Carefully selected original and commissioned artworks are integral to the character, detail and design elements of each luxury lodge with many of the properties featuring regional artists’ creations. These not only add beauty and decorative detail to the lodges, they inform and enrich the sense of place and local connection.
During the course of a stay, guests can experience a collection of visual stories reflecting the region in which they stand. Often a reflection of people, community, culture and the natural world, the art reveals the idea of human identities, figures and forms; interwoven metaphors helping us to better understand and feel the place.
For many, a stay at a Luxury Lodge of Australia is like sleeping in a personal gallery, with well-appointed rooms and suites an art sanctuary. There are opportunities to meet locally based artists or participate in workshops and unique, immersive art experiences. In some cases, there is the opportunity to purchase artworks, forging a lasting visual connection with place.
Local Aboriginal artworks create a vibrant space at Longitude 131º. Since taking over the helm of luxury outback camp Longitude 131º in 2013, Baillie Lodges founder and creative director Hayley has worked with First Nations artists in the Red Centre to commission artworks, ceramics, wood carvings and woven baskets for the main lodge and guest tents. A successful multi-faceted partnership with the Ernabella Arts Centre in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands has developed over the ensuing years to include a popular artists-in-residence program where the Ernabella artists paint in the main Dune House overlooking Uluru. To find out more on the partnership, visit.
Guests can experience the art of the Red Centre by timing their stay to align with the Artists in Residence program or through a hands-on Dot Painting With Maruku Arts. By special arrangement, Longitude 131º guests are able to visit the closed community to meet the artists and gain insight into the techniques and ancient stories which form the basis of their artworks and understand the Indigenous symbols used by the artists to depict their Tjukurpa (sacred stories of Country and lore), providing inspiration to create your own ceramic tile to take home. Guests staying 3 nights or more have the opportunity to see the celebrated open air art phenomenon, Field of Light, made up of some 50,000 individual stems crowned with colourful frosted glass bulbs that bloom and appear to sway in the dark.
The average person spends 17 seconds looking at a work of art in a museum. But understanding it requires slowing down and taking time to see the details. Spicers Peak Lodge offers guests a complimentary Art Appreciation Tour through the carefully curated art and sculptures where guests can discover more about the lives of the artists behind the works and learn about the balance, harmony, movement and mediums of the subject matters they portray. For further details, visit.
Based on Allan and Alla’s keen love for art, Lake House features the works of several prominent artists and designers and original artworks by the late co-owner and artist Allan Wolf-Tasker adorn the walls. Wander the gardens at Lake House and you’ll discover bronze sculptures by Lawrence Winder and wood sculptures by local Miriam Porter and The Waterfront Pavilion is home to Anna Wili-Highfield’s sculpture ‘The Wolf’. David Bromley’s artwork is displayed in The Spa. He has twice been named recently by Australian Art Collector magazine as one of Australia’s 50 most collectible artists. Don Wreford is one of Australia’s leading glass artists and Lake House displays a variety of his pieces in private rooms. He was commissioned to produce a gift for the Danish community to present to Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary.
A stay at Capella Lodge offers guests a genuine connection with Lord Howe Island; its landscape, wildlife and community. A commitment to commissioning local designers and artists and using locally-sourced, sustainable materials creates a unique feeling of a ‘sense of place’.
Capella showcases a collection of Bruce Goold’s artwork, woven into the distinctly Australian beach-house style with artefacts and textiles playing their part in the form of vintage linocuts by the Australian printmaker. Famous around the world for the vivid graphics that made the Mambo surf brand so distinctive, Bruce has a special affinity with the lodge and also Lord Howe Island having curated a collection of his artworks and fabric designs for ‘Capella South’ as it was known in the early days.
Baillie Lodges partnered with Joshua Yeldham in the first artist residency program at Capella Lodge on Lord Howe Island. Josh created several artworks for his exhibition, Providence, which showed at Sydney’s Arthouse Gallery. Joshua’s major Lord Howe work has already sold for $50,000 with proceeds going to Cool Australia, a not-for-profit that helps educators engage young learners in the area of environment. “I try to encourage nature as our teacher, the great adapter, the shape-changer, says Joshua. “By linking Cool Australia with Lord Howe Island scientists, we hope to develop a learning platform that explains how extraordinarily pristine this island is.
Art has the power to transport and transform us, the sensory power to leave a life-long impression. The artworks commissioned by the lodges reflect elements that are deep and complex. They tell the stories of place, celebrate and install awareness of the land and its people, their culture and unique appeal.
For more information about art at the lodges, visit.
