Pull on your winter woollies and come on out and get inspired during the Winter Arts Festival.
The Winter Arts Festivals is a month of performances, events, workshops, film screenings, digital stories, exhibitions and the much-loved Open Studios weekend.
The Open Studio event is where local artists open their studio doors for everyone to visit on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 July from 10am to 4pm.
SECAN (South Eastern Contemporary Art Network) is also keeping the Open Studio event going for all of July and the first Sunday of August on each Saturday and Sunday.
This year a group of five SECAN artists will be doing demonstrations and showing their artworks at Gate 6 Gallery in Berwick.
The lockdown periods have either been a blessing or a curse to artists, and the Winter Arts Festival is a chance to get out and see what local artists have been up to during lockdown while hopefully giving others inspiration to get creative again.
Kathleen Kendall has taken full advantage of not being able to attend her day job and has used the time to explore different techniques and mediums.
During the Winter Arts Festival her focus will be on her cat series in acrylic paint and also a recycled paper artwork.
Jennie-Maree Tempest brings nature to life in fabric and thread with her botanical textile sculptures.
Phil Nevin has recently been forced to reduce the dimensions of his large acrylic painted canvasses and is now confined to small rapid-fire cartoon sketches of unsuspecting random passers-by.
During the Open Studio event, Phil hopes to sketch 1000 faces on a full table length sheet of paper.
Monique Clift spent the period creating a body of work for her recent group exhibition ’The Italian Job’, which sadly had to close part way through during the most recent lockdown.
These works explore a range of mediums and techniques, including painting, pastel drawing, printmaking and ceramics.
During Open Studios some of these works will be shown and Monique will be demonstrating hand building with clay.
Elma Young will also be displaying her amazing natural plant fibre woven sculptures and basketry.
The gallery is located at the back of Akoonah Park, with entry via gate six on the corner of Gamble and Cardinia Streets, Berwick.
