Being born in Central Australia and having parents who encouraged my artistic talents throughout my childhood and teenage years set the direction of my life as an Australian desert landscape artist. My parents met in Alice Springs in 1945. At the time my mother on special leave from her work as an army nurse had been chosen to play the leading lady opposite Chips Rafferty in the classic Australian film of the time, "The Overlanders". After his time as a pilot in the Australian war effort in Canada and England my father had come to Alice Springs to be one of the first bush pilots in Connellan Airways flying supplies and mail to outlying cattle stations and outback towns. Over the next 10-15 years we lived on a number of these stations or cattle properties. My mothers love for and knowledge about this extremely diverse, rich and variable desert country grew over the years and naturally influenced me.
	After graduating from the South Australian School of Art (1964-68) I have successfully combined a family life with my painting. In recent years I worked as a volunteer on the first scientific studies done on our fragile desert Coongie Lakes wetlands and Cooper Creek in northern South Australia and southwest Queensland. Through my work not only do I show people the beauty of our vast inland, but I emphasise the importance of the conservation of its unique flora and fauna.
After years of work by the many groups with interests in the Lake Eyre Basin (which include commercial, conservation and cultural) there is now a Catchment Management Committee to oversee all proposed projects and insure sustainable development in the Basin. Scientifically we now know our past mistakes - like excessive clearing of native scrub, damming, irrigation and overgrazing to name but a few. The Lake Eyre Basin, being one sixth the area of Australia (See map) , is still a wild internally draining river system, which over time has evolved its own self regulating boom and bust cycles, directly related to its droughts and/or flooding rains. Through my paintings I endeavour to raise peoples awareness of this important remote area.
	Erika Calder
Contact: 3 Ozone Parade, Seacliff South Australia 5049, Australia Tel: +61 8 8298 4401 Fax: +61 8 8298 1100 E-mail: arterika@bold.net.au
formal curriculum vitae notes from the artist about Lake Eyre Basin and Coongie Lakes an exhibition review