On the Local Arts Trail in May 2026
— with Alison Desmond —
May is for Mother’s Day! Spoil all the Mums in your life with handmade gifts from the local galleries or attend a Mother’s Day exhibition and celebration at Flack Post & Telegraph Office from 11am on Saturday 9 May.
Flack Post & Telegraph Office, Ballan
The Mothers Day exhibition is a group show featuring Lesley Rosochodski landscape with wildlife and Karen Kirby’s colourful birds and flowers.
In Kasey Harrington’s nude study of a woman’s torso, the nourishing breast of the universal Mother is represented with just a few simple calligraphic white lines on a neutral support
Be sure to visit Flack’s giftshop offering a huge array of exciting handmade and vintage collectibles.
Flack also has beautifully lit, unrenovated, original condition photography studio spaces available for hire.
Flack PTO is open 11am to 2pm Friday and Sunday, and from 10am to 3pm on Saturdays
Gordon Bar Room Gallery
Painter Ben Creaney sets out to “capture reality between the self and the external world”, describing himself as an abstract, structural artist, exploring subject matter that is philosophical.
In accordance with the Metaphysicalists, this work is like a cluster of heads and limbs or animal parts (I think I see a horse), approaching the viewer with power, emerging from a geometric patchwork ring, tunnel, arena, perhaps a Copernicus circle?
This painting and others are available for purchase along with giftcards, jewellery, ceramics, textiles at affordable prices for your Mother’s Day giftware needs.
MAPP Up in Lights, Bacchus Marsh
Justin Nemeth’s thoughtful installation The Union of Agriculture and Nature “contrasts untouched natural environments with agricultural infrastructure and the communities shaped by the land.”
The show features “cinematic images of locations including Lerderderg State Park, Werribee Gorge and Bostock Resevoir.”
MAPP Up in Lights can be viewed 24/7 at Village Green, Bacchus Marsh
Rise Up
“Create art, community and change,” by making two marching women sculptures over two 90 minute sessions, one to keep and the other to be sold with profits going to support victims of domestic violence - no experience necessary.
Workshop tickets are $60+ booking fee and available from trybooking.com.
For further information email ri.v.creations@gmail.com.au.
This project is supported by a Moorabool Shire community grant.
BMAC, Bacchus Marsh
The BMAC group have been working hard, just give you a peek, here is Alison Durham’s floral shirts, framed collections of folded and sewn miniature paper floral shirts - they just make me happy!
Ballan Art Space
BOLD was the recent exhibition at both Ballan Art Space and Ballan Library and they really took control of the spaces with oversized sculptures, wall and hanging works.
Velislav Georgiev’s conceptual installation Black Sheep of the Family plays on language games and recalls 1960s and 70s materiality in art.
Two different forms of steel wool are encased in several stainless steel sheep, the same substance but treated differently, working in a slightly different way.
The viewer is invited to recognise that the black sheep is just like any other member of the family, it is only language keeping us apart.
Ballan Art Space also have a phenomenal variety of gifts for Mum so pop in and explore the range of jewellery, textiles, ceramics, sculpture and much more!
Ballan Art Space, gift shop and outdoor sculpture garden is open from 10am to 3pm Friday to Sunday.
Oak Grove Gallery, Ballan
Martin Cleal is the quintessential Aussie landscape painter, working in the tradition of the Australian Impressionists.
His paintings describe shadowy twisted trees and scrub, and the harsh sunlight beating down on the ground.
Public and Community Arts
Moorabool Shire has an amazing collection of public art, from markers of place in bush settings, to Ballan’s cosily yarn-bombed Inglis Street, to eye-catching paste-ups in the townships.
You can find out more about Moorabool’s public art pieces at the Moorbool Shire website
About On the Local Arts Trail
The Local Arts Trail column is released through our monthly eNewsletter and on this website at the start of each month.
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