Bio & Rationale
Fiona Francois is a Tasmanian artist based in Deloraine who walked away from a career in video game art and graphic design to chase her own vision. These days her practice leans into imaginative realism, pulling myth and wilderness together in detailed charcoal and graphite drawings. The divine feminine is a recurring presence in her work, alongside themes of ecological oneness and our fragile ties to the natural world. It’s art that doesn’t just sit pretty – it asks you to stop, look, and feel.
Her drawing of the Superb Fairy Wren, featured on Aether’s Blueberry NEIPA, nails that balance of strength and delicacy. Every feather is obsessively rendered, the bird’s blur of movement caught mid-flight as it perches on a gnarled burl like royalty. It’s equal parts motion and stillness, attention and elusiveness – exactly the qualities we wanted to echo in the beer itself: tart fruit, lush body, and a finish that lingers longer than you expect.
What makes Fiona’s work hit home is its atmosphere. There’s detail and technique, sure, but there’s also this emotive charge – a reminder of how much we stand to lose if we forget our place in the environment. That’s why her collaboration with Aether felt like more than a label. It became a marker of a new era for us too: The Art of Craft, where beer and art don’t just decorate each other but amplify each other.
