By Parker McKenzie
Next month at The Hut Gallery, the artists of the Ferntree Gully Art Society will display their work side-by-side in the annual member’s exhibition. Some members have been a part of the society for decades, while others will be seeing their work exhibited for the first time on Sunday October 2.
Ahead of the opening, the Star Mail spoke to the members of the Art Society about their work, the exhibition and collaborating with their fellow artists.
Debbie Ball said last year’s exhibition inspired her to join the Society, where she has been learning from other members.
“When I saw the annual members exhibition last year, it’s what made me want to come to the workshops held here,” she said.
“My picture is the result of my experience within three months, I was able to do a beautiful wedding gift from my nephew and his wife.”
Two of the people she has been learning from are John Dunne and Ross Waggon, who have a combined experience in art of over 120 years.
“I’ve been doing all sorts of art for all my life in some form or another,” Mr Dunne said.
“At the present moment what interests me is teaching people, particularly people who are wanting to begin art even if they aren’t young, and Debbie is a very good example of that.”
Mr Waggon said it is important to have collaboration and group feedback when creating art.
“We all feed off one another. If you analyse all the artists throughout history, regardless of whether they had a formal or informal education, they all worked as a group,” he said.
“They all feed off one another with ideas and techniques, it’s a wonderful learning curve.”
The exhibition features the work of tutors from workshops run by the Ferntree Gully Art Society alongside the people they guide.
Ron Ashworth, a tutor in the workshops, said he enjoys making the viewer of his artwork hard to understand the full scale and depth of what he has created on the canvas.
“You’ve got to attract your attention in the first place, but then you need to have something behind it to make it more significant,” he said.
The exhibition will run until Sunday 30 October and is free to view, with formal awards and presentation at 2pm on Sunday 9 October.
Georgia Brain is one of the newer members of society, embracing art later in life.
Ms Brain said she loves the delicacy and the beauty of working with oils and pastels, and as a chef by trade, she wants to build on the canvas.
“I do more sculptural aspect works. For me, art is about whatever you can find and I love textures,” she said.
“I was a life model for 18 years, so we’re only now coming on this side of the canvas. Hanging art in an exhibition is the best thing you can ever do.”
The Hut Gallery is located at 157 Underwood Road, Ferntree Gully and is open on Fridays from 1pm to 4pm and on weekends from 11am to 4pm. For more information, visit thehutgallery.com.au
