Pastels, puddles and possums: Local art collective brings colourful show to Traralgon Courthouse
The shared exhibition allows casual daubers to showcase their work alongside more established painters.
Jacob Wallace
November 24, 2025
From scarlet macaws to rainy urban scenes, a new exhibition from Gippsland’s Young at Art Collective is showcasing local award-winning talent and the region's picturesque landscape.
What happened: Maree Brady, a member of the art collective who will be exhibiting her abstract flower paintings at the Traralgon Courthouse, told the Monitor the 13-member group has only been together for a couple of years but has already had several exhibitions.
🗣️ “We've done two exhibitions at the courthouse, one at Foster a couple of months ago, one at Briagolong earlier in the year and one in Mornington.”
Brady said the collective consists of varying levels of artists, from casual painters to more established artists.
“I’ve been playing with crafts for most of my life, but art itself, painting and pastels, I've been doing since about nine years ago,” Brady said.
🖌️Award-winning artists
Collective member Ling Wang recently won the Hangers Choice award at one of Gippsland’s biggest art shows, the Tyers Art Festival, for her painting Parrots of the Eucalyptus.
Parrots of the Eucalyptus by Ling Wang. Wang painted detailed scarlet macaws onto eucalyptus leaves.
Wang will be exhibiting some of her acrylic parrot works at the courthouse show along with a portrait of a possum in the grass.
As part of her Dreaming Spirits exhibition local artist Ling Wang painted several possum portraits.
🎨 A variety of subjects
Another artist from the group, Jo Gellion, often paints suburban scenes in a realistic style, and her piece After the Storm won the oil painting prize at this year’s Tyers Art Festival.
Gellion frequently paints scenes that highlight the beauty of urban life after wet weather, drawing on her ability to reflect the sky and the scenery in puddles on the sidewalk.
Jo Gellion frequently paints streetscapes after rainfall.
🧑🎨 The benefit of working together
Brady said the collective has given chances to artists who otherwise would struggle to exhibit a full show on their own.
🗣️ “We provide support to each other,” Brady said. “When you're actually painting, you spend a lot of time on your own, so it's nice to have others to chat with and to paint with.”
“I do mostly abstract flowers, but I've got a cow that I've done. I do acrylics, and I like colourful sorts of things.”
Maree Brady’s favourite subject matter is abstract flowers.
The exhibition is open Wednesday to Sunday from 10am to 3pm, November 24 to December 7 at the Traralgon Courthouse. Admission is free.
