Mornington Art 2010

The Mail Art Exhibition, Presented By The Rotary Club of Mornington Incorporated

Accompanied by a fellow artist, I attended the Mornington Art Show for 2010. It has been a few years since I have attended one of these, the last one I recall was the Camberwell Rotary Art Show (a few years ago).

These events, which as a previous displaying artist and attendee, I approach with mixed feelings. Because of their popularity, a lot of artists want to display their works at these events and this is where the mixed emotions come in. It was my experience as a young artist that because of the sheer quantity of works and the limited space, many paintings are not given enough room to be well appreciated. This was the case in the late 1970's and still seems to be the case now.

Had I been exhibiting in this show, I would have been most displeased to see my works displayed well below hip height or crammed into a corner. As a viewer this makes it very hard to appreciate each work on its merit. The thought occurred to me that either a larger venue is required or a limit on the amount of works submitted from each artist (given that some had over ten paintings in the show).

Because of the large amount of works, a better "graphic" map showing the placements of works would have been helpful as well. I was searching for submissions by colleagues and admired artists that I know of and found that it was a fairly difficult task to find their paintings.

It was good, however, to see a big representation from members of the McClelland Artist Guild and as usual they had done a great job with their works. Also great to see was the ways in which some artists had combined three or four different skills into the one work to come up with innovative, creative and beautiful pieces. This was even reflected in the framing of some paintings which has given me some fresh new ideas for my own works.

On leaving the venue, I was and still having mixed feelings about this event. It seemed to me that the choice of venue was a let down to the quality of many of the artworks and did not lend itself to a high standard due to paintings that are selling for between $1,500 and $10,000. It would also possibly not attract the type of buyers prepared to spend that sort of money. The works themselves were enlightening, innovative, professional and in some cases just plain beautiful. They were a lovely distraction and education for a Saturday afternoon. Given a better venue I possibly would have spent more time there, sitting to enjoy taking in the little details that made some of the works so special.

Janice Mills

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