Art Society tackles imagination in first exhibition of the year

The group's new show, Imagine, opened last week with its focus on the fanciful faculties of painting, and includes pieces from artists like Glover Prize finalists Brad Quinn, June Wilson and William Muldoon.

"Being able to produce an imaginative picture is just as important as having the skill - maybe even more so," said Joanna Castles, the exhibition's coordinator.

"In this exhibition, we wanted artists to focus on that part of their artistry, and I think they've done that extremely well."

The varied works in Imagine range from minimalist depictions of naked forms (Will Cassidy's Longing) to the fully-formed landscapes of Darren Meader's Moored Boats - Royal Park Harbour; or from the abstract - like Robyn Weare's blues swirled Ocean Spirit - to figurative, as in Sandra Astill's ghostly oil of an owl, Imagine Being His Prey.

"It's impressive for the society to have this variety and three painters here that are Glover Prize finalists," Ms Castles said.

The society also held a prize, which was won by long-time painter Edna Broad, for the exhibition.

"I like to tell a story in my pieces," said Broad, whose painting, Heading Home Perhaps, depicts a pair of echidnas wandering dangerously onto the road of an imagined landscape.

"The roads take us everywhere - what we mostly see are roads - but they also take things away, like the lives of some animals. Had they been here a second later they might've made it.

"It's fantastic to have the recognition for the work you're doing but, also, the other painters here are just as good, just as deserving and I think that's wonderful.

"Most of them could be in the Glover."

The free Imagine exhibition is open 11:00am to 3:00pm daily until March 22 at the Legacy House on York Street, Launceston.