Bradley Short, owner and gallerist at Milton House Gallery, has a love for plein air painting, the practice of experiencing painting and drawing in the landscape, which he shares with fellow artists; Tim Allen, Rhett Brewer, Chris Langlois, Steve Lopes and Ron McBurnie.
Having painted with these artists around Australia for the last 12 years, Mr Short welcomed them, most from Sydney, to the Mackay region last year.
“I get to travel all around Australia and I thought I’d bring them to our country up here to give them a taste of our area, a very different landscape to what we’ve painted down south,” Mr Short said.
The group travelled to Seaforth from which they spent four days exploring the islands by boat in resplendent north Queensland sunshine.
“We just travelled around, finding spots and just dropping the guys off to paint and they would just spend the day making art on location,” Mr Short said.
Mr Short said the artists were blown away, walking away with a whole new respect for the area.
“As artists, we just spend the whole day looking,” he said.
“You just sit and look and appreciate and study what you’ve got in front of you as a plein air painter.
“I think they just thought it was amazing, they’ve absolutely raved over it.”
The result of the trip is ‘A Bit Further North’, on show until mid-November at Milton House Gallery.
The exhibition’s opening night saw a large crowd of excited art lovers and creatives from all corners of Queensland make their way to Mackay.
The exhibition was officially opened by Member for Whitsunday Amanda Camm and with a live performance by local country music legend Graeme Connors, who was also a part of the travelling group of artists.
The artists were all in attendance, sharing tales from their trip and the inspiration behind their work.
“The really important part is bringing artists into our area,” Mr Short said.
“It’s great to have fresh art coming into our area and presenting fresh art to Mackay artists, too, and seeing other people’s takes on our area.”
The exhibition is open to view until November 16 at Milton House Gallery, Milton Street Mackay and online at miltonhouse.gallery.
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