Local printmaker and photographer Riste Andrievski hatched a plan to invite 13 leading artists to stay and capture the Illawarra landscape, anyway they pleased.

"The Illawarra has always drawn in artists captivated by the landscape, like Grace Cossington Smith and Max Dupain," he said.

"And so my idea was to get some of Australia's most prominent artists to create contemporary versions of it."

Last week, Landscape Tells the Way: Illawarra opened at Wollongong Art Gallery to visitors and buyers queued out the door.

The exhibition, curated by Andrievski over the space of two years, included more than 50 artworks by Suzanne Archer, Sophie Cape, Elisabeth Cummings, Warwick Keen, Steve Lopes, Jo Lyons, Euan Macleod, Noel McKenna, Reg Mombassa, Andrievski himself, Idris Murphy, Lucy O'Doherty and Amanda Penrose Hart.

"Reg Mombassa's (works) are basically all sold out," he said of the Mambo artist and Mental As Anything muso.

"He had about 15 pieces, so I think there's only three left and it's only been up for a week."

As private buyers snapped up work from the diverse new landscape collection, the city of Wollongong was also quick to acquire pieces for the gallery.

In 2022, Andrievski began calling up his artist friends, many of whom he'd photographed over the years, to pitch them the concept. He didn't need to ask twice.

One by one, they arrived in Wollongong, staying anywhere from three nights to a week, with Andrievski playing chaperone.

Careful not to impose himself on their artistic process, he asked what they wanted to see, before making suggestions and driving them around "like the local I am".

"They were just so captivated by the place," he said.

"Some of them didn't realise how diverse it is and how much beauty there is, from the ocean to the escarpment to the industry to suburbia.

"Wherever they turned, there was fodder to draw from. Amanda was like, 'I'm going to move here'."

He showed them all the major attractions: Sea Cliff Bridge, the beaches, escarpment, Wollongong Harbour, Lake Illawarra and Kiama, as well as an industry tour of Port Kembla Steelworks.

"We all went in and saw that world that no-one really sees and they were just blown away," Andrievski said.

Some of the artists painted in the open air, others made quick studies to complete back in the studio. All of them enjoyed a prolific stay in the Gong.

Their host took them to Kinn Thai in Keira Street for dinner, Diggies in North Wollongong for breakfast and introduced them to fellow artists they met on their travels.

At night, the visitors retired to the rooftop apartment of Wollongong Art Gallery, before returning home to make room for the next guest.

Andrievski has a mental album of lasting images from the past two years: going into the forest with Elizabeth Cummings and watching her abstract interpretation of her surroundings take shape, having Mombassa sketch the view of the escarpment from his Wollongong backyard and Steve Lopes beguiling him with stories of a childhood spent fishing in Kiama, to name but a few.

Perhaps the highlight, however, has been his time spent collaborating with poet and artist Jo Lyons, who came up with the title of the show, Landscape Tells the Way: Illawarra.

"Jo grew up in Wollongong ... so I took her to where I used to live in Cringila and she wrote a poem about me dreaming about the mountains and her dreaming about the steelworks."

That poem is Childhood Dreams, one of 12 written to accompany Andrievski's landscape photographs, which have been placed in an archival container as part of the exhibition.

"Working with Joe Lyon and putting my photos with her poetry was quite special," he said.

"When we'd finished and put them in the cylinder box, we were very touched.

"It captures something and I think it's beneficial to the community and for future generations to look at and read and reflect on."

The landscape exhibition - which builds on a long history of art inspired by the Illawarra, some of the earliest examples of which are the 6000-year-old Aboriginal rock paintings in Whale Cave near Cordeaux Dam - has made Andrievski a very proud man.

"It's phenomenal," he said. "If you look at them individually, they've all got their special mark and signature that captures the area."

Collectively, he said it felt surreal to see a body of work that "materialised from something I saw in my head" hanging in the gallery.

"I feel blessed and humbled that everyone trusted in me and never doubted me," he said, paying special mention to sponsor Nikolovski Lawyers and gallery staff.

"Everyone who sees the artworks say they're so beautiful."

ILLAWARRA MIRROR

Geera, Mount Keira

You pore over the ancient

tree trunks where sunlight

should pour in but the canopy

shields the forest floor. I trace

the path of the treecreeper bird

hopping along the trunks for sap

and insects before swooping over

my head and across the valley.

You dreamt of flight from

the top of this mountain;

I feared flames burning down

the escarpment to home.

We watch the light, the lines,

the angles; we follow the roots

like massive veins and see where

they fall from branches

or diagonal trunks and hang

in space, aiming for the ground

but not quite reaching yet.

From the summit we gaze

down at the tiny container ships

in port where we'd stood last night

and they'd towered over us, where

we'd watched trucks dump slag

into giant containers one by one

in the slow parade of humming

engines and glowing red brake lights,

while the mountain looked down on us.

Jo Lyons, Fire Flowers 2023