Here she is, the new issue of Galah.
The glorious painting on the cover of our next issue of Galah is by Newcastle-based artist Brett McMahon.
His work makes me feel as if I’m standing inside a landscape rather than looking at one. As if I’m in the bush. It’s emotionally true rather than visually literal. Maya Angelou once said that people may forget what you said or did, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel. McMahon goes straight there.
Inside this issue, Australia’s leading art critic John McDonald writes about McMahon’s return to Newcastle after years making art in Sydney, much of it in black and white:
Everything changed with the move back to Newcastle, although not right away. The chief motivation for the relocation was that life was cheaper and easier outside of Sydney.
As a bushwalker and a surfer, with a tan to prove it, McMahon had plenty more reasons to enjoy a change of scene. “One day we visited Port Stephens with the kids, and went for a bush walk,” he recalls. “It was like this bell went off. It was a beautiful day, and all the things I'd been thinking about came to the surface. I realised: ‘This is just what I need for my own soul and my own kind of sadness.’
And then the colour came flooding back.
This, and so much more, in Galah Issue 14.
Pre-orders (with free shipping) close at midnight Tuesday 17 March 2026. Issue 14 ships ahead of its on-sale date of Monday 13 April 2026.
If you’d like a copy heading your way, you can pre-order here:
I’d love to have you with us for this next issue.
Annabelle
Whether for a reason, a season, or a lifetime, friends are a lifeline in bad times, laughter in good times – the antidote for all life’s absurdities. In this issue, we talk to friends about the ties that bind them. We go gardening beside rivers and railway tracks, marvel at architectural modernism in the bush, investigate a little valley with big ambitions, and go hunting wild bees. We get obsessed with Taylor Swift, baby wombats and tiny museums. And handmade paper. Plus there’s a swag of Galah-inspired ideas, art, books and travel. And baby wombats.
