By Liane Arno

USUALLY we manage to get away over winter but we have had a whole series of health scares between the two of us that we are stuck at home in wet and windy Wonthaggi.

So snuggled up in front of the fire or under a doona we have been plotting and planning what we will enter into the Bass Coast Artists’ Society’s spring art show.

We are rank amateurs when it comes to art and have only engaged in the practice since retiring to the Bass Coast but we are giving it a go.  

When I thought to do art at high school, my mother, who was amongst other things, an art teacher, said, in her poshest of accents, “Oh Liane, you’re not good enough.”  Not really the most inspiring of statements.

Matt also had leanings towards art but his parents, in the style of the day, thought that it wasn’t really something a “bloke” should do and so he ended up joining the bank and becoming a career banker.

So when we came to the Bass Coast Shire we joined the Bass Coast Artists’ Society (BCAS) and had a go.  Matt won a prize witha  portrait of a cancer survivor. It was his first attempt at scumbling, a process using an almost dry brush.

I won a couple of prizes for ceramics which seems to be something I can do rather than painting.  What I love about BCAS is that it is all about social inclusion.  It is about participation and having a venue where professionals and amateurs can interact and learn from each other.

Like so many organisations they have had their ups and downs and have had to adapt through changing times, most particularly when the Bass Coast Shire Council decided it would no longer support the Your Art Collection Award.  This meant BCAS’s Easter Exhibition lost the support of artists, which was a main source of revenue.

But they are reinvigorating themselves and over the Melbourne Cup Weekend will be holding a spring art show to get us out of the doldrums.  

If you think you have a bent towards creating art why not create something and enter to celebrate spring?  You could win a couple of hundred bucks with your 2D or 3D piece.  

If you are youthful you could win the same amount.  Not saying anything but the last show at ArtSpace there was only one under 18 applicant and she won, so the odds are good!  There is also a people's choice award of $100.

More details via Trybooking. 

Don’t make excuses – just do it.