IN HEATHER Tobias’s 85th year, the last thing she was expecting was her first solo exhibition. “It’s taken all this time,” she marvels.
Not that Heather is Wonthaggi’s Grandma Moses. She was part of a vibrant Bass Coast arts scene from the 1980s to the early 2000s, and actually taught art and used to show her work in the annual Bass Coast Art Group exhibitions – but this is the first time her work has been exhibited as a collection.
Earlier this year, ArtSpace Wonthaggi curators Ursula Theinert, Susan Hall and Karin Ellis visited Heather after hearing she wanted to exhibit some of her work in the gallery. “We were amazed at the breadth of work that had been tucked away unseen for so many years,” Karin recalls.