General News
9 July, 2025
Exhibit a collective effort
AVOCA’s Gallery 127 will continue its recent run of high-quality exhibits when it plays host to a collection of works from a regional artist’s collective throughout July.
Talbot Art Group’s ‘Diversity in Styles’ exhibition will feature an eclectic array of creations, highlighting a range of artistic disciplines including traditional mediums such as canvas paintings and textile art, all the way through to experimental pieces.
A pair of the group’s artists were on hand this week during Gallery 127’s preparations this week for tomorrow’s official opening.
“We’ve had a couple of exhibitions here already as a group, which works out better for us coz we only put in a little bit each so we can put together a nice exhibition once a year,” said artist Juliette Jose during set-up on Tuesday.
For fellow Talbot Art Group member Jenny Gamble, artistic expression is something she has picked up in her more advanced years, finally having a crack at something she’d aspired to do long ago.
“I’ve only been doing art since about 2014, because I had a family and everything,” she said, “I had a childhood dream of being an artist but I never got into it because I married young, had children, now grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and I’ve got a sick husband at the moment so when I get a chance, it’s my release, that’s how I get my respite.”
Juliette highlighted her colleague’s creativity in several styles of art.
“Jenny does quite a few different things with textiles and watercolours,” she said.
Both women are enthusiastic about participating in the Talbot Art Group, which is a source of support and inspiration for the artists involved.
“We actually meet in the tennis clubrooms once a week, on a Tuesday morning, and we bring whatever we’re working on,” said Juliette, “We have a variety of different styles of artists, we have people who work with acrylics, people who work in watercolours, people who are now working in collage.”
Unlike Jenny, art was part of Juliette’s early life.
“I started art very, very young,” she said “I started when I was about 10, I had lessons in oils.”
“Then I left that completely because life got in the way, and I started again when I retired.
“I haven’t gone back to oils, I’ve discovered acrylics, I think they’re fantastic coz they dry, you don’t have to wait three weeks,” she said with a laugh, “I also work in watercolours and do some pen work as well.”
The artists expressed gratitude for being able to share their work in an established gallery, emphasising the importance of independent rural art galleries and the role they play in society.
“They certainly do play an important role,” Jenny said.
“We actually had a little gallery running over at Talbot for a while but it became defunct, the rooms were rented out to somebody else,” added Juliette.
Several of the Talbot artists are prolific enough in their output to consider exhibiting on their own, including Juliette who says “I’ve got enough work to sink a battleship, I could probably fill the whole building” but the camaraderie of working together is part of what makes the exhibition process exciting for them.
“We’re a very eclectic lot, we have lots of variation, it’s all different and it’s all fun,” Juliette said.
Diversity in Styles officially opens on Saturday at 2pm with light refreshments served.
Gallery 127 is located at the Avoca Railway Station open Friday to Monday 11am to 5pm.