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Exhibition draws on four decades at the easel BY GRAEME WILSON TEWANTIN artist Rose Barry was embarrassed at the quality of her first painting but she persevered and now continues to hone her skills after 40 years at an easel. A late starter in art, Rose’s earlier years were spent “doing shorthand and typing and dressmaking and that sort of thing” followed by a career as a high school teacher and then raising four children. “So, it took me quite a while to get around to painting. It was something I felt I’d missed out on as I was always so busy working and child rearing,” she said. “Then when I did finally try to paint, I couldn’t believe how bad the first painting was. I thought any Year 3 child could do better than that. I felt really embarrassed about how terrible it was.” But that shaky start just made Rose more determined to succeed and she took about three months of weekly watercolour lessons until her teacher moved on. She then decided she would just have to carry on herself, so bought some oil paints and set about teaching herself more “which worked out reasonably well”. To judge for yourself just how far Rose has come since that early setback, visit an exhibition of her work at the Cooroy branch of the Bendigo Bank from May 9 to June 10. Rose is extremely grateful to the bank for giving local artists the opportunity to display their work. “I think it’s a wonderful idea that the Bendigo Bank is opening up its venue as an art showcase for local artists,” she said. It’s very gratifying for the
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Tewantin artist Rose Barry and her little helper Lulu.
artist to see their work up on walls and see their paintings as a body of work.” In keeping with the hinterland location of the exhibition, many of Rose’s paintings on display will be traditional realistic landscapes with bushland featuring predominantly. These works take her back to the early days of learning her craft in Alice Springs when she overcame significant obstacles as she ventured out alone into the outback. “Worst of all were the flies. They get behind your spectacles and buzz around and around between your eye and spectacle so that alone was terrible,” she said. “I didn’t know any other artists so I was all by myself out in the isolated bush and sometimes big vehicles would come crashing
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through and I felt a bit vulnerable sitting out there by myself. “I used to take my cattle dog but he got bored sitting next to me and he would howl and howl like ‘I’ve had enough now mum and I want to go home’.” At the age of 80, Rose feels that age is no barrier to producing quality artwork. “While you definitely have more energy when you’re younger, I think that through all the miles that I have on my paintbrush I must have more skill now than I used to,” she said. “More understanding of what I’m trying to do – a better understanding of how colours mix and the technical side to painting. “So, in myself I feel I can tackle all kinds of things that perhaps I wouldn’t have tried to when I was younger.”
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