“I really enjoy the courses, either sitting in on someone else’s course, or teaching my own ”, says Gary. “And if you’re the tutor you’re always going to learn something from your students, even if it’s simply picking up their enthusiasm.”
Gary is about to teach a two day workshop as an introduction to acrylics, a course that is popular with all age groups. But how much can a student learn in two days?
“I like to have students outside their comfort zone, otherwise they are not going to learn anything “, says Gary with conviction. “At the end of two days you will have produced at least three paintings, and you will be able to sit down and lay out your palette, put your colours in some sort of sensible order. When you pick up a brush you will know it’s the right brush for that job, and you’ll know basics about landscape - why the sky is blue and why the trees are green; why things look closer or farther away.”
The two day course costs $280 at Maleny Arts Retreat and students get tuition, morning and afternoon tea and really nice lunches, insists Gary with a smile. Easels are provided but students need to bring paints, brushes and canvases, although they can buy everything from the workshop, which gets its materials from Maleny Art Supplies.
Gary’s courses are gathering momentum as Maleny Arts Retreat is the only venue of its kind on the Hinterland of the Sunshine Coast. He has attracted professional artists and a silversmith from the eastern states to teach courses, and he provides them with live-in accommodation. Students can also stay at Gary and Helen’s spacious home overlooking the Glasshouse Mountains, or Gary can arrange a place to stay with nearby locals.
For more than 30 years Gary Myers has been painting and thinking up ways of marketing himself and paintings – a style he labels impressionism with a bright palette. He had his first, one-man show in 1971 and then, after running galleries in Bendigo, Victoria and Brisbane, Gary had a most ingenious entrepreneurial idea for his art.
“I decided to put my paintings on T-shirts and have them in all the airports around Australia . Everything was ready with the photographer and the printer, but then in 1989 the pilots went on strike and all the orders got cancelled. My business just collapsed. Some time after that I came to Maleny and ran a gallery in the main street for 14 years.”
If you’re getting the impression that Gary is not your average painter then you’d be right. “I’m not part of the art establishment. I guess I am on the outer because I paint what I like to paint which just happens to coincide with what people buy”.
Gary fell back on his 30 plus years of gallery experience to design and oversee the building of Maleny Arts Retreat. This imposing two-storey building houses a massive gallery space with moveable walls, a spacious, well-lit workshop area on the ground level, including a studio apartment for visiting tutors. The sweeping vistas from the 13 acre property lead the eye over treetops to the perfectly-framed Glasshouse Mountains.
“More and more people are travelling out here”, says Gary “and they realise that if they want to look at good art then they might have to travel five minutes out of town. When people do come out here, whether they are students, artists or art lovers, they just want to look at art. They’re not just doing their tourist thing – in and out of every shop in the main street.”
Gary is also building on his art, wine and jazz afternoons. They are designed to focus on the gallery of course, but they are lazy afternoons of food and music in their own right. He’s hoping for 150 at the next event on February 27.
“Being mainly an attraction for locals I choose a charity usually through the Maleny Credit Union”, says Gary. “We donate 10 per cent of art sales to that particular charity which is a nice way I think, for the Gallery to fit into the community.”
Ever the restless creative, Gary is also planning painting exhibitions overseas. He has been shown throughout Australia, and he has been featured in Kevin Hill’s book - Top Ten Australian Artists. He has also been shown in Shanghai and Brighton in the UK, and he’s planning exhibitions in Saudi Arabia and New York.
“I would like to do some really large canvases”, he says. “Roll them all up, take them overseas and have some really large shows to try and establish my name over there.”
At 58, Gary Myers is not about to rest on his laurels. He runs to keep fit and he keeps pushing his own creative limits. “I will keep painting until I can’t see anymore,” says Gary. “Then I will do paintings like Lloyd Rees in his 90s”, he adds with a laugh.
To book for “Art, Wine & Jazz on Saturday February 27 email: admin@malenyartsretreat.com.au. (See story on page 36).
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