FOR celebrated Bellingen-based artist Polly Wells the idea of the Bellingen Shire Arts Trail Weekend is, in a word, “brilliant”.

“One intensive weekend focusing on the visual arts in all their glorious diversity!”

Polly and 50 more artists are part of the event planned for November 10-12.

She will be exhibiting at the Bellingen Framing Gallery alongside fellow landscape painters Coco Elder and John Biggart and well-known ceramicists Gloria Malone and John Tuckwell.

“The landscape here is just so inspiring, so diverse… from ancient Gondwana rainforest to lush rolling hills of pastoral land and pristine turquoise seas.

“These have been a constant source of subject matter for my painting,” Polly said.

A Fine Arts degree in Melbourne some years ago set Polly on her creative path but it was not until 2014, following her retirement, that her art finally got her full attention. Since then she has won a number of prizes including the STILL National Still Life Award and the Country Energy Employees Prize.

A comprehensive free guide to all Bellingen Shire Arts Trail Weekend venues (open daily from 10am-4pm over the weekend) is now widely available.

See the website for tickets to the special meet-the-artists opening event at the Bellingen Showgrounds from 5pm on Friday, November 10 ($30pp). Visit www.bellingenshireartstrail.com.

Bellingen Shire Council, Arts Mid North Coast and the Federation for Rural and Regional Renewal are generous supporters of this event.

By Ute SCHULENBERG