Description / Inspiration

Dr Stu Dent is a proud new member of the Rural Clinical School campus at the University of NSW, Port Macquarie, one of 5 UNSW Rural Clinical School campuses which provide medical training for undergraduate
students who want to be doctors in rural and regional areas, including Albury/Wodonga, Coffs Harbour, Griffith and Wagga Wagga.

Established in 2000, the Rural Clinical School has also been responsible for the UNSW Indigenous special entry medical student program. At his university home, Dr Stu Dent has local koalas for neighbours so the good doctor takes their health seriously too, making sure there are water bowls around if the koalas get thirsty during this long dry season, when gum trees might not have sufficient moisture in their leaves.

Artist Biography

Pauline Roods has lived in Port Macquarie since her early childhood, and has been painting for over 30 years.

Pauline attended private art classes and completed an art degree at NSW TAFE. Pauline is a Contemporary Realist Artist, preferring to work with Acrylic, Mixed Media and Watercolour.

Pauline was twice finalist in the NSW TAFE Fine/Arts Prize, an entrant in the Wynn Art Prize and invitational finalist in the “Salon De Refuse”.

Pauline has been published in the Australian Artist, Artist Palette and Acrylic Artists magazines. She was also a finalist in the top 50 artists for the 2016 Australian Contemporary Art Awards, People’s Choice winner for the Australian Lung Foundation, 2016 Just One Breath competition and NSW finalist in the Family Circle Painting/Craft Competition.

Her most recent works have been commissions, of her signature underwater style, Australian wildlife paintings, individual portraits and emotive war paintings.

Pauline has been commissioned as an artist for 7 Hello Koala Sculptures including Mack The Surf Life Saver, The Mayor of the Koala Republic, Forest, Woody, Shelly, Kenny Koala and Ranger Riley and his customised table on which he stands.

Every painting is individual, placing the viewer within that scene. Pauline’s original artworks are created to awaken the viewer’s imagination and stimulate their senses. Pauline’s paintings are highly sought after and hang in private, commercial and public collections in Australia and around the world.

Pauline has had 5 recent exhibitions in Italy, has numerous awards, and is a regular guest artist in various art publications. Pauline has been commissioned to paint 16 Hello Koalas Sculptures including her latest The Big Koala, Spirit of All Koalas at Guulabaa, Place of Koala, the new tourism and educational precinct in the Cowarra State Forest – an initiative of Forestry Corporation of NSW.

Pauline has also been commissioned to create the highly successful Hello Koalas Colouring Book, and a Hop for Hope Celebrity Kangaroo for the Alannah Madeline Foundation Celebrity Auction, in the Yarra Valley, Victoria in 2016.

Pauline has had exhibitions in Australia and Japan, with 2 exhibitions in Rome Italy in 2015, a further 2 exhibitions in February and March 2016 in Soriano, and a selected artist to represent Australia at the 2016 Italian/Australian Trade Fair in Assisi. Her works hang in collections both private and commercial, in Australia, Japan, Singapore, America, New Zealand, Fiji and now Italy.