Community
5 September, 2025
Exhibition looks at natural scene
CORANGAMITE Arts has ‘branched’ out with various tree-themed works filling the Camperdown Courthouse for this month’s exhibition.
The exhibition’s theme is ‘Avenue of Trees’, with all works focusing on trees and utilising different media to interpret the content.
Corangamite Arts president Sue Hollingsworth said the idea was to have multiple tree-themed works in a row, but have each tree being unique.
“It was Dannie’s (Dupleix) idea to do this when she was president,” she said.
“Everyone worked on their own tree idea and we came up with all sorts of different concepts.
“There’s oil in some, some are acrylic, some are mixed media – some have lace, fabric, beads, paper, collage, raffia baskets and even three-dimensional models.”
Corangamite Arts member Dannie Dupleix said she felt the themed exhibit was a “brilliant” idea.
“It was the common idea that we all do something to work towards an avenue rather than just doing our own thing,” she said.
“We would all have a goal and it’s been really interesting the discussions we’ve had – some people have just said they won’t do it because they can’t draw trees.
“One person drew a tree then placed lace very cleverly in the tree shape and it’s superb.
“Same as Andrea Townsend’s collage – Andrea usually paints but she, through the discussion of trees and looking at the three-dimensional, has developed a unique piece of work and a new skill.
“That was our purpose – to challenge people to work in quite a different media and see what came out. I think it’s worked brilliantly.”
Ms Hollingsworth said the artists were excited to be displaying their works to the community.
“Everyone’s really excited – some of them haven’t had their work in display before, so they’re a bit apprehensive,” she said.
“It will be good.
“It’ll mean confidence for a lot of them and satisfaction that we’ve achieved something really good.”
Ms Townsend, who is also a member of Corangamite Arts, said she discovered she loved doing collage thanks to experimenting with the media for the exhibition saying it had renewed her passion for nature.
“We’ve got to help the planet,” she said.
“We’ve got to have our trees to live.”
Other works created throughout the year will also be included in the exhibition.
The exhibition will run all through September at 179 Manifold Street between 10am and 3pm.