Vicki Bokros welcomed all and told of her introduction to artwork from Utopia.

Utopia is located four hours north-east of Alice Springs. It is the home of about 2000 Aboriginal people where art is the largest source of income. Their paintings are 99 per cent related to their culture.

Vicki introduced the guests to her love of the artwork. Discovered on an opal selling trip 10 years ago she admired the work and swore she would purchase the painting of her dreams.

The Utopia women started with batik, then painting eventually reached the Utopia artists and being quick drying and no mess, batik became a thing of the past.

Vicki has some amazing paintings hanging on the walls of Down to Earth Opals.

Also featured that evening was new work by local photographer Jenni Brammall.

Jenni said she loved to photograph opal. For her no photo of an opal was ever a true representation of the stone, the photo never did it justice.

With still images of opal, Jenni said what she saw and tried to show with the camera were colour, depth, translucency, light and shape, the way the light wraps around the piece and creates reflections, and the way it penetrates glowing translucent edges and reveals form.

Carved and rough opal are the most enjoyable to photograph and Jenni has photographed opals carved by Daniela L’Abbate.

This new series of close-cropped photos show opal the way Jenni sees it, filling the eyes and mind until there’s no room for anything else.

The Utopia Artworks and Jenni’s photos can be seen at Down to Earth Opals in Morilla Street.