Merrett Keech

Visual artistSurfboard art
Written By Angela Hoskins

Art Trail 2025, Coochiemudlo Island

 

Merrett Keech, the artist at work amongst the mangroves on Coochiemudlo Island

Merrett Keech, Redlands Art Award finalist 2024 for her work ’Last line of defence’.

Nature’s True Surfboads. Shaped, hand-painted cuttlefish, by Merrett Keech

Recycled, repurposed surfboard, by Merrett Keech

Hand-painted mud crab shell, by Merrett Keech

Drawing, creating, making, problem solving and using a variety of materials has always been a part of my life. My life dream as a teenager was to be a High school Art and History Teacher and so at 28 years of age, as a single mum, I went first back to High school to complete my year 11 and 12 before completing my Bachelor of Education. As an art teacher I loved helping students to discover their innate creative spirit and potential in art. I am now retired and since I moved to Coochiemudlo Island, I have focused on creating and selling my artwork. I have clarified my purpose which is “to make the ordinary extraordinary”.

I paint, crochet and sculpt. I paint portraits, stylized landscapes, social issues, stones, eggs, cuttlefish, crab shells. I crochet hats, children’s jackets, bags, flip flops, beanies, hanging sculptured fish and plant holders. I sculpt stone plant/candle holders; and recycle the decking rope from Coochiemudlo ferry into lampshades, lamp bases, angels etc.

Meet Merrett and see her work at:

Studio #4, 37 James Street

 
Angela Hoskins

Built my first site in 2000 and steadily learned what it takes to make websites work. Dabbled in WordPress back then, still do. Since building my first Squarespace site in 2016, I’ve been impressed with the relatively streamlined approach to website design and development that Squarespace offers compared to WordPress. SEO was a major challenge from the start — I’ve spent a lot of time keeping up with what’s required to get sites working, ranking well on a SERP. I have confidence with what Squarespace offers for SEO.

Having worked for more than 10 years in the web team of an inland, regional university in Australia and dealing with frustrations that come with working for a large corporate enterprise, the idea of setting up my own web design business became my goal.

Set up my business in late 2017. Opted for a sea change, too: I now live on Coochiemudlo Island 45 minutes from Brisbane. Love working from home. Love working for small business clients. Still get casual work with the university.

Challenges? The main one is pricing my work for small businesses. Doing quality work, doing the research to be up to date in the industry, takes time; it’s hard to factor in this time to my pricing while being competitive in the market and affordable for many small businesses.

https://sitecontent.com.au
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