THE spirit of the Mornington Peninsula green wedge has been captured by the brushstrokes of 100 artists in the inaugural Green Wedge Paint Out.
From these works, two have been chosen for major prizes: Winning artist Chris Pubela won a $500 bursary for her work Natural Beauty, an oil on canvas portraying the open spaces around Bittern reservoir. A $250 bursary encouragement award went to William Goodwin for his oil on canvas Green Wedge 1.
The mayor, Cr Bryan Payne, thanked the artists saying the Paint Out had been one of the major highlights of the shire’s Thin Edge of the Green Wedge community awareness campaign.
“The interaction between artists and the landscape of the Green Wedge produced an outstanding collection of works, varying in technique and producing glimpses of the changing moods of the landscapes,” Cr Payne said.
“The paintings enable our community to gain a wider appreciation of the special environment we all enjoy, and the council and community needs to protect.”
From these entries, seven will go on show at the shire offices in Rosebud over the next four months.
Cr Payne thanked peninsula artists Jennifer Riddle and Ken Smith who ran the Green Wedge Paint Outs for the artists, and the work of the council staff who organised, judged and curated the exhibition in the Rosebud council chamber.
“All councillors, staff and visitors will have a constant reminder of the importance of protecting the green wedge, which covers 70 per cent of the Mornington Peninsula Shire,” Cr Payne said.
He congratulated the 100 artists who took part in the event. “The Thin Edge of the Green Wedge has been a highly successful, ongoing program, and we will all look forward to our artists continuing to capture the spirit of the Green Wedge,” he said.
An online gallery of some of the paintings is on the Council’s website: The Thin Edge of the Green Wedge.
First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 28 August 2018
