ARTIST Keon Hall from Collie has become a Tuesday morning regular on the bus to Bunbury.
He makes the trek so he can spend the morning with watercolourist Simon Hemsley in his studio.
Hall first made contact with Bunbury’s Art Partners program in 2013, and has since been mentored by Simon and a host of other artists including Helen Seiver, Edy Rees, Veronica McEwan and Ric Stacey.
Most recently - and under Hemsley’s mentorship - Hall has been preparing work for the As We Are Art Award and Exhibition (Perth) and the Cervantes Festival of Art.
Hall said his inspiration came from a trip to the park. “Well it started when we went to the bird park and drew birds,” he said.
“From there I did the first design and then painted it.
“It was originally a swamp hen but it became so much more.”
Hall met Hemsley last year during a portrait painting workshop in Helen Seiver’s Capel studio.
He has been painting regularly in Hemsley’s company ever since.
What Hall most enjoys from his mentor is learning new techniques to apply to his work.
“Sometimes something good comes out and sometimes I make a mistake and it gets better,” he said.
“In art we call that a happy accident.”
Hall has had numerous opportunities to exhibit his work in Bunbury, Dardanup and Perth.
Last year and the year before he and Hemsley entered portraits in the Dardanup Art Spectacular.
Hall made his debut in the As We Are Art Award and Exhibition last year.
Most recently he and Hemsley painted panels, nine inch by five inch, which were exhibited at the Bunbury Regional Art Galleries and then auctioned at Edith Cowan University to raise funds in aid of Art Partners.
The works were auctioned together and created considerable interest.
Hall said exhibiting his work was a great chance to show the world what he could do.
“Unfortunately not everyone is so lucky so in my regards I reckon it’s awesome,” he said.
He and Hemsley are creating a body of work and looking towards a collaborative exhibition tentatively titled Hemsley and Hall, sometime in the future.
They’ve already decided more panels and portraits will figure prominently.
