The Central Tablelands' weather is not usually listed as the top reason to relocate locally, but it has proved the magnet for one talented creative.

Orange’s bracing climate was the key factor in accomplished artist Naomi Lawler’s move from the sun-drenched north, with her associated health stuggles informing her work.

Decades-long battles with a cluster of auto-immune conditions — as well as the sudden, unforeseen death of her beloved brother more than a decade ago — spurred on her creative drive and to realise the importance of seizing the moment in both creativity and life.

Naomi is soon to launch her quasi-realist-surreal show at new independent gallery, Artwork Orange in Lords Place, exhibiting her unique catalogue of personal original works with an official opening on Saturday, November 22.

“I came down from Queensland from near Brisbane, at Ipswich 13 years ago, I’ve been chronically-ill since I was 18 and, when I was in my early twenties, I moved in with my granny who was in Orange,” Noami revealed.

“I thought I’d try living away from home, I was in chronic pain in Queensland with Fibromyalgia — heat and humidity exacerbate my condition — but I realised I wasn’t really well enough to live alone,” she added.

It was then that tragedy struck when her healthy and outgoing sibling suddenly died with a brain haemorrhage after showing no warning symptoms other than the odd headache.

“When my brother passed away, my parents were looking for a change so, instead of me moving back there, they came here.

“Mum’s family are from around here, at Dubbo, and this block was available… it was a sheep paddock then, and they built here and put on a granny flat.”

Through all these trials, Naomi rediscovered the love of art that she had as a student, and has now come out the other side.

“I’m recovering, my body wasn’t resilient, but I’m now building that resilience,” Naomi revealed. “I think creative people tend to be a bit more positive, to think that things will get better.”

Refining her craft through a range of visual creative forms after her familial loss, however, has been no walk across an open field, Naomi recalled.

“I was always very creative, but I didn’t have any self-confidence, I was bullied at school and, though I did do art in Year 12, I didn’t think I was any good.

“My brother died not long after I moved to Orange, and I was sketching to help me process it; I started with a bit of graphic design, and that got me interested in water colours,” Naomi explained.

With her art blossoming and her confidence growing, she decided to take a punt on publicly exhibiting her work.

“It was at The Corner Store Gallery, and I exhibited illustrations there, I was transitioning then to oils, completely self-taught, and then I won a mini-series art prize in 2019.

“I was then able to hold a solo exhibition in 2020 at the same venue and, after that, I found my self-portrait had been accepted as a finalist in the inaugural Darling Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.”

Despite her success, Naomi has continued to battle feelings of inadequacy that so often plague creatives in all fields.

“Throughout this whole thing, I kept feeling I wasn’t good enough, I think to a certain extent, every artist has ‘imposter syndrome’.

“I’m now getting counselling for this with a psychologist, which is leading to a lot of deeper stuff,” she said.

Having independent galleries in country towns provides a wonderful and unique opportunity for emerging artists to display their works, Naomi told 'Orange City Life' from her idyllic studio located on her parents' semi-rural property.

“I am very excited, it’s a good opportunity with a lot of the works here to be on display,” she said, looking around at her varied pieces.

“I call my style ‘Imaginative Realism’; it has an element of the surreal but, at the same time, you can see what the painting is.”

Art, she believes, offers us a glimpse of how life can be, not just what it is, with all its pressures and worries.

“It’s showing that life’s beautiful, even when it’s hard and heart-breaking,” Naomi said. “Even when you’re doing something difficult; even when it’s dark, there’s always light.”