Trudie Trewin

I love the Ukulele. There, I’ve said it – and in a public forum to boot! It’s fun and lively, and captures the relaxed lifestyle of the Pacific Ocean tropics perfectly. Cairns is holding its inaugural Ukulele Festival this week and I’m looking forward to kicking back on the Esplanade and listening to some of the performances. (For those currently in the grip of the cold snap down south, it’s likely that there will be blue skies, and around 27 beautiful degrees drifting lazily on the breeze!)

One component of the festival is the Uke Art Exhibition on display at the Cairns Regional Gallery. Some local, national and international artists have decorated ukuleles, which will be sold to raise money for the Duchenne Foundation. I browsed through the eclectic collection last weekend, and thought I’d share some of my favourites with you.

Some were decorated with lovely paintings…

Hayley Gillespie

John Phillips

Shaun Tan

Karen Cousens

Some were decorated with paper or beads…

Some were amazing, but unplayable!

Geoff Dixon

kendall Booth-Thomson

And this one played itself…

Kevin Mayo

This one was cool, but a little scary…

Greg Dwyer

But these four were my favourites. So much fun, just like the ukulele…

Gary Myers

Tohby Riddle

Colin Thompson

Michael Salmon

Some of these ukuleles are for sale on ebay, with the proceeds going to the Duchenne Foundation. Here’s the link:

http://shop.ebay.com.au/dmdfoundation/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340