Art Guided by Soul & Place
Deb McMenamin is a mixed-media artist based on the Gold Coast, Australia, creating expressive, intuitive works inspired by nature, travel, and soul connection.
After dedicating over four decades to teaching art, Deb shifted her focus to her own creative practice — building a vibrant studio life rooted in curiosity, colour, and a deep connection to place.
From the layered blues of the Pacific Ocean to the vibrant energy of the Sri Lankan jungle, her work captures the beauty in stillness, movement, and memory. In 2025, she completed a month-long residency at the Macushla Artist Residency in the UNESCO-listed Sri Lankan highlands, where her Soul Elements series took shape — inspired by sacred landscapes, temple rituals, and the magic of everyday encounters.
Her recent journey into surfing at 59 has deepened her relationship with the sea, adding another layer of movement, joy, and freedom to her creative process.
Each piece Deb creates invites viewers to experience the same sense of freedom and inspiration she finds in the natural world.
My Story
I was born in Melbourne and grew up on the beachfront at St Kilda, where my parents ran a little seafood restaurant called Beachcombers. The ocean has felt like home for as long as I can remember.
I spent more than forty years teaching art. Work I loved, but somewhere in there the making had become something I did for everyone but myself. Stepping back to paint full-time felt like coming home a second time: to colour, to curiosity, and to the quiet thrill of never quite knowing how a piece will turn out.
These days I'm on the ninth floor above Palm Beach, where the ocean shifts colour outside my window from one moment to the next. Currumbin Alley is my local, and at 59 I learned to surf, which has changed the way I see more than I ever expected. Those dawn starts plunge you straight into living art: the first light on the water, colour spreading across the sky, everyone in the lineup falling quiet at once.
“Sometimes I see a colour I’ve never seen before and try to mix it. Sometimes I get there, sometimes I don’t, but it’s the trying I love.”
— Deb McMenamin
That wonder is what I'm really chasing in the studio. My work is intuitive and a little experimental, I'm forever trying to coax the critical part of my brain out of the way and let play take the lead.
Travels through Indonesia, India and Nepal, and a month in the Sri Lankan highlands, deepened all of it and gave shape to Soul Elements.
More than anything, I hope the work carries some of the joy, awe and gratitude I feel in this place I'm lucky enough to call home.
Artist Bio
Solo Exhibitions
- 2025Soul Elements, Love Street Store, Gold Coast
- 2024Low Tide, Love Street Store, Gold Coast
Group Exhibitions
- 2024Foot Square (finalist), Aspire Gallery, Brisbane
- Untethered, Burleigh Art Hub, Gold Coast
- Festival of the Arts, St Hilda's School, Gold Coast
Public Features
- 2025Currumbin RSL, QLD — artwork acquired for the permanent collection and featured on venue menus
- 2024Artist Closeup, Nov 2024
Residency
- 2025Macushla Residency, Sri Lankan Highlands
Soul Elements.
Born from a residency in the Sri Lankan highlands, Soul Elements is my most personal body of work — a journey through earth, water, fire and air.
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