Stargazer
Contemporary Indigenous artist Lauren Freestone never dreamed of people buying her art, instead imagining painting would remain a hobby outside of her paid work. Today, her pieces grace the walls of homes countrywide. She’s constantly inspired by her childhood spent beneath the Scotts Head sun, her family, their story, the country they call home and the stars above.
She remembers the light first. The way it cast colours skyward and would shapeshift from dawn to dusk.
She remembers how the landscape lay beneath it all, grounded and still.
On Wiradjuri country, the home of Lauren Freestones’ ancestors, the sunset hits sandstone cliffs and throws greens, pinks and earthy golds into the sky – delivering the inspiration she takes to the canvas.
“We walk through the changing light, watch the sun come down over the hills and wait for the stars,” she says.
“There’s something so special about being there – the stillness, the solitude, the connection and sense of belonging.
Home is where the art is
Growing up on Gumbaynggirr Country in Scotts Head, Lauren will always call the ocean home. While she’s since moved to Newcastle, her coastal Gumbaynggirr upbringing and ties to Wiradjuri Country inspire her work to this day, as does the man who first sparked her passion – her dad, artist Lee Freestone.
“His house was like a gallery – there were bits and pieces everywhere,” says Lauren.
“But it wasn’t like the canvases he creates today. He’d collect scraps of wood and metal from his building and plumbing work to paint on, cut up a dining room table to make ornamental boomerangs and carve tiny timber fish. He’d prop those fish up on stands, and we’d place seashells we’d gathered at the base. I was always inspired by watching him create things, he’d come up with something out of nothing.”
Lauren describes her dad as a unique, lifelong creative, someone who enjoys his own space and is very much his own person – but art was the common ground they’d always shared.
“It’s definitely a special bond to have with dad, and one that he shared with his father too,” adds Lauren.
“Taking time out to connect to country together is also really important for us. My great, great-grandfather was a Wiradjuri man called James Gillis McDonald. He was a well-known tracker for the Mudgee police and Henry Lawson’s short story Black Joe was written about him.
“We try to spend as much time as possible out there, to be where our ancestors were and sit beneath the same stars.”
While Lauren followed her dad’s artistic lead, she’s developed her own contemporary style that highlights her love of nature, her family and story. Today, her work’s been featured by brands like Auguste the Label and Bed Threads, appeared on The Block in 2021, and graces the walls of homes countrywide.
But there was a time she didn’t even dream about becoming an artist.
A leap of faith
It started with a conversation with a high school art teacher.
“I was three-quarters of the way through my year 12 major work when my teacher turned to me and said: ‘I don’t really know where this is going…’.
“I stopped working on it immediately and started something new,” says Lauren. “I was gutted. I’d always sort of thought I was okay at art, but it really threw me. In hindsight, I was too much of a perfectionist. I think that came from dad and watching him create his work, which always had such precision and accuracy.”
While art remained Lauren’s favourite school subject, she never pursued further study. Her dad worked on and off around his art, while her mum worked at a bar throughout Lauren’s childhood. The family worked to get by and to make ends meet.
“The idea of university never even crossed my mind,” says Lauren. “I had no idea what I wanted to do and it wasn’t really a big thing for me. I’d worked casually in hospitality on and off since I was 14, so I packed up, moved to the Gold Coast and found work.
“I met my boyfriend – now fiance – there when I was 20. We went to Palm Cove, Cairns, then followed the work to Newcastle, where I eventually got a new job in retail.”
It was here Lauren’s art first started getting noticed. Throughout her travels, she’d continued to buy canvases and paint whenever time allowed. But she never sold her work, instead gifting it to family and friends. While Lauren would have happily continued with her role in the store’s merchandising department forever, people kept asking where they could find her art.
“I loved working in retail, I had a knack for styling and loved putting different things together,” says Lauren. “My step dad Tim triggered that in me. He’s a carpenter and would bring home house plans – I found interior design fascinating and he’d let me choose paint colours and tiles.
“But requests for my work kept on coming, so in one giant leap of faith, we poured our life savings into a website. We’d been saving for a house – another life goal we never expected to reach. That was four years ago now and we’ve never looked back since.”
Perfection in imperfection
These days, you’ll find Lauren creating artwork on an almost daily basis from her home studio in Newcastle. The space backs onto bush, forever providing the gift of birdsong, the shifting light of day and, when the clouds turn, the sound of rain.
“I love painting in the rain, that’s when I’m really in my element,” she says.
“But no matter the weather, I’m always drawn to the natural world, the bush and the beach and the different textures that can bring to a piece. There’s so much inspiration in nature, I’ll often work on multiple pieces at once – each mapped out and brought to life in its own time.
“I’ve learnt it’s not always going to be what I’ve envisaged in my head and that’s okay. My younger creative self would have had a tantrum and thrown it away. Not now – now I’ll leave it, I let it sit and come back to it. There’s perfection in imperfection.”
For Lauren, no matter the vision she has in mind, Indigenous art always comes back to storytelling – the story of her own ancestors and the country they walked before her.
“I’m always trying to put our family story and what’s happened to us into my painting,” says Lauren, who shares a one-year-old son and six-year-old daughter with her husband Lucas.
“I paint for me, for my story and my emotions. Because years from now, when my children look at my artwork and read everything I’ve put into it, I want them to know that’s our history, that’s where we come from. I want them to be proud and to know that anything’s possible. I went from waitressing to running a small business as an artist who can now share my story with the wider community. I never dreamed I’d be doing this today – I hope they reach for the stars too.”
Giving back
Lauren donates 50 per cent of profits from selected artworks to Miimi Mothers Aboriginal Corporation. She has also made donations to Warlga Ngurra Women’s and Children’s Refuge. Both services are putting in the hard yards to support women in their local community.
“I just want to help where I can,” says Lauren. “My great nanna Edith was a big giver she would often bring people in off the street. So I always thought, if I ever get anything good, how can I do more with it? There are so many grassroots organisations, places run by volunteers who are really putting in the hard yards. It’s a small thing I can do, but when you don’t come from a lot of money, you appreciate it so much more and know the impact it can have where it really matters.”
MiiMi Aboriginal Corporation
Established in the late 1980s by Aunty Ruth Walker and founding jindas (sisters) Rita and Florence Ballangarry, the MiiMi Mothers Aboriginal Corporation offered support to Aboriginal women and their families in the Bowraville community. Incorporated in 1993 and governed by a board of management, MiiMi (which means ‘mother’ in the local Gumbaynggirr language) changed its name to MiiMi Aboriginal Corporation to recognise the need for services for the whole community. Today, MiiMi delivers a range of projects and programs including:
NAIDOC week activities.
Through Our Eyes – a language and culture program using music, visual arts and textiles.
Mother / Daughter getaways – promoting better communication skills between mothers and daughters to improve and build their relationship.
Well Women workshops – promoting awareness of breast and ovarian cancer by way of sculpture.
Future Voices I and II – building individual and community resilience to create a strong future for Bowraville and surrounding communities.
Donations can be made to:
MiiMi Aboriginal Corporation
90 High Street, Bowraville
miimi.org.au
admin@miimi.org.au
Warlga Ngurra Women and Children’s Refuge
Located in Newcastle, the Warlga Ngurra Women and Children’s Refuge offers emergency accommodation and support to women who are homeless due to domestic violence. They also provide court, outreach, housing and child support, as well as children’s activities and referrals. The refuge strives to provide a culturally appropriate service to all people from all nations, ensures children’s wellbeing is a priority through early intervention and support networks and embraces change and opportunity for learning.
For more information or to donate, go to:
As Time Passes
Lauren reveals the story behind her artwork, As Time Passes.
“The centre piece represents the sun – the giver of life, bringing the banksias to flower. To the left, the U shapes show people sitting down along the rivers. When in flower, Wiradjuri people soaked banksias in water to make sweet tea. The wood of the banksia tree was used to make small hand tools and the dried cone and its fibres were used to strain water. The earthy pink section shows three campsites – these represent the generations of my family that lived on Wiradjuri Country. The dried banksia cone was also used to carry fire between camps with the clay detail around the campsites and throughout the pink section representing fire.”
