But for Jon it is an exhibition with a twist – he has four paintings hung on the walls and a further six available for inspection in an office inside the newsroom.
He just couldn’t decide which medium, theme or size to select so he opted to bring a little bit of everything – with a leaning towards watercolours.
“I am still classing this as a solo exhibit,” Jon joked as he delivered the paintings.
He certainly knows about exhibits in Echuca-Moama – he has run three in the twin towns (two at Alton Gallery and one at the Foundry) and one in Melbourne.
And in his spare time he keeps racking up those successes, such as receiving the $5000 first prize in the second annual Rochester Mural Festival for his dramatic piece Changes, which centred on the Australian landscape.
“I was just blown away,” he said.
“The festival was such a good experience. I have never done this (public murals) before and I learned a lot from the other artists there who are more experienced than me,” she said.
“Everyone was so supportive and a really special mention has to go to the committee members who happily volunteered their time that year in 40C heat.”
In the past five years Jon has collected more than 35 awards for his watercolours, oils and acrylics, from best in shows to acquisitive competitions and has works hanging in civic buildings around Australia and overseas.
“I am working on a new exhibition now and it will be staged next year,” Jon added.
“I started out as a graphic designer and had an interesting job designing games and pinball machines until I saw an advertisement to do a Bachelor of Education studentship for experienced artists to teach art,” he said. “That began a long career as a secondary art and graphics teacher but after I retired I could not resist the lure of my brushes and started to get very serious about my work again – and also joined like-minded people in groups such as Echuca Moama Arts Initiative, the Foundry Artspace and AGRA, the Australian Guild of Realist Artists, recently becoming a councillor there.”
Today Jon also runs painting classes for art societies and gives private tuition as well as running workshops throughout the year, most recently at Echuca, with Golden River Artists in Kerang and Mallee Artists in Swan Hill. His works will be on show, and are available for sale, for the next four weeks.
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