Art career move

By Tania Martin
LONG-time friends and artists Pat Buoncristiani and Kerry Willis have joined together to share their work with hills art critics
The pair has been chosen as the artists’ of the month at the Lady Hawke Café in Mt Dandenong.
They will exhibit their work together for the first time in the hills during May.
For Ms Buoncristiani painting has been a passion since childhood but it wasn’t until she retired 15 years ago that she started taking her art seriously.
“I always wanted to paint but I never had the time,” she said.
Ms Buoncristiani spends half the year in the United States and the other half at her home in Emerald.
She is inspired by painting landscapes both in the hills and Virginia, USA.
Ms Buoncristiani’s work is currently being showed in the USA and she is now exploring ways of sharing her work closer to home with fellow art lovers.
“I’m just getting started with my art,” she said.
“I studied fine art at university and always had a love for it but never had the time to for it.”
Ms Buoncristiani said retiring from her day-time job as a school principal had opened up a whole new world of art for her.
“I now have time to paint, it’s such a joy,” she said.
For Kerry Willis of Kallista retiring has also provided her with a launching pad for her love of art.
After retiring from her job as a works manager for VicRoads, Ms Willis decided to give in to her passion for art. She joined an art course and started to draw and paint.
“I was always fascinated by art since I was a small child, but there were always other things that took over,” Ms Willis said.
“But now I’m retired I have time to explore my art.”
Ms Willis said although she only completed two months of her art course, it gave her the inspiration she needed to pursue her passion for painting.
She has done a number of landscape paintings and several cartoons for the upcoming exhibition.
Although not her first exhibition, Ms Buoncristiani is still nervous about her first ever showing in the hills.
“But we will be there to lean on each other for comfort,” she said.
The Exhibition at the Lady Hawke Café in Mt Dandenong will run for the month on May from 9am to 4pm, from Thursday to Monday.
However, the exhibition will be officially opened on Saturday 3 May at 7pm.
The Lady Hawke is at 1365 Mt Dandenong Tourist Road, Mt Dandenong.