By Dongyun Kwon
A new Healesville resident Bernice Hanson, who is 98 years old, is showcasing her art pieces in the local cafe Mare.
Hanson’s granddaughter Clare Hamer found them when the family was clearing up their house when they were moving from Lower Plenty to Healesville about a month ago.
Hanson said she painted simple subjects around herself.
“I always painted what I saw and I got a pleasure out of being able to make it look how it looked,” she said.
“For me, art is just sitting down and working out what to do, that’s why I had so many simple things.
“The important thing, while I was painting and designing cloth, was just the pleasure of putting it on.”
Her art teacher was a student of Max Meldrum who is known as a founder of Australian tonalism, a representational painting style that became popular in Melbourne during the interwar period.
Hanson’s style reflected that of Max Meldrum and tonalism.
There were two big artistic communities in Eltham in the 60s and 70s.
One was Montsalvat in which Hanson was involved and the other one was Heide.
Clare said Hanson was interconnected with the artistic community throughout the Eltham Rural Group.
“Eltham Rural Group has something called Paddy’s Market which still runs and the first thing they did was raise money for medical equipment for local hospitals,” Clare said.
“Grandpa was on the board of Diamond Valley Hospital, so Granny’s work with the Eltham Rural Group helped to raise funds for the local community, but not through selling art.
“But that was the group that she was involved in and that route her interconnect with the artist community.”
Hanson takes after her parents; her mother was a fashion designer and her father was a painter.
Hanson’s daughter Andrea Hamer said Hanson made all the clothes for her three children.
“We would buy jeans or some t-shirts but anything else, my mum made them,” she said.
“What we actually wanted to do was go to the shop and buy clothes because that’s what everybody else did.
“When I became 17, I just left home to go to university and bought clothes off the rack.”
Andrea said it is interesting to see how the talent passes down throughout the generations.
“All of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren have the same talent,” she said.
“Liz is an architect artist and Kat is a dress designer.”
