About The Artist

Multi award winning artist Paula Wiegmink was born in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and exhibits internationally. She immigrated to Perth, Western Australia in 1994 with her husband and children. Recently Paula and her husband relocated to Dunsborough, South Western Australia. After migrating to Johannesburg, South Africa in 1979, she resumed her career teaching classical ballet and modern dance and judged numerous dance festivals and competitions. In 1990 Paula enrolled at the Da Vinci Fine Art Studio under the guidance of Carlo Sdoya who was trained by the masters in Italy. Paula’s first exhibited painting, ‘Homeward Bound’, with the Brush and Chisel Club, was purchased by the South African Railways. 1995, shortly after joining the Canning Arts Group, Perth, Western Australia, Paula was invited to exhibit as ‘Artist of the Month’. She was invited to conduct all media night classes at the Art Centre for the next 6 years. Her teaching extended to the ‘Village Club’ RAAFA retirement village where she conducted classes for 11 years. Her teaching career extended to workshops, artist in residence and private tutoring. 2009, Paula launched her first book titled, ‘Footsteps in Time’ a family journey from the earliest of her ancestors arriving in Africa from 1709 - 2009. Over a 5 year period she returned periodically to Africa where her research took her on an incredible journey. The book launch coincided with her first major solo art exhibition, ‘The Winds of Change’. 2012, a South African conservation group invited Paula to do a large scale painting of a rhino on ‘World Rhino Day’. The WESSA (Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa) offered their stand as a venue during the ‘Sunday Tribune Garden and Home Show’ at the show-grounds in Pietermaritzburg. Before leaving Australia she decided to do a preparatory piece and her painting ‘Tears of the rhino’ – hear my voice was born. This painting emerged from deep within and turned out to be a very confronting image. The organisation asked if they could display this painting alongside a life size iron sculpture of a rhino. The stand won the only gold certificate awarded in that class. Her follow up painting done on sight was titled ‘Freedom of the rhino’ – show me the way. This painting was donated to raise funds for the cause. Paula decided not to sell ‘Tears of the rhino’ but to rather use it as a tool to raise awareness of the global destruction of the rhino species. 2012-2013, Paula was elected president of the Alfred Cove Art Society and is currently an active member of, Save African Rhino Conservation and is a signature member of Artists for Conservation. 2013 in conjunction with the Save African Rhino foundation, Paula donated her time as host and artist in residence for her first African Art Safari in Zimbabwe, raising $6000 AUD for the foundation. In 2014 Paula's painting ‘To the point’ of an African pale chanting goshawk was short-listed for exhibition with the ‘David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year’ in London. Meeting David Shepherd in person on opening night at the Mall Galleries, Mall Street London was the highlight of her trip. 2015, Duke Ingram – Besureis UK, requested permission to use the image of ‘Tears of the rhino’ for the global One fight, Unite- SAY NO awareness poster campaign. The poster is being signed by influential high profile like Dr Jane Goodall, Sir David Attenborough, Noam Chompsky and Ricky Gervais, among many others. https://www.facebook.com/rages.one.fight.unite/ As the campaigns official artist Paula was asked to create a painting of a chimpanzee in celebration of the 25th anniversary of Dr Jane Goodall's Roots and Shoots program. The poster of Paula's painting, 'Tears are not enough' was launched in 2016. 2015, CEO Graeme Stevenson invited Paula to appear on the television art program ‘Colour in Your Life’ recreating her painting ‘Tears of the rhino’. The CIYL series has now gone global. 2015, Artists for Conservation awarded Paula the June monthly honour for outstanding artistic talent and extraordinary contribution to the conservation cause. Paula was invited to exhibit at the 2015/2016 ‘Artists for Conservation’ annual live exhibition held at the Waterfront Hotel followed by Grouse Mountain Resort, Vancouver, Canada. She also featured as international guest youth art instructor, where she co-lead art workshops with Jeffrey Whiting at Grouse Mountain 2015. The 2016 live exhibition toured to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum (ASDM) and 2017 to the Qingdao Lan Wan Art Gallery China. Striving to create awareness using her art as a conduit, Paula draws attention to endangered species and the and fragility of the natural world. Working with a variety of mediums, she is happiest when surrounded by nature soaking up the environment. Paula has a passion for wildlife, still life, portraiture, landscape, photography and writing. Paula’s work is currently represented by private and corporate collections in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique, Portugal, America, Canada, England, France, Spain, Scotland, Ireland, Japan, Holland, and Australia. contact: +61410423433 email: paulaw_art@hotmail.com website: http://paulawiegmink.com.au/ facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paulawiegminkartist Represented by: The Studio Gallery, Yallingup Monet Gallery, Guildford, Western Australia