A Wangaratta art show, which has been described as "a pop up, outdoor, once in a lifetime exhibition" was held for the first time on Friday night.
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Curator and artist Jacquie Coupe said the Reflections on Mullinmur exhibition displayed about 42 pieces of artwork created by about 30 Wangaratta artists, including Indigenous artists and artists with a disability.
"We were particularly interested in people that had never had the chance to exhibit," Ms Coupe said.
She said the idea for the exhibition was born while she was walking through the Mullinmur wetlands during a COVID-19 lockdown last year.
"I was actually having some mental health issues at that time living on my own," she said.
"To discover these billabongs really lifted my mood and I found that nature is really nurturing."
Ms Coupe said she bumped into an old friend and the pair discussed how they could incorporate artwork into the approximately 20 hectare area of floodplain riparian woodland on the Ovens River.
"We were running into people who were walking along photographing, doing some drawing, sitting writing or just relaxing down here," she said.
"We thought there were a lot of people who were inspired by this area so we thought we could, at some stage, have an art exhibition."
Months on, Ms Coupe discovered and applied for a $1000 Wangaratta Council resilience grant for a one off event for social connection.
She used the grant money to set up the event and to organise an excursion for artists from the Wangaratta all inclusive arts hub, ArtMania, to do an immersion day at the wetlands.
"To see these artists branch out and take themselves out of their comfort zone, to then actually respond to the theme of this exhibition, that's been the most exciting thing to me," she said.
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She said another highlight was seeing Indigenous artist Pamela Florence's sculpture of Mary Jane Milawa, the last Aboriginal woman of the Pangerang people.
Ms Coupe said artists were inspired to use a range of materials and adapt to exhibiting their work in the outdoor setting.
"The range of materials go from natural to man made materials," she said.
"We have two dimensional, three dimensional works, works on painting, printing, sculpture, so a really broad range, textiles and fabric.
"Some artists that are exhibiting would normally be working on canvasses or framed work, but they decided to actually change the structure of their work so that it can just hang in the trees with pegs.
"For some artists that means that they've really had to change their ideas of how they would like to see their work exhibited."
Ms Coupe said she hoped this event would spearhead future exhibitions at the outdoor site.
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