Inspire: Amy Ullrich finds her passions in the Albany landscape, King Alfred the Great and her faith in God

Amy Ullrich is a talented young artist who paints the landscapes around Albany in watercolours. Her art will be on show in all sorts of places throughout the bicentenary, as will her writing as the third book in her medieval adventure series is due out in August. It’s a twin trail of creativity in which one artistic passion is being used to fund the other; her painting — plus a bit of tutoring in art and English — allows her to pursue her dream of becoming a full-time writer. One minute, then, she has brush in hand and a painting of Middleton Beach on an easel. The next she is immersed in England around the time of King Alfred the Great, composing tales of derring-do in ye olde county of Wessex. For most of us King Alfred is the fellow who burned the cakes while hiding from the Vikings. For Ullrich, he’s heroic, a man without whom we would be living in a completely different world. “I’m fascinated by King Alfred; I discovered he was a writer and that intrigued me because I’ve always loved writing,” she said. “His life story really resonated and the more I discovered, the more I realised the world would be a completely different place but for him. “He was a passionate reader of the bible and built his moral and legal code around it. “He’s the only King of England to be called ‘the Great’ but he was fundamentally an ordinary person. “He knew defeat, suffered from a long, unknown illness and died aged 50.” The new book Among The Valiant comes after Among The Great and Among The Outcast, and will be available in paperback and online. But in the meantime, it’s painting which pays most of the bills and she’s hoping to do well during the bicentenary. As well as being unusually gifted in a creative way, she is also commercially minded. For while she loves her art and enjoys committing the beauty of the Great Southern on to paper, she gets almost as much pleasure from selling her work as she does creating it. “I have always been into entrepreneurship and wanted to sell things — I was selling paintings before I was officially selling paintings,” she laughed. “I had a friend as a child who made cards to sell, and I wanted to do it too but was too young. “Ironically, I’ve actually ended up selling thousands of cards myself. “The Lighting of the Sound is extending the art season which is great as I have some 200th anniversary products, cards and prints and special stickers.” Her favourite place to paint is Middleton Beach — it’s both beautiful and commercial, especially when cruise ships come to town and want a bite-sized souvenir of their stop. “I love Middleton Beach, especially sunrises and sunsets which allow me to change my colour palettes a bit and discover new ones,” Ullrich said. “I don’t paint anything I hate just to sell it, but I do listen to my customers.” Ullrich does still have time to create on a whim, as evidenced by her current project. “I was driving back from a student’s house and saw a beautiful sunset on the King River,” she said. “I don’t usually drive to students’ houses but it was a fabulous spot so I stopped and took pictures.” It’s from photos, usually taken herself, that she bases her paintings while the use of watercolours comes from her grandfather and a childhood in South Africa. “Watercolours are what my grandfather taught me, and I like them because you don’t have to paint exactly what is there,” she said. “You can use splodges of paint which can look like a real person and I have started adding little bits of flora and fauna, and people, to my later works. “He got me started I didn’t even get that advanced but he had done enough to get me going. “My mum kept encouraging me to keep practising.” While art and writing keep her busy, the third strand to Ullrich’s life is her faith, which is her guiding star. “I don’t really remember when it really started but I was quite young, probably about four,” she said. “I started reading the bible and my faith is something which has grown from that. “It is just a blessing in my life, a joy and a privilege. “I would say to anyone to read the Bible. “It is a book of timeless adventures which applies to all people; God is with you and cares for you and reading the Bible helps you get to know him.” The bicentenary with its markets and commercial opportunities is her focus but the writing will flourish in winter when the tourists and the celebrations die down. “I’m taking the writing a day at a time, but my art definitely supports my writing and although I have a flexible schedule, I try to write for two hours a day,” she said. “Writing full-time would be a dream come true but it’s a huge amount of work.”