Members of a local art group have hit a winning streak with their recent successes at the Boonah Show – and are now busily preparing exhibits for the next local show at Canungra on August 20.
It’s a welcome change of pace for the Beaudesert U3A art group who meet weekly to encourage each other and swap comments, as the art exhibition world has been disturbed – like so many of our routines – by Covid cancellations of local shows, including Beaudesert, over the past two years.
Now there is a determined air among the group members.
Although the art group welcomes all-comers no matter what their experience, and there is no pressure or expectation that anyone will want to exhibit their work, convenor Denice Knight says there has been an upsurge in the number willing to try their hand in open competition.
“At Boonah we came away with prizes for seven of our eight entrants,” she said. (The eighth, Paul Neal, sold a painting of an English scene painted from his own photo taken during a trip to the UK, in what was only his second art show).
And as multiple-winner Michael Goebel added, “Selling their work is the best thing that can happen to a painter. It’s encouragement to keep trying.”
Michael won six prizes at the show, including a first and second, and also sold a painting. It followed his success at the Marburg Show where he also won the People’s Choice award.
For Marlene Knights, who arrived in town a year ago knowing noone in Beaudesert until she joined U3A, the show was an encouragement from her “standing start” as a newbie and she was inspired to take numerous photos of her group’s entries. Looking back, she is amazed at how far she has come and has concentrated recently on paintings of various animals.
“I didn’t really know what I could do,” she says.
