Artists Down Under - Australia and New Zealand - March 2026

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DOWN UNDERartists

Australia and New Zealand

Welcome everyone to another edition of Artists Down Under.

Here we are, it is March already, the start of Autumn. Did you know that the month name “March” was named after Mars, the Roman God of War & it was originally the first month of the Roman Calendar, interesting. It is also known as the month of beginnings.

March also brings celebrations for St Patricks Day on the 17th March, so I thought it only be fair to set our monthly challenge for our artists as “Leprechauns”. A lot of fun was had with this challenge!

We have two artists that have put together a series of art work for you, Rosa Perry, who gave us “The Watcher” series & Ilona Abou-Zolof who shared with us her “Southern Reverie” series. Such amazing talent from both ladies that’s for sure.

Andrew Haysom shares with us his Photoshop tips on Adjustment Layer Upgrades. The Art Buddies challenge for this month was “Abandoned or what has been left behind” and a competition was held by our Coffee & Pixel group to create a new Coffee & Pixel banner. There were some awesome entries & were voted upon by our Artist Down Under members - check out to see their new banner & who the winner was.

Lastly the girls from the Redlands Digital Artists Group share another of their images in their “Chinese Whispers” series. Next month will see their 100th month together, what will they surprise us with for that amazing achievement.

Well that’s it from me for this month, stay safe everyone and look out for each other. Backgrounds:

Pam Henderson

https://colincampbell.myportfolio.com

https://artistsdownunder.com.au/artists-1/colin-campbell/

THREADS AND PATCHES

christina brunton ( AUSTRALIA )

PLAYING THE BLUES THINKING

https://photos.kogekar.com/ https://artistsdownunder.com.au/artist-2/hemant-kogekar/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/88165766@N05/ https://www.artistsdownunder.com.au/artist-3/karen-waalwyk/

artists Achievements monthly down under

artists down under facebook page

The Artists Down Under Public Facebook page has been set up to allow the artists in the group to showcase their work and to enable them to share promotional information about themselves, e.g. exhibitions, awards etc...

You can find the Artists Down Under Public Facebook page at this address; https://www.facebook.com/groups/ArtistsDownUnder/

So, if you are an artist in the group, don’t forget to regularly share your work and information here, and to let your friends and family know about the page if they are interested in viewing the latest art and news from the group.

If you are a reader of the magazine who does not have access to the page, please click the link above and request to join. When you request to join you will be asked to answer three simple questions that will allow us to determine if you are an eligible artist who may wish to join the group and therefore be able to post on the page, or a member of the public who can view, comment and like the work on the page. It’s a great place to see some great art from this vibrant group every day!

Three ADU members receive a special gift

Our very good Awake friend Diane Stafford from WhiteLaneStudio continue to give gifts as a reward for members of the Artists Down Under group who contribute to the ADU Facebook page by regularly posting their artworks and supporting other members with their comments.

Diane Stafford from Chester, UK, designs Photoshop textures and overlays for photo artists and photographers to use in their digital artworks. Diane has created another special kit just for Artists Down Under for the month of MARCH.

Two artists will receive a Diane kit each. Diane Stafford can be found at https://whitelanestudio.co.uk/biolinks

The MARCH lucky winners are

Diane Stafford (WhiteLaneStudio) Texture & Overlay Kit

- Dennis Rickard

- Julie Powell

LIVING THE PHOTO ARTISTIC LIFE

httpshttps://issuu.com/thephotoartisticlife/docs/living_the_photo_artistic_life_-_issue_no._132?fr=sNTA1Yzg0NDE1MDQ

Congratulations to the following artists for having their images chosen to appear in the International magazine “Living The Photo Artistic Life”.

Sandra Dann

- Shattered Dreams

Rosa Perry

- A Measure Of The Heart

CatBeagle Creations

- The Romance

- Coming Home

Kaylene Helliwell

- The Things We See

Denise Hunter Logan

- Be My Valentine

Christina Brunton

- In The Tall Grass

Ilona Abou-Zolof

- Grounded Strength

- Gentle Belonging

Kim Ricci

- Where Memory Still Burns

Maureen Maxwell

- The Spectral Walk

- No! This Can’t Be Happening

Penny de Jong

- Bearing My Heart And Soul

- Who Is The Fairest?

LIVING THE PHOTO ARTISTIC LIFE

https://shiftart.com/shift-art-photoshop-challenge-results-february-2026/

whats on Margaret Kalms

The Healing Power Of Colour

January 25 to March 25, 2026

https://www.healing-power-of-art.org/art-exhibition/

While predominantly yellow and red curved stripes, the design also has greens and purples as a contrast on each side. A filigree spray of fractals overlays on top. The pattern is repeated 4 times in the ordinal directions to create a weaving like pattern.

JANE TOVEY ( AUSTRALIA )

THE LIFE GIVERS

https://artistsdownunder.com.au/artists-3/lynsey-stirland-mitchell/

COMING HOME

https://www.juliepowellphoto.com/ https://artistsdownunder.com.au/artist-2/julie-powell/

POISONED APPLES

http://www.artistsdownunder.com.au/artist-4/pam-henderson/

https://artistsdownunder.com.au/artist-3/kim-ricci/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rosa_perry https://rosa-perry.myportfolio.com/artwork

THE WATCHER AND THE WINGED ONE

THE WATCHER OF TIME

THE WATCHER’S PERCH

THE WATCHER’S CROWN

THE WATCHFUL EYE

WATCHER OF THE GARDEN

https://artistsdownunder.com.au/artist-3/kevin-sims/ www.kevinsims.co.nz

GRAVASTEIN CASTLE PROTEST

https://trish-hoskin.myportfolio.com/

http://www.artistsdownunder.com.au/artist-4/trish-hoskin/

LONDON MEWS

PEACEFUL CORNER

http://www.artistsdownunder.com.au/artist-3/maureen-maxwell/

https://andrewhaysom.myportfolio.com/ https://artistsdownunder.com.au/artists-1/andrew-haysom/

BLUE TWISTS I

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SOME PHOTOSHOP INSPIRATION ADJUSTMENT LAYER UPGRADES

By Andrew Haysom

In the last two major upgrades to Photoshop, Adobe have made some valuable upgrades to adjustment layers.

These are essentially duplicating some functionality that is available in both Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw and making it available as adjustment layers.

In the latest upgrade to Photoshop they have added two new adjustment layers, Clarity and dehaze; and Grain.

In the previous update they updated the Vibrance adjustment layer by adding Temperature and Tint sliders and the White Balance eye dropper, now calling it the Color and vibrance adjustment layer.

You will find these new (and updated) adjustment layers at the top of the adjustment layer menu (see Figure 1).

[Fig 1 – Adjustment Layer Upgrades]

SOME PHOTOSHOP INSPIRATION (CONT .....)

Whilst the functionality of these is not new, and it adds no new capability, I think that by bringing the functionality natively into Photoshop it is a significant change that adds a lot of flexibility

Previously when working in Photoshop, to use these features you would need to make a Stamp Visible layer and then use the Camera Raw filter to make the required change. If you wanted to retain the flexibility of adjusting the chosen settings at some later stage, you would also have to make this new layer a Smart Object.

This is three separate steps, and loading the Camera Raw filter can take some time, so adding an adjustment layer is much quicker and easier.

When making composites and perhaps wanting to make these adjustments to separate elements, clipping an adjustment layer is much easier.

The other significant benefit is in file size savings. Photoshop is not the most space efficient software and adding new pixel/raster layers will quickly bloat the file size.

As an experiment, I created a single layer pixel layer in a Photoshop file and saved it. I then added three copies of that layer and converted each to a Smart Object (simulating using each of the options above) and resaved the Photoshop file. I then deleted these three layers and added each of the three new adjustment layers and resaved the file again.

As you can see from the table below, the savings are significant.

I think that having these things available as adjustment layers might encourage their usage at different times in the workflow too, because many might do them in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw right at the start of the workflow during the initial Raw file processing, when they may be more beneficial at later stages.

It may also encourage other experimentation as well with options like different blend modes.

I like the flexibility and ease of having these options available as adjustment layers, I hope you do too.

Andrew Haysom

http://www.artistsdownunder.com.au/artist-4/penny-de-jong/

THE TENDERNESS OF FRIENDSHIP

DENISE CAUCHI ( AUSTRALIA )

THOR

TIME TO GO

https://artistsdownunder.com.au/artists-1/bev-terawskyj/

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DIGITAL ARTISTS GROUP A COLLABORATIVE GROUP OF PHOTO ARTISTS

CHINESE WHISPERS #99

STAGE 1 STAGE 2

This month I set Maureen quite the challenge, but she has done an amazing job by not only completing the challenge but also adding humour to the scene.

art by ILONA ABOU-ZOLOF SOUTHERN REVERIE

QUIET CANOPY

RIVER LULLABY

https://artistsdownunder.com.au/artist-4/sue-masterson/

DENISE HUNTER LOGAN ( AUSTRALIA )

DEFINE YOURSELF

LET YOUR DREAMS BE YOUR WINGS

https://artistsdownunder.com.au/artist-3/margaret-kalms/

http://artofwoman.com.au

AL BAMASS ( AUSTRALIA )

UPON LICHEN

KALBARRI ABSTRACT

kaylene helliwell ( new zealand )

MAKING NEW FRIENDS

‘COFFEE and PIXELS’

by Maureen Maxwell

THIS MONTHS CHALLENGE THEME IS Create Our New Logo

‘We started off our Coffee and Pixels year by challenging our members to create a new banner for the group. The challenge produced a number of very creative entries. We put the images to a vote (without the name of the creator) and asked our membership to decide by giving a ❤ on their favourite.

It was a close run thing, but Marie Helyar won the challenge and you’ll see her banner for the next twelve months. Congratulations Marie!’

https://www.sandradimagery.com/

SHATTERED DREAMS

KONCZ ( AUSTRALIA )

http://www.artistsdownunder.com.au/artist-2/george-koncz/ http://georgekonczphotography.com/

https://www.artistsdownunder.com.au/artist-3/mick-rooney/

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A COLLABORATIVE GROUP OF PHOTO ARTISTS

QUOTE CHALLENGE by the Art Buddies

A bit of background first:

In our Art Buddies group, we’re a vibrant mix of ADU members from across Australia, each contributing individual talents and viewpoints. Our ‘Art Buddies’ team includes Christina Brunton, Denise Cauchi, Ilona Abou-Zolof, Marie Helyar, Marina Hobbs, Robyn McLauchlan and Ngaire Danvers. We gather regularly on Zoom, taking turns to set our creative challenges.

Challenge: “Abandoned or what has been left behind”

This challenge was set by Marie Helyar.

Create an artwork that explores what lingers after something has ended. This could be:

• A place once full of life

• A relationship, season, or chapter now passed

• A feeling that hasn’t quite faded

Focus on traces, echoes, absence, or quiet presence rather than literal storytelling.

What matters isn’t what is gone — but what is left behind. Let mood, light, texture, or stillness do the work.

Our Art Creations:

We hope our creations motivate you to share your own interpretation on the Artists Down Under Facebook page. Your artistic expression matters to us, and we are excited to see what you create!

artists photographic challenge theme: monthly artistic down under LEPRECHAUNS

Denise Hunter Logan - So It’s Me Gold You Be Wanting!

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E L F - P A C E D & O N L I N E

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julie powell@outlook com www.juliepowellphotography.com

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