Burnside  Painting  Group


Community Art Group

Our background and history

The Burnside Painting Group has been active in the local community for more than 50 years, having started in 1963.

The Group started with an enthusiastic group of residents attending a meeting in the Burnside Town Hall supper room. The meeting was arranged at the instigation of a gentleman named Colonel Geoff Matthews, who had attracted the residents to the meeting by placing an advertisement in the newspaper. 

The vision outlined to those at that meeting was the formation of a group of artists of all stages of proficiency and talent, who would help each other to improve their standards, under Mr Matthews' guidance. 

This was the beginning of a very successful group, which quickly grew in numbers. Social events, including balls, were popular and news about the Group, its activities and member profiles often appeared in local newspaper articles.  Initially art classes for children were also part of the Group's activities.

Tutors who taught students in the early years included John Dowie, John Goodchild, Malcolm Barbins, Marjorie Hann, Gary Gaston, Margaret Hooper and Virginia Jay.   Other founders of the group included Gordon Samstag, who was the first president, Mrs Marjorie Hann and Mrs Louise Chappell.

Art exhibitions by the Burnside Painting Group have been held at many different venues since the Group commenced.  Open air displays of art along the footpaths of North Terrace were popular with our Group in the 1960s and 1970s.  We also displayed work at David Jones, community centres and halls, banks, libraries and hospitals.  More recently our Annual Exhibition has been very successfully been held in August during the SA Living Artists Festival (SALA) in the Atrium at the Burnside Civic Centre.

The Burnside Painting Group continues to provide an enjoyable recreational activity within the community, with members socialising, sharing and achieving, selling their work and winning awards. The Group attracts many experienced practising artists as tutors who teach terms of classes in a variety of styles and mediums, at classes which are offered twice a week.
Above:  A newspaper article from 1965, with the caption "Young members at the Burnside Painting Group's children's art classes are seen at work during a Saturday morning painting session.  The young lady in the centre of the picture is putting the final touches to a painting of a man on a horse, which is reminiscent of the style of Sydney Nolan."

Below:  Cover of a newsletter from December 1964.