Standing at the back of a tilting ship, Dianne Nally couldn’t describe in words what she was seeing.

So, she decided to paint it.

On Saturday, October 11, Ms Nally opened her exhibition ‘All at Sea with Dianne Nally & Friends’ at the Kyabram Town Hall Art Gallery, a collection of nautical-themed art pieces.

The exhibition was inspired by her incredible and traumatic experience at sea in January, that both left her in bewilderment and with injuries she is still suffering from 10 months later.

Due to her injuries, she enlisted the help of artists Maryann Jenkins, Anne Paul and Veronica and Russell Lamb from Echuca and Moama to put together a full exhibition capturing the beauty and mystery of the ocean.

Her journey began at midnight, boarding a two-mast motorised ship, with her husband and five other passengers.

Soon into the trip a storm broke out and other crew members and passengers had gone below deck suffering from bad bouts of sea sickness.

On deck it was just her, the coxswain at the tiller, and some monstrous, menacing and mesmerising waves.

“I was just in awe about the whole thing,” Ms Nally said.

“It was like standing on the Big Dipper, it was just up and down, side-to-side. And, when you looked to the side, you just saw a wall of water.

“You put your hand out and touch it … it was just amazing.”

The view she saw is captured in the artwork Awesome Sea, which is a standout piece of the exhibition.

It visualises mountainous waves, a ship attempting to climb them, and two figures barely balancing on the vessel.

Luck was on her side, and she was able to keep balanced, until she made her way below deck.

That was where her luck ran out.

“The swell was getting worse, and the boat finished up in a roll,” Ms Nally said.

“I grabbed for the top bunk, but there was nothing to grab.”

Ms Nally went flying across the room and smashed into the bunk on the other side.

She thought she had broken her back on impact.

“I’ve never had pain like that before,” she said.

From there, the five-day adventure she had in front of her had to be diverted back to the closest port and she was transported to Leongatha Hospital.

The official prognosis was several broken ribs, along with spinal disk issues and pain in her breastplate area.

They are injuries she has suffered from ever since.

However, she could never quite get that visual out of her head: the beauty and chaos of a stormy ocean.

So, she got to work, producing five pieces for the exhibition, and enlisting the help of other artists to create a complete exhibition.

“(Painting) has been a vessel to get (the ocean) out of my head,” Ms Nally said.

“I wanted to do a lot more, but because of the injuries, I haven’t been able to do much in the way of painting.

“So, I got these other artists in from Echuca … and they produce quite excellent other paintings.

“I wanted to show people how it was … you just would not believe it — so I had to show it.”

Other exhibitions in October and November

Same shape, same size: Splinter Contemporary Artists until November 1.

AW9 – Travelling Textile Art: Members of Ozquilt Network from October 22.

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Thursday, 25th December 2025

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