May 11th, 2020Online art exhibition with Trentham Iso Art
The global pandemic might have stopped one of Victoria’s biggest regional art events in the 17th Trentham Easter Art & Craft Show but innovative thinking is instead seeing a stripped-down, online exhibition go ahead.
Show committee member Penny James has, with the support of the full committee, created Trentham Iso Art, an online exhibition which brings artists and art lovers together via Instagram.
Artists and craftspeople are invited to exhibit, and hopefully, sell online through May.
Iso Art judges will then decide prize winners in early June.
Iso Art will buy redeemable vouchers from local Trentham traders to offer instead of the normal cash prizes.
“The thinking was to create a concept that supports artists, supports local traders, helps continue to promote community spirit and is a bit of fun,” Penny said.
Artists are invited to address “Trentham in Iso” as a theme.
As an example, an early entry is an oil portrait of a wistful five-year-old who has not been able to have a hug from her Trentham grandparents since “iso” started.
Ms James wasn’t sure what support the event might receive but had a dozen entries and an initial sale within 24 hours of announcing Trentham Iso Art online via Instagram.
Artists of any age from anywhere – not just Trentham – are invited to submit works of any size in any medium by sending a good quality photograph to info@trenthamartshow.org
The works are displayed at www.instagram.com/trenthamartshow/
Ms James, who said the Trentham Art Show committee were delighted with the quality of the early entries, said Iso Art wasn’t meant to be an exact but an online equivalent of the annual event.
“That event normally attracts a crowd of more than 3000 to enjoy more than 300 works,” she said.
“Iso Art is more like a stripped-down version that says the coronavirus isn’t strong enough to stop our arts scene or sense of community and will hopefully be an artistic sampling that will see us through to the return of the full scale show in 2021.”
Meanwhile, the Hepburn Council last week approved a $1000 Coronavirus Community Support Grant to Trentham Iso Art, which will be used to supplement the virtual exhibition’s prize money to artists.
Entries, pictured above, Peter Young has captured with oil on canvas, his grand-daughter, wistful Emily, 5, who has not been able to hug her Trentham grandparents since social isolation started
Below, Trentham digital artist Isabel Burgess, whose piece Serenity is a depiction of a peaceful interior in which to spend this Iso period, sold the instant it appeared on the Trentham exhibition’s Instagram site
Words: Peter Young | Images: Contributed
