General News
5 December, 2025
Exhibition with a message
Avoca’s Gallery 127 will be sharing a message, more than an exhibition, this weekend as local artists’ encourage people to make more art.
The ‘Consider Doing Art’ exhibition highlights the work of local artists who create their work in social groups.
Members of Clunes Artists Group and U3A Art Expression will attend the exhibition’s launch this Saturday, December 6, while the artworks will be on display until January 30.
Among the exhibiting artists is David Soderlind who fills much of his week with creating art, not in isolation, but alongside others.
While the exhibition is a collection of completed works, Mr Soderlind wants the community to focus on art as a process rather than an outcome.
The important thing is that people try, he said, no matter their skill level.
“Even good artists, very good artists, don’t always produce a masterpiece every time,” he said.
Instead the focus is on the value of creating art and how it can improve wellbeing, especially when created socially.
Mr Soderlind has been a member of the Clunes Artists Group for around a decade but has joined many other art groups in that time.
He said the process of making art together has given the group’s members a space to socialise, a reason to get out of the house, and the motivation to create art.
“If you’re not with people you’re not going to get that same encouragement,” he said.
Together they want to keep art culture, specifically creating art, alive.
It’s something Mr Soderlind said is declining.
“If we want to maintain the culture ... take up space with your own art,” he said.
The community is encouraged to come along to the opening, speak to the artists, and see if art groups are for them.
“The message is consider doing art,” he said.
“It doesn’t have to be world class.”