Community & Business
16 February, 2022
50 years of the Oakey Art Group
The Oakey Art Group has turned 50 years old and members are reflecting on the Group’s long history within the community.
Ros Mason, who is the longest serving member, went to the Group’s second meeting fifty years ago in 1972.
“We only had about four or five books back then,” Ms Mason said.
“There was nothing you could refer to that would tell you how to draw a flower,” she said.
“Now we have beautiful books you can rent out from our library which tell you how to draw anything!”
Many of the members started off as beginners because there was no other art group in
the area.
“I’ve come from not being able to draw a bucket”, Ms Mason said.
Now she and other members have created beautiful pieces of art which are displayed around their studio and are available to purchase.
The Art Group’s studio is open for the public to visit and view the members’ artwork displayed on the wall.
The group wants the studio to be treated as a gallery space and have people from Toowoomba and nearby towns come visit for morning tea or lunch.
The group self-funded the studio mostly
through annual seminars, which would feature guest artists.
The seminars ran for a period of twenty years and during this time the Group had forty members from across the region.
“We had students from Alice Springs, New Zealand and Western Australia come to the Seminars”, Ms Mason said.
“And the Flying Arts schools would come and give us classes once every few months,” she said.
“This club is life changing,” member Sheila Greet said.
“Just being around like-minded people,”
The Group members reminisced about their day trips to Brisbane galleries and how they
travelled to Canberra one year.
The group has implemented modern technology in the age of Covid.
“We have a camera and a television set up because of Covid and it films what they’re doing
on the table and projects it onto the screen, so we don’t have to move from our desks,” Ms Greet said.
“We are probably one of the only art groups that has this state-of-the art method of teaching,” she said.
The Group has its own published book, which was released in commemoration of its
40th anniversary, detailing the history of the club and some of its prolific members.
You can get involved with the Oakey Art Group by attending an upcoming pastel workshop in April.
Members will also be holding their annual art exhibition in October, where they will be drawing the winner for their raffle.
Raffle tickets are available for purchase raffle tickets now at the Oakey Art Group.
More details about the exhibition will be shared closer to the date.
