Artists who successfully weave multiple passions into their work are rarer than you might think. Canberra artist Derryth Nash blends her love of music with a deep connection to the natural world in ways both unexpected and beautiful.

Currently exhibiting at The Link Gallery until Sunday 15 March, Derryth’s Songbird collection showcases two distinct but complementary bodies of work: contemporary acrylic wildlife paintings focused on birds, and intimate sculptures crafted from recycled guitar strings, feathers, and found materials. Together, they tell the story of an artist who sees rhythm in nature and finds music in everything she creates.

From Woden Valley Youth Choir to weekend warrior

Derryth’s creative journey started young. 

Growing up in Canberra, she was always musically inclined, singing with the Woden Valley Youth Choir and even touring Japan as a kid. Music wasn’t just a hobby, it was how she understood and connected with the world around her.

“I’ve always loved jamming with friends,” Derryth explains. When she lived in Yass, that love translated into running a community choir. These days, when she’s not working her day job in the community sector, she’s performing as one half of ‘Derryth and Deano’, a guitar-vocal duo with her partner that plays across Canberra’s pubs, clubs, and weddings.

She’s what you might call a “weekend warrior,” someone who balances practical work life with her creative passion. It’s a juggling act many artists know well, but Derryth makes it work, channeling her limited creative time into art. 

Finding art through travel and nature

While music came first, art was always present. Derryth dabbled in art during high school, then studied graphic design after college. But it was a year-long caravan trip around Australia with her former husband and their two boys (then around 10 or 12 years old) that deepened her connection to nature and influenced her artistic direction.

“It was a great way to immerse ourselves in nature and make the most out of life,” Derryth recalls. That year on the road, moving from place to place, spending days outdoors, observing wildlife up close – it left an impression that continues shaping her work today.

Her boys now live in Queensland by the beach, perhaps carrying forward that love of natural spaces their family cultivated during that memorable year of travel.

Derryth’s acrylic bird paintings aren’t traditional wildlife art. They’re bold, contemporary interpretations that capture movement and musicality rather than photographic accuracy. She reimagines birds through vibrant colour and rhythmic composition, translating the songs and movements she observes in nature into visual form.

Some of her work also explores the human form, revealing organic shapes, shifting light, and subtle gestures. Whether painting birds or people, Derryth’s interest lies in capturing something essential – not what subjects look like, but what they feel like.

The sculpture series in Songbird represents Derryth expanding her practice into three dimensions. These intimate pieces use recycled guitar strings (a perfect material for someone who has always had an affinity for music), combined with feathers and other found materials to create nest-like forms.

The nest forms explore themes of home, fragility, and resilience. Nests are temporary structures built with found materials, yet they’re strong enough to protect new life. They’re both vulnerable and purposeful. 

Catching the exhibition

“Songbird” by Derryth Nash runs at The Link Gallery until 15 March, giving Ginninderry residents and visitors plenty of time to experience Derryth’s work firsthand. 

The Link is open 9 am-5 pm weekdays and 10 am-4 pm weekends. Entry is free. For more information, visit The Link or check out the What’s On page of the website.