By Tanya Faulkner
From behind the bank teller to in front of the canvas, one Upwey local is proving that you can make your dreams come true at any age.
Upwey artist Tracey Samios is celebrating her biggest milestone in her art career this month, at the young age of 60 years, with her first solo art exhibition set to be on show for the community to see her work.
Ms Samios said it’s been a crazy journey for her to have reached this point in her career, and it all started because of Covid.
“I started painting in lockdown after seeing a 10 week painting challenge on Facebook, and thought, ‘why not?’,” she said.
Before retiring, Ms Samios was a long-standing employee at the Bendigo Bank – Rowville branch for 16 years before the lockdowns happened.
“All my life I wanted to be an artist, but I didn’t think I had the talent to do it,” she said.
After seeing the challenge on Facebook, she stocked up on canvases, paints, an easel and everything she needed to start painting.
Every Saturday of the challenge, the participants were given a photo of reference to paint that day, and submit to the challenge by the end of the day.
“We weren’t told how to paint the image, we were just given the reference, and we had to send progress photos onto the group page at 12pm, 2pm, and 4pm, with the final one at 6pm,” she said.
Ms Samios said it was amazing to see the progress photos from the others in the challenge, and seeing how they came up with their pieces.
“I learned so much in the 10 weeks, and started thinking to myself ‘I can actually do this’,” she said.
After completing the challenge, Ms Samios went about setting up her own art studio in, what used to be, her dining room at home, and began painting every day.
“I’d had my eyes opened on how to paint, and it’s what kept me sane during lockdown,” she said.
After a while Ms Samios came across a website called Blue Thumb that sells artworks, and started sharing her pieces online.
“After one piece sold I was shocked, now I’ve sold almost 30 pieces in the past year,” she said.
With her newfound confidence, she was inspired to apply for a studio at the Burrinja Cultural Centre to take the next step in her art career.
The newly renovated facility boasts high-quality features for upcoming and current artists in the community, and the extensive Burrinja Aerie program, making it an ideal space for Ms Samios to keep taking strides in her career.
At the time of interviewing, she has now been there for one year alongside several other artists, and has her first solo exhibition coming up later this month.
Creative Director and CEO of Bunjurra Cultural Centre Gareth Hart said the Burrinja Aerie program is a great opportunity for the on-site artists.
“It’s a year-long development program for our local creatives, providing essential skills such as social networking, industry connections, skills development and the opportunity to exhibit a solo body of work at Burrinja,” they said.
They said it’s hard for artists these days to secure these types of exhibitions to show off their work outside of group exhibitions.
“It is a major opportunity for artists, as solo exhibitions are difficult to secure in the industry, and enable artists to take their work and practice to the next level,” they said.
To put together a solo exhibition, Gareth said artists must develop a theme, content and narrative around their work, which can be quite challenging.
“Exhibitions like this also enable artists to develop new audiences for their work, new conversations about their work, and often gently encourages or pushes an artist toward new modes of practice.
“Burrinja is thrilled to support Tracey Samios’ debut solo exhibition, which truly is a celebration of colour, form and a life long dream realised,” they said.
For Ms Samios, it’s been an amazing journey of realisation in her later years, finally picking up her passion and running with it.
“I knew I wanted to do art when I was 18 years old and still in school,” she said.
At the time she was in school, the requirements to ‘make it’ in the art industry were much tougher than they are today, which made things difficult for her.
“Back in my day you didn’t pay for university to become an artist, you had to have a high-quality portfolio that was judged for you to get in.
Unfortunately, back then, I didn’t get in,” she said.
Over the past 40 odd years Ms Samios has strayed from her true passion, trading it in for a successful working career, having just finished a 16 year stint at Bendigo Bank in Rowville before retiring into the lockdowns.
She said over the past couple of years since picking up her passion, she has realised that actually, she does have a natural talent, and says anyone who wants to paint, can.
“To have found this out in my retirement years, I only ask myself ‘why wouldn’t I have learnt that sooner?’,” she said.
Ms Samios also said she was surprised at just how many people are involved in the art scene, particularly in the Hills communities.
“I used to go to a lot of galleries and see a lot of paintings, and now I’m surrounded by an amazing community at Burrinja,” she said.
She said anyone who has a passion and wants to do something, to just go for it.
“If you don’t think you have the skill, but you love doing it, just sitting down and doing it on a regular basis can work wonders for you,” she said.
The public are invited to attend Ms Samios’ opening of ‘Collections of Colour’ exhibition at the Burrinja Cultural Centre in Upwey from 2pm on 22 July.
The full exhibition will be accessible until 2 September.
