Julie Payne

Julie Payne is a brilliant leader of art retreats for groups with diverse interests including en-plein-air painting and field drawings. She has exhibited in many solo and collaborative exhibitions within Australia. Her interests are wide-ranging which have led to a diverse arts practice incorporating sculpture, site-specific gardens, drawings and installations. Her unique gardens have been commissioned at the Royal Tasmanian Botanic Gardens, Woolmers Historic Site, the Cataract Gorge and at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery. Julie has lectured within the fields of Architecture, Furniture Design and Sculpture at the University of Tasmania. Here is a link to a video with Julie talking about drawing, sketchbooks, story and travel.

Handmark Gallery

Our lodges, huts and offices feature the work of Handmark's artists. Allanah Dopson and her team are found in Salamanca, Hobart. Allanah curates our Art Walks. The Tasmanian Walking Company and Handmark Gallery are offering a series of 'Art Walks' celebrating Tasmania's unique colour, light, flora, fauna and landscape, hosted by Tasmanian artists. You will be able to walk to different locations, set up in nature, and draw or paint the stunning colours and light of pristine beaches, crystal clear waters, diverse forests and spectacular headlands.

Allanah recommended Julie as her first 'Art' Walk leader because of her teaching experience and her dedication to drawing, both perfect for a walking workshop. 'She has spent a lifetime drawing, around the world, has incredible attention to detail, imparts knowledge with joy and is fascinating. She is the complete package!'

Images in the gallery below are from Julie's sketch book of Bruny Isand and from other sketchbooks from her travels around the world.

Bruny Island Art Retreat - for Travelling Artists (3-days)

Would you like to see and record the amazing places your travel to? With Julie Payne you'll walk to stunning places and learn to draw and paint. You'll learn what goes into the perfect little kit. You'll learn the techniques that help you sketch and paint quickly and how to keep working on your sketches and paintings. Julie is a brilliant, kind, positive and loves to teach. This retreats suits artists of any level interested in travel, drawing and painting. 

Testimonials from previous Julie Payne retreats.

Oh where to start... I really can’t begin to tell you how wonderful our trip with the Tasmanian Walking Company has been. From the very start of communication with you to the walk, the people, the food and the place we could not have anticipated that it would be so so good. Julie was all I knew she would be, thoughtful, diligent and highly skilled at helping us all through the creative processes. The food was awesome.  THANK YOU .... you can trust us all to highly recommend the walk/experience  — Corrie

A fantastic and well organised Australian luxury landscape adventure!  Having Molly and Lil as responsible enthusiastic genuine Tassie guides, with the hard working and talented leading hand of Georgie, hugely added to the whole experience. Outstanding meals!  Wonderful to have the lovely Julie guiding our art in the gorgeous breakout space which was perfect for our group.  Could not have been better! — Jodie

Julie fitted in beautifully, which is a credit to her lovely attitude! The whole mood was of a relaxed holiday, no pressure to be anywhere or get anything done. Perfect. — Louise 

Fabulous trip! Julie Payne was an inspiration. She was so knowledgeable and made time to work with all of us as well as having a hugely positive attitude to life in general. — Sandi 

Julie really was inspiring, the balance between walking, activities and eating was perfect and the food was amazing. — Karen 

Bruny Island Long Weekend

Discover the Bruny Island that inspires artists on an experience that takes you by boat from the Hobart waterfront. Upon arrival, the artist's eye is easily drawn to the familiar: farms and holiday houses set in rolling hills and deserted beaches. These make way for the spectacular. Imposing cliffs above expansive ocean vistas and the pure white sands of brilliant beaches hugged by eucalypt forests.

 Try oysters straight from the ocean and a warm Bruny Island baguette with olive oil. Collect wood-fired bread on the way and indulge in scones with jam and cream, and tea in fine china cups on the Cape Queen Elizabeth track. Experience Bruny's blend of wilderness and comfort; plunge into ocean waters then converse with like-minded artists over a glass of wine around the camp fire. 

An Island Sanctuary 

Our groups have exclusive use of our completely off-grid private accommodation, nestled in amongst tall eucalypts on the foothills of Mt Mangana at the southern end of Bruny Island.

With our days spent walking in wild, powerful, coastal places, our campsite is a sanctuary we can return to each evening. It features a gorgeous bespoke designed celery top timber kitchen and dining room, four canvas tents containing split king beds with quality linen, towels and pillows. The highlight for many of our guests is an incredible hot water shower discretely located with spectacular views!

One of the best things about our accommodation being located at the southern end of Bruny Island is the night sky. With no light pollution, the stars are incredible and occasionally we have been lucky enough to experience the Aurora Australis.

Our Bruny Island Accommodation

Our accommodation is built completely off-grid. We harvest the rain from our roof and pressure feed this water for all of our needs, including the incredible outdoor shower. For our shower and hot water in the kitchen, we use a gas system. A solar panel on the main roof provides the power to run our pumps, small energy efficient lighting in the main structure and just two power points to enable guests to recharge their cameras (they do tend to take a lot of photos!)

The accommodation was architecturally designed to have as little impact on the site as possible. In fact, it has been designed so that it could be easily moved to another site. If this were to happen there would be little evidence of the building's footprint. We built from Celery Top Pine, supplied by Southern Forest Farm Products, just across the channel from Bruny Island at Garden Island Creek. The business has a 'no waste policy'. This means that all the timber used in the construction of our accommodation was salvaged from the southern forests of Tasmania, essentially the timbers left behind as waste in existing forestry coupes.

Once the accommodation was constructed we began a program to restore the rest of the land to its original state. This involved an eradication program for non-native species on the property, as well as a program to re-introduce endemics. Eucalyptus viminalis (white gums) have been planted around the property to support and encourage the very rare and threatened endemic bird species -Forty Spotted Pardalote. These birds only exist where Eucalyptus viminalis occur and Bruny Island is a stronghold for them.