scene. It’s one of the artworks I created for children’s book “Snuggled Away” written by Cate Storey. We considered including mating frogs, but felt this was inappropriate for a children’s book and compromised with the tadpole eggs!

Adding the tiny details of texture on the skin of the frogs and their markings was gratifying. Cate Storey’s daughter Aggie calls the Bleating Tree Frog (top left corner) the “Rainbow Frog” which is so perfect and indeed even the sky has a bit of a rainbow in it too, mirroring the frog and completing the composition.

Bleating Tree Frog and Striped Marsh Frog with Blue Lotus, White Water Fringe and Swamp Lily.

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Sarah Matsuda is a fine artist and children's book painter living in Paddington, Brisbane. Specialising in mixed media, Sarah works on a range of commissioned pieces for books, portraits and also figurative pieces for sale.

The third generation artist on both sides of her family, Sarah's mother is Robyn Bauer the fine artist painter & her father is Mark Andrews the sculptor who created the larger than life "Sheep" at Teneriffe, Brisbane. Her grandmothers Joan Bauer & Pixie Joan Andrews were also both well known, Brisbane artists. Sarah’s first exhibition was a joint exhibition at the age of 13 years old with her mother Robyn, where she showed lino prints coloured with watercolour and sculptures of animals in clay.

Sarah's first solo show was in 2022, in conjunction with the launch of a beautiful children’s book about Australian wildlife called “Snuggled Away” written by Cate Storey and illustrated by Sarah. They have also published a second book "The Perfect Hollow" and their third book "Sunny Finds His Song" is about to be released.

You can commission artworks for subjects including brides and wedding images, boudoir, breastfeeding mother and baby, family portraits & pregnancy.