Marysville paintings at the Wintergarden

from w
Occasionally I browse through an art exhbition in Geelong and this time I went to the Wintergarden cafe where there's a gallery upstairs. (Once upon a time a congregational church). A group of local artists - Bruno Callori, Evan Callori, Lianne Gough, Jill Shalless, Faye Owen and Mick Kupresanin - went to the little tourist town of Marysville over a long weekend to paint. The paintings are lovely reminders now of what Marysville once looked like before the dreadful fires ten days ago) - a charming town, beautiful streams and forests. I especially liked the pastel pictures by Faye Owen. She was there working away, her fingers covered with black pastel. I remembered the time of the Ash Wednesday fire and a series of paintings I made the week after, and then the recovery of the bushland six months later. I was an art student at Deakin University at the time with plenty of opportunity to make drawings and paintings.


Behind the Wintergarden cafe is a delightful Stone and Leaf shop crammed with sculptures, plants, decor for gardens, particularly with an Eastern kind of look. (About a year ago I did some drawings there.) The objects were very crowded here, but they would suit a minimalist garden with stones, a buddha, and plants that don't need water. Our neighbour Chris (before the four houses went up) had such a back garden, and today - next door - they are working on the very small garden spaces available now that the houses are up and the paths made, etc. Probably stones and pot plants.