By Jesse Graham
BUDDING Upper Yarra artists are being called on to capture a face from their community for an inaugural portraiture exhibition in Warburton.
Face2Face is an exhibition being run from the end of October to the end of November, where paintings, drawings and collages of people from the Upper Yarra area will be displayed in shop windows in Warburton.
Upper Yarra Community Enterprise community development worker Suyin Chan said that participants had to fill out a registration form and pay a $5 entry fee, and would receive a canvas from the Waterwheel Information Centre.
From there, artists will have until 20 October to complete their portrait and write a short piece about them – at the end of the month, all the entries will be hung throughout town.
“It’s based on Not the Archies, over in Healesville,” Ms Chan said.
“We’re just doing pretty much the same format – we’re saying paint someone that you admire, or someone in the community you have respect for.
“We’re just going to display them – there’re no prizes, there’s no judging or anything like that. It’s just fun to have a street exhibition.”
The Upper Yarra Community Enterprise is supporting the exhibition, and Ms Chan said most of the shops in town had agreed to display the portraits.
“Virtually every shop has come on board with it, which his great,” she said.
“So that helps to encourage participation … but also, hopefully, it’ll draw people into the shops as well.”
She said she hoped to get 100 entries in the exhibition, and that while the exhibition is focused on the Upper Yarra, people with a connection to the area painting a local will be accepted.
“If you live in the area, great, or if you have an association with the area, great – or a portrait of someone in the area,” Ms Chan said.
“It’s the first time we’re trying it here – we don’t know what response we’ll get, but we hope it’ll be a good one and we can continue doing it every year.”
For more information, call 5966 9028 or email face2facewarburton@gmail.com
