A walk down memory lanes

MAKE your way, through the streets of your town.

A new exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ballarat is highlighting the city’s streets, back roads, houses, and shopfronts.

Streets of your town is a showcase of 24 illustrations by local artist Bren Luke, including one on electronic display.

Luke created the works throughout lockdown periods, and said he’d long had the idea for the collection in his mind.

“I was taking photographs around town while the place was pretty quiet,” he said.

“I took the opportunity to really examine the different aspects of town… The iconic buildings, the underlayer of that, and the not-so iconic, but recognisable and memorable for locals.

“It was an idea I had brewing. [The gallery space] really gave me the opportunity to take it on and work on some local aspects.”

All the works were created using ink on Bristol boards, which is a practice Luke has been implementing for about a decade.

He said the idea behind Streets of your town is to spotlight and celebrate the lesser-known buildings across the city and prompt a reaction from viewers.

“‘Oh, I know that place,’ rather than, ‘I’ve seen that place so many times.’

“You become too familiar with your environment sometimes and it’s not until someone says, ‘can you draw your town?’ when you actually think about what parts of town you’re going to draw,” he said.

“The Bridge Mall Inn is a particular highlight, because I’ve been wanting to draw that for quite a while. That’s a fond building for myself.

“Probably A Winter Laneway as well. I’ve had a really great response to that one because [viewers] remember playing in laneways like that when they were children.”

Streets of your town is on display until Sunday, 5 February.