WILCANNIA local Eddy Harris first learnt about Aboriginal art after watching his elders create pieces on the riverbanks.
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After forging a career out of art since 1992, Mr Harris, also a qualified teacher, is passing on his knowledge to the next generation.
On July 13 Mr Harris held two classes on Aboriginal art at the Western Plains Cultural Centre.
In the classes Mr Harris showed children his own artwork, which detailed elaborate designs on ceramics and carved wooden objects in the form of bowls, snakes and clapping sticks.
He shared with his classes how to collect the wooden materials to sand and then paint as an artwork, the Dreamtime story of the rainbow serpent and also played some music on his didgeridoo.
The classes then sanded and painted designs on Red River gumtree root.
“You look for character in the timber and you can’t just cut them off the tree, they have to be dead before you clean them up,” Mr Harris said.
While Mr Harris may have an upcoming exhibition at the Western Plains Cultural Centre, he admitted it was not easy to be a full-time artist.
“It has been a hard road but like anything else you have to keep at it,” he said.
The official opening of Eddy Harris’s exhibition opens at the Western Plains Cultural Centre on August 25 at 2pm.