Making pictures talk on the Surf Coast Arts Trail

THERE’S a dainty emu wren flitting about Anglesea’s Coogoorah Park, and one day soon it’s going to be famous.

Acclaimed local artist Matthew Solly has been on its tail – taking photos, making notes, building the mind’s eye image which will one day be transformed into an expressive linocut print.

Solly is best-known for his works capturing evocative coastal scenes including land and seascapes, surfers, boards and classic cars, but bush birds are also a favourite, and wrens a favourite among them.

Matthew Solly has spent months observing a tiny emu wren at Anglesea’s Coogoorah Park, gathering inspiration for what will become one of his next linocut prints. Photo: Bobby Dazzler Photography.

“I’ve virtually been following this wren all year. Eventually I’ll do a print of it,” he says with a smile.

The process will take time, and more time, refining the image, exacting the drawing, carving it into the lino so it’s ready to run through the press and it’s a thoughtful process he has made his own during the best part of 30 years.

“Once you’ve got it drawn and got the image that you like, that’s sort of like the wow factor,” Solly says.

“And then it’s time to carve it out. It’s time consuming, but it’s rewarding.

“As you carve you make mistakes and things get cut off that you don’t want to cut off. You can stick them back on but sometimes the mistakes are good and make it more handmade.

“Some things aren’t perfect and you don’t have to have everything perfect all the time. It still evolves as you carve.”

Similarly, Solly’s coastal scenes might leave parts to the imagination.

“It’s the bits that you leave out that makes the picture talk to most people,” he says.

“I try not to put faces in, so it’s more like symbolism. It looks like the right shape for the person but there’ll be no definition, and you can’t see if they’re winking or having a smile.

“With the backgrounds, I won’t do a sky, I won’t do a horizon line, it will just be the landscape.”

Solly will again share his works and methods as part of a popular Solly-Giles family collaboration during this year’s Surf Coast Arts Trail, on 1 and 2 August.

Matthew Solly carves a linocut by hand, a painstaking process he says continues to evolve with every cut, and even the occasional mistake. Photo: Bobby Dazzler Photography.

The 16th annual arts trail is set to attract thousands of people to admire the works and methods of more than 300 artists at 65 venues from hinterland to coast.

The combined attraction of Solly’s works, alongside those of his ceramicist wife Melinda, their surfboard shaper son Will, and Melinda’s parents, printmaker Jill and woodworker Geoff, has historically drawn throngs to their Anglesea base.

“It’s a family show, and we’ll probably get 200 people every day so it’s a massive weekend,” Solly says.

“We love the trail. It’s meeting people and sharing your ideas on art, and then on-selling, sending people to different areas of Anglesea and the Surf Coast to explore more of what’s out there.

“The different people and styles of art they do are amazing.”

People can visit surfcoastartstrail.com.au to learn about artists and venues participating in this year’s trail, and start planning weekend adventures.

Visit @sollymatthew and @fragility_ceramics for samples of the Sollys’ work.

Love the Surf Coast Arts Trail? Enhance your immersion by volunteering for a three-hour shift over the weekend to support an artist or a venue. Visit surfcoast.vic.gov.au/ArtsTrailVolunteer, contact the council’s arts development team on 5261 0600 or visit the council’s civic office at 1 Merrijig Drive, Torquay to find more information.

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