Opening Event :
Thursday 20 March 2025, 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Exhibition Dates :
Thursday 20 – Monday 31 March 2025
10:00am – 3:00pm daily
An exhibition of works created as a result of the Struth Ruth! Group Residency at Melaleuca near Bathurst Harbour.
Presented by the Struth Ruth! Art Group (consisting of graduates and non-graduate artists).
Featured Artists include : Helen Jessup, Trudy Humphries, Jane Broad, Karen Vincent, Janne Mooney, Helen Spaulding, and Susan Kenny.
The exhibition was inspired by a trip to the South West of Tasmania. The paintings are a showcase and a unique representation of our wonderful island.
Helen Jessup
Helen Jessup reinvented herself as a painter following retirement from her working life as a TAFE teacher, social worker and academic. Robin Mary Calvert was her primary art teacher until she commenced a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2013 completing in 2018. Helen joined Struth Ruth! in 2019. She has participated in many group, solo and competition exhibitions since retirement, including a recent residency at Derby. An exhibition displaying works generated from this residency opened in December 2023 and ran over the summer.
Helen paints and shows with several groups regularly, including weekly with local “Struth Ruth!”, Sunny Coasters residential bi annual En Plein Air group based in Orford, Images of Tasmania, an annual group or Art School alumni, and POGO, a Hobart Based En Plein Air community. She is a member of Huon Art Exhibition Group, Cygnet, showing at the Lovett Gallery.
Trudy Humphries
Born and raised on the northwest coast of Tasmania, Trudy Humphries has been immersed in the world of art for as long as she can remember. Her creative practice is deeply rooted in the landscapes around her, expressed through watercolour and acrylic painting. While Trudy’s current focus is inspired by nature, her artistic journey has also included installation art, exploring spacial dynamics, materiality, and conceptual narratives.
Trudy’s dedication to art extends beyond her personal practice – she spent approximately a decade teaching in various schools, as well as at the University of Tasmania (UTAS) and TAFE, guiding students in their own artistic explorations.
Trudy holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (1996) and First Class Honours BFA (1999) from UTAS. In 2004, she completed a Master of Fine Arts with a focus on installation art. Furthering her commitment to education, she earned a Bachelor of Teaching in 2008.
Her work is influenced by artists such as Max Angus, Patricia Giles, Roger Murphy, Rosemary Mastnak, and Amanda Hyatt, whose approaches to colour, light, and atmosphere continue to inspire her practice.
Jane Broad
Jane Broad completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts as a mature age student whilst working as a social worker. She has worked extensively with disadvantaged migrants both in tertiary education and in ESL contexts, and these experiences have informed her work, although she does also enjoy painting landscape and abstract
Jane has had three Solo Exhibitions, including one on Refugee experiences at the Moonah Arts Centre and participated in three group exhibitions. She was also a participant in the ‘Transformation’ mural exhibition.
Karen Vincent
Karen Vincent has been painting since her first watercolour class with Tasmanian art teacher Terry Gough in the ’90s. Travels around Australia, Europe and in the United States, her second home, have involved mostly Plein Aire excursions with fellow artists and numerous exhibitions featuring natural landscapes.
Since returning to live in Tasmania, on the beautiful South Arm Peninsula, she has been increasingly working with other mediums and particularly enjoys pastel and acrylics. Seldom found in her art studio, Karen prefers the company of fellow artists working together to try to ‘capture’ the unique physical and spiritual qualities of Tasmania in the wild.
Janne Mooney
Janne Mooney was originally a dental therapist but completed her B Fin Arts as a mature age student (with 3 children) majoring in ceramics. She has been an art teacher however this has been expressed through teaching ESL students at Rosny College and special needs students at St Francis.
Janne decided to learn to paint as a vehicle to work collectively with others as she found ceramics an isolating experience. She also joined Robin Mary Calvert’s group, becoming a founding member of the current group after several years with Robin Mary. Janne has participated in solo and group shows as well as curated many exhibitions for her students over the years
Helen Spaulding
Life circumstances, ie born in the 1950’s, female, married young, three children required Helen to express her artistic leanings as a hairdresser running a hairdressing salon, and the requirements of homemaking. On retirement she also commenced classes with Robin Mary Calvert and was a founding member in what has become ”Struth Ruth!”
Helen participated in several annual group exhibitions whilst part of Robin Mary Calvert’s group and has had works hung with the Struth Ruth group at local venues including Meadowbank / Coal valley Winery, Amaze Richmond and the commission at Molly’s Run, Cidery at Richmond.
She has also completed several commissioned works and has sold at the Rotary Art Exhibition at Wrest Point.
Susan Kenny
Susan Kenny’s interest in art began at school and continued in a very protracted fashion for many years. Marriage, family and moving around the state made it difficult to complete her Fine Arts Degree.
She attended many Adult Ed art classes, painting weekends, and joined a painting group. Her journey certainly was rekindled over the past ten years when she joined Struth Ruth! She paints what pleases her, animals, landscapes, portraits, still life and occasionally abstract. Her painting also includes portraits and some commissioned landscapes, working indoors mostly from photographs she has taken, given our Tasmanian weather. She has been inspired recently to give Plein Air and watercolour a go. Her paintings are well received, participating in a Mural for Mollies Run Cidery, exhibiting at Amaze and Coal Valley Vineyard at Richmond. She paints mostly in Acrylic but as her journey continues she is keen to paint in oils too. That journey never ends.
