Art boxes capture feelings of 'home'

For almost 150 years OCAV has been home to many of Victoria’s most talented artists and musicians. The local talent will exhibit their work at Art on the Verandah as part of Rushall Park village’s 150th celebration Garden Party, which proved to be the hottest ticket in town and has now sold out.

The exhibition will feature 25 art boxes, created by residents around the theme of home, at several verandahs in the village. People at the Garden Party, which is open and free to the public, can bid for the art boxes in a silent auction. Well known Australian artists including, Joan Rodriquez and Lou Anderson, will show work in the exhibition.

Lou, a driving force behind Art on the Verandah exhibition, said each artist had interpreted ‘home’ differently. Some boxes were collaborations including work from several residents.

Jennifer Barden’s art box, titled Home and Garden, captures key elements of what ‘home’ means to her and husband, Neil. It contains dried flowers, including lavender, iris and cypress leaf, from the garden around their beautiful cottage, built at Rushall Park in 1869. The box also contains a small ball of wool and knitting needles because Jennifer knits most evenings in her cottage.

Two important features of her art box convey something that has always been important to the Bardens and that is community. The lid features a print of a painting of their cottage by neighbor Sybil Spall and the inside lid features a print of a painting, by resident Jenny Edwards, of the creeper that covers the archway at their front door.

“Our home has always been a place where family and friends are welcome. Our cottage at Rushall Park is no different and the community of friends here is important to us and that’s why their work is part of my art box,” Jennifer said.

Old Colonists founder and actor George Coppin knew only too well the hardships that many artists and actors faced in early colonial times. Just as he saw a need to provide homes for ‘necessitous old colonists’ so too did he see the need to set up an asylum for ‘decayed actors.’ The Australasian Dramatic and Musical Association was founded in 1871.

In the past 150 years OCAV villages have been home to some extraordinary artists including, more recently, artist Gillian Coates at Currie Park in Euroa, musicians Kenny White and Margret RoadKnight at Rushall Park in North Fitzroy, textile artists Ann Greenwood at Braeside Park In Berwick and Anne Partridge at Leith Park in St Helena.

A waitlist for this event has been set up at trybooking.