Dream of Artistic Life Coming True

School children often dream of growing up to become doctors or nurses, firemen or policemen, truck drivers or pilots. For Fran Harlow it was to become an art teacher. Sometime, however, life gets in the way and when Fran left school she also left art behind. That was until she moved into Seachange Coomera and rediscovered her passion after joining the resort’s art club which meets twice a week.

“I’m one of the original members. We’ve all become a lot more experienced than we were initially. Our first coordinator has left but before that he took us on an amazing journey and path experiencing different types of art,” Fran said. “We now have a new coordinator and she’s wonderful and so giving of her time. We are so lucky to have her, and she has a wealth of experience. She’s shown us so much and we are all very grateful.”

Fran said it was wonderful to be able to return to the world of art after so many years and she enjoyed expressing herself through creation. “It’s really good to come back and rediscover my passion. We mainly use acrylics and I prefer the Impressionist art style where I might take a tree or person or object and express it in the way that suits my personality,” she said. “I can do something from the heart … If I use a lot of bright colours, that’s how I feel that day. I really love Monet and I started off one painting in that style … and it was woeful but then it ended up quite beautiful. At one stage I put it under the sink in the art room and let all the colours wash off as they were too bright. I subdued the brightness and sponged off some of the colours and it became a very subtle piece and I even surprised myself.”

“It was a very enjoyable process. I’m really happy with quite a few of the pieces that I’ve produced.” Fran said the art club classes were now addressing Realism, alongside playing with light in the painting and capturing the nuances it exudes. “You’d be amazed at how the original idea can change so dramatically. You can start off with an idea in mind and that can turn into something that you are not so happy with, or it can change into something entirely different … a joyous piece,” she said.