IF you missed the work of local Mornington Peninsula artists at the 2026 AGRA Exhibition of The Australian Guild of Realist Artists in Melbourne – you have another opportunity to view their work.
Work by artists such as Lyn Mellady, Craig Penny, Lulu Clifton-Evans and Catherine Hamilton featured in the exhibition of The Australian Guild of Realist Artists at the Victorian Artists Society, with the works now going online in the AGRA Gallery. The paintings will be available for sale for the next year.
The major exhibition of more than 110 artworks was organised by Clifton-Evans of Frankston South with Mornington artist Lyn Mellady helping curate the hanging of the works.
Judges were Victorian Artists Society Historian Andrew Mackenzie OAM of Mt Eliza; the Curator, City of Boroondara Rachel Keir-Smith; and former AGRA president and teacher at the Peninsula Artists Society, Colin Johnson.
Colin Johnson, who taught at the Peninsula Arts Society in Frankston for more than a decade, was thrilled to meet up with many of his former students from throughout the Mornington Peninsula and see their work in the exhibition and online gallery.
The historic guild was started by artists including Sir William Dargie CBE, Kenneth Jack AM MBE and Kath Ballard OAM more than 50 years ago.
Colin Johnson, the guild’s third president, was presented at the exhibition opening with a lithograph by the Jack family that he completed in 1964 under the guidance of his former teacher Kenneth Jack.
“Ken mentored me, and I followed as president after he proposed me as an an AGRA committee member and history is now repeating itself as Lulu, a former student of mine, is now reinvigorating and running AGRA,” he said. “We have come full circle and long may it continue.”
The nationwide guild was resurrected by Lulu Clifton-Evans after it closed in 2023 with the guild now having directors throughout Australia for the first time and a growing membership throughout the greater Frankston and Mornington Peninsula areas.
