Chern’ee Sutton features in Marie Claire and RACQ magazines

Young indigenous artist Chern’ee Sutton has packed a lot into her 26 years, from designing football jerseys to launching $2 coins. Now, with international travel resuming, she reveals her bright future plans.

Chern’ee Sutton has become a household name.

The young Kalkadoon woman started painting at 13, entering and winning her first art competition in 2009.

Her list of achievements in the time since then could fill a book.

Her art has hung in Parliament House, in the office of the Queensland governor and in 2021 her design was added to a special release $2 coin.

Chern’ee’s paintings also hang in the State Library of Queensland, the office of the minister of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs as well as four artworks at Tennis Australia where she exhibited in 2014.

Her specially designed indigenous artwork chocolates are sold Australia-wide and in 2018 her artwork was added to Commonwealth Games mascot Borobi, with Chern‘ee writing his story as well.

Chern'ee Sutton and her piece titled ‘Remembering the Past, Looking to the Future’.

It’s also Chern’ee’s designs that graces the 2021 Indigenous All Stars jerseys for the NRL men’s and women’s teams.

Her list of awards and gongs for achievements and leadership are myriad and her works have been showcased in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore.

But Chern’ee still has much of the world to conquer.

Chern’ee has clocked up accolades in the years since winning her first art competition.

“This last year has been huge for me, I finally launched my new circulating and un-circulating $2 coin in collaboration with the Australian Mint and the defence force, I was chosen as the Australian Indigenous Artist for the FIFA women’s world cup and I have worked with many big businesses and corporations on projects, a lot of which are still yet to be unveiled, some local here in Bundy, some nationwide and some international so this year is going to be even more exciting,” she told the Bundaberg NewsMail.

Chern'ee Sutton has plans for an international exhibition. Picture: Patrick Woods.

“ I still would love to travel around the world with an international travelling exhibition of my artwork, I had some big plans that were put on hold due to Covid, so I’m hoping to pick up where I left off.”

The pandemic affected the artist, but more so in changing how she operated.

“I’ve been incredibly lucky with my work during Covid,” Chern’ee said.

“I did notice at first my website sales were down, but I was lucky enough to have a constant flow of corporate commissions, the more commissions I painted the more corporations and businesses reached out to me for designs.

“Now, two years on and I’m busier than I’ve ever been, I currently have a five-month waiting list for commissions and haven’t even had a chance to paint any more pieces to add to my website.”

Chern’ee Sutton designed the paintings on the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games mascot, Borobi.

For those wanting to own a Sutton artwork, Chern’ee reveals her siblings Brooke and Jesse are also artists in the contemporary indigenous space.

“My younger brother and sister have many beautiful pieces available currently though which is great for people looking for a Sutton artwork, but who can’t get one from me just yet until I catch up,” she said.

“For anyone who would like an artwork, my Siblings Brooke and Jesse have some amazing pieces still available and for anyone who wants to follow our journeys, we all have Facebook and Instagram pages where we share our paintings and achievements.”

And of course, this year has brought even more reasons to celebrate, with Chern’ee featured in both Marie Claire magazine and The Road Ahead, the RACQ’s magazine for members.

“I feel incredibly honoured to be featured in one of Australia’s leading fashion magazines, they did a fantastic article on me and my artwork,” she said.

“Having my artwork on the front cover of RACQ’s Road Ahead magazine was amazing, I received a lot of great exposure from being on the cover and the story about me inside as well.

“There were so many positive responses and people sending me photos of their copies when they received them in the mail, I still receive messages from people telling me how beautiful the cover was.”

One thing is for sure as the young Aussie painter goes from strength to strength - her talents will keep making the community, and the country, proud.

Chern’ee has enjoyed designing the Indigenous All Stars jerseys.