On the trail for local talent

A FIXTURE of Golden Plains Shire’s creative scene is set to return later this year.

The Golden Plains Arts Trail, run each year by members of GP Arts, will showcase dozens of the region’s visual creatives with registrations to exhibit closing next Friday.

The two-day event is set to take place on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 April, and GP Arts president Jen Jones said it’ll highlight Golden Plains Shire-based creatives at varying locations.

“We’ll have artists at the Bannockburn Stadium, the Teesdale Hall, and we have a number of people so far at Smythesdale and Dereel right across to Garibaldi at quite a few different spots,” she said.

“We’ll all be displaying and working the whole weekend so the public can see us and talk to us about what we’re painting or about what medium we do.

“We have such diversity in our artists and it’s revealing talent that doesn’t get seen a lot of the time.”

Jones has been participating in the Arts Trail for six years and will be among about 20 artists exhibiting at the Bannockburn Community Sports Stadium over the weekend, where she’ll work on three pieces.

She’ll also be displaying about half a dozen mostly pastel and acrylic paintings ranging from still life to treescapes and portraiture, and said like every year, she’s excited to see what her fellow local artists are up to.

“I just love the leadup to it and meeting people right across the state that come and look at our art but also getting back to working with the artists we have in Golden Plains,” she said.

“I love to look at their works and see how they’ve developed over the years. It’s absolutely a great way to reconnect.”

Last year’s Arts Trail saw 65 artists displaying at 20 different venues including home studios, with a directory set to be distributed in February.

The event is being supported with a $25,000 Berrybank Wind Farm community grant which will carry into next year’s offering.