Painter takes on for Easter Art Show duties

KANGAROO Flat local Col Brown has been announced as the resident artist for this year’s Rotary Bendigo Easter Arts Show.

A regular contributor to the Show, Brown was awarded best oil/acrylic piece at last year’s event for his work I Got Bit, which was painted in his classic “bush art” style.

Coming in as the resident artist, Brown said the lead up to this year’s event had been a bit different.

“Thankfully they let me know just after Christmas because I have been working frantically ever since,” he said.

“As resident I don’t just have the usual four pieces I enter, but I need all the other pieces to put on display as well.”

Brown has been painting and drawing for as long as he can remember, and he said his talent is something his mum takes credit for.

“My mother always attributed my artistic ability to her,” he said. “She said I was a brat of a kid when I was little and a bit hyperactive.

“So, to give her some peace she would give me a box of pencils and a few bits of paper to keep me quiet.”

It was while away on holidays that Brown realised he might have a future in the art world.

“I went down to the beach, set up my camp, put up my easel and started painting these little five by seven-inch canvases,” he said. “I would paint one, pull it off and put it aside.

“Then I feel this little tap on my shoulder, so I turn around and there are about 20 people watching me.

“A guy asked me how much I wanted for one of them, so I said five dollars. He said, ‘I’ll take that one down there and the one you are working on now’.

“I ended up cutting all my canvases up to five by sevens and it paid for my holiday while I was down there.”

You can catch Brown at this year’s Easter Art Show run by the Rotary Club of Bendigo at Town Hall from Friday, 7 April to Monday, 10 April.