“Wendy Tuckerman will be opening 20th Annual St John’s Art Show this year at the Cocktail Party being held on Friday evening,” Cathy Walsh said.

Cathy, who has been organizing this event with a team of helpers for the past 20 years, said the Show has gone from strength to strength. 

“We have displayed the work of over 100 different artists over the years,” she said. 

“Some years have been a challenge but overall it has been a very worthwhile event not only as a very successful fundraiser for the Anglican Church but a great opportunity to bring the work of many guest artists to the town and also an opportunity for our local artists to display and sell their work.”

Cathy said that it should be a fantastic evening for everyone coming along. 

“I believe that the Cocktail Party has been put on the social calendar of Boorowa each year, it is an event for people to come together enjoy the food and wine and see some stunning artwork.”

“As usual there will be a variety of work on display this year and I am never quite sure what we will be hanging until the paintings arrive.

“It is always very exciting unwrapping the paintings and sometimes challenging to hang the paintings to their best advantage when we have such a variety of styles of work.

“I have a wonderful team of volunteers who do a fantastic job every year displaying the artwork.”

This year, the guest artists include:

Joy Engelman from Orange who is a contemporary landscape artist specialising in Australia’s outback;

Margaret Hadfield from Canberra who paints in all mediums and her landscapes/seascapes and portraits have featured in numerous art wards.

Margaret has won the Gallipoli Art Prize and her Gallipoli Series number 24 military themed paintings commemorating the service and sacrifice of Australian service personnel.

Six of these were exhibited by the Australian Government between 2010 and 2012 in the Netherlands, Turkey and France.

Lesley O’Shea from Portland, is a Fellow of the Royal Art Society and a member of Portrait Artists of Australia.

Lesley paints and draws a variety of subjects however she is particularly interested in portraiture. She has won numerous prizes for her drawings and portraiture.

Joe Penn also from Portland is a sort after tutor, judge and demonstrator with many years of experience.

Joe has been painting full time since 1984, working in a variety of mediums, although he is well known for his impressionistic oils of landscapes, portraits and figures. He has had numerous solo exhibitions and has won many prizes over the years.

Murray Kirkland from Canberra works in a range of media including found objects, assemblages, printmaking, drawing and painting.

His work has been exhibited at and is included in the collections of the Australian War Memorial, National Gallery of Australia and the National Film and Sound Archive.

Murray has participated in over thirty group exhibitions and over a dozen solo exhibitions.

Garry Pettitt resides at South Bowenfels near Lithgow.

He began painting at the age of 10 and is self-taught. He qualified as an electrician on leaving school but became a professional artist in 1994.

Since turning professional he has won many awards and is well on his way to reaching his goal of achieving high status amongst the best traditional artist in Australia.

Stavros Papantoniou who resides in Goulburn, first studied at the Julian Ashton Art School and then the Brian Blanchard Studio before spending several years travelling and studying in Europe.

He has undertaken extensive study in figurative drawing, anatomy and perspective and is skilled in the use of many different mediums.

Stavros is currently teaching Life Drawing at Goulburn Regional Gallery and Advanced Oil, Acrylic and Watercolour techniques at Waverley Woollahra Art School, Sydney.

A long with our guest artist we have many local and regional artists exhibiting.

The St John’s Art Show will be open all long weekend (10.00 am – 5.00 pm) for and entry fee of $2.