Gail Connellan is the living example of the phrase “it’s never too late to chase your dreams.” After a successful career in real estate and having raised a family of three in Minnamurra with her husband Malcolm, Gail wanted to return to what she was most passionate about in her adolescence: art.“I wanted to get back to art because I had a passion for it but I just didn’t have time. You don’t have time to do anything when you’re working in real estate and raising a family,” Gail told The Bugle.“I studied art at school, but I never pursued it any further because art just wasn’t considered something you could do full-time. It was being a secretary, nurse or a teacher. Those were the only things people thought women could do that brought in an income. They’re not bad jobs by any means, just as long as you’re passionate about it.” Gail resigned from the corporate lifestyle in 2021, but her passion for painting was really reignited in 2019 following the devastating bushfires that ripped through Australia. “I was feeling really emotional about it all and I ended up doing a painting on it,” Gail said “I just felt I needed to do that.” She painted a powerful image of a firefighter battling a blaze, but wanted to improve on her work so decided to take up classes with Kerry Bruce, a local artist and owner/director of Fern Street gallery in Gerringong. The lessons have already started paying for themselves; Gail has already been commissioned to paint several artworks for clients, including a landscape of Minnamurra’s Rangoon Island. “At the moment, I’m painting a lot of animals. I love doing landscapes, but animals are what I enjoy the most. I really like painting dark, black backgrounds and bringing animals forwards on the canvas. I’ve had some commissions for flowers and that sort of thing though, I’ll do anything!” Gail says people are never too old to pursue their passions, and young people should take advantage of the opportunities they’re afforded to pursue creative endeavours. “The advice I give to people is that you are never too old. Just go back to it if you really enjoy it. New generations can pursue those passions. Our generation couldn’t - it was something we always put on hold when our parents told us to get a ‘paying job’, and there were no jobs in art.” The artist lifestyle also affords Gail more time with her family, having just become a grandmother. Kiama locals may be familiar with the story of Gail’s son, Brett Connellan, who survived a shark attack while surfing at Bombo Beach in 2016. After creating and self-funding a documentary - Attacking Life - with his friend Sam Tolhurst, Brett has been on a motivational speaking tour discussing how to be resilient through all of life’s challenges.“He recently finished a tour of Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney where he talks about his experience and how he got through it, relating it to day-to-day life with our own ‘personal shark attacks’ that can be whatever you’re going through. You just have to push through to the end as he did.” 

Gerringong Pic’n’Flicks will be showing the George Gittoe and Hellen Rose film “Ukraine Guernica Art Not War '' on Friday 1 September at the Gerringong Town Hall starting at 7:30pm.The film was launched in the Illawarra at the Gala Cinema Warrawong on 16 August. George Gittoe is a long-term resident of Werri Beach, and if you saw him quietly shopping at the local Gerringong IGA, you wouldn’t have any idea what a remarkable life he has led. He is described as one of Australia’s most uncompromising artists, activists, and filmmakers. In collaboration with Hellen Rose, new creative works arise from the ashes of unspeakable tragedy, including the former House of Culture in Irpin, Ukraine.For 50 years, he has worked in almost every war zone since Vietnam, including Cambodia, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Somalia, South Africa, Rwanda, Mozambique, Western Sahara, Southern Lebanon, Palestine-Israel, Tibet, East Timor, Bougainville, Northern Ireland, the Republic of the Congo, Yemen, Iraq, the North-West Frontier of Pakistan, and Afghanistan. He has become an award-winning filmmaker and public artist.He has brought a fearless and compassionate eye to all these war zones and has received many awards and honours, including the Sydney Peace Prize.Remarkably he has made several Pashtun romance dramas in northern Pakistan, where filming sometimes led them to cross the border into Afghanistan.In George’s own words, why does he do it? “The whole world is my studio. In the past it was the natural world where predators fed on gentler creatures. I go alone into a different kind of human wilderness to contemplate the basics of humanity.”George Gittoe installed the Yellow Surf Shack in 2021 at Pacific Avenue Werri Beach in a yellow fibro house built in 1947. Since 2005, it has served as a base for the surf community at Werri Beach. George had a famous Yellow House artist refuge in Jalalabad, Afghanistan (with the permission of the Taliban). The first bohemian Yellow House was in Sydney in 1971, when George was 21, with the likes of Brett Whiteley and Martin Sharp. 

Berry will this month host the first Open Field art festival, showcasing contemporary art and performing artists across four days of performances, live music and events around the town. The Bugle spoke to one of the artists who will feature at Open Field, Jaz Corr, a Dharawal woman and Kiama resident with three titles: a visual artist, an art teacher and a practitioner of Wayapa Wuurrk. Jaz was asked to put in an expression of interest for an artwork at the festival, and immediately began looking for inspiration from the Berry township, its history and its environment.Driving from Kiama to Vincentia every day for work, and reflecting on the Open Fields theme of intersections and interplay, Jaz took notice of the literal intersections built as part of the new Berry bypass.  Jaz says the ongoing road work was such a struggle for many commuters but has since become extremely beneficial for everyone who uses it on a daily basis. This inspired Jaz to use tar for her artistic medium as a direct reference to the new highway. Next, Jaz looked at the story behind how Berry came to be. “It’s widely known that Alexander Berry and his brother, David, are the founders of Berry,” says Jaz. “There’s so much information out there regarding those two brothers.“What we don’t talk about is the two black brothers that helped and actually assisted the Berry brothers to make the town what it is today.” Jaz decided to paint Broughton Creek, named after one of the two brothers that helped Alexander Berry develop the area along with brother Brogher Creek. “Broughton is well known to have helped Alexander Berry in tracking and local knowledge, but there was a divide between the two black brothers,” Jaz says. “He [Broughton] was helping the Berry brothers, but Brogher never agreed to that. So over time, Broughton was given rations for his great work and for assimilating well. Later in life, he rejected them and went back to his community and his brother. Choosing community over the Berrys would have been a really difficult choice. We don’t talk about that story and we don’t talk about those black brothers, but we do talk about the Berrys.” The artwork is painted within the void of the two cut outs of the Berry brothers marking the entrances to the town, or as Jaz puts it: “painting the missing black history that we don’t talk about.” She used rust to represent these two sculptures. The artwork, which was recently renamed “Two Truths” will be on display at Open Fields in Berry, which will be held on 22-25 June. Have a story you’d like to share? Tell us about it [email protected]