Joe confesses his love of gold and creative beauty

JOE Jakitsch was talking art, gold and opals as visitors arrived at his studio gallery for the Tiny Towns Art Trail weekend.

The walls of the former St Francis Catholic Church in Tarnagulla, confession box still in a corner, were adorned with Joe’s diverse works.

He said ironbark and grey box forests native to Tarnagulla had provided consistent inspiration since moving to the goldfields from Lightning Ridge 40 years ago after opal mining faded.

Joe and partner Sandra built a mud-brick home across the road - Sandra continuing her career as a naturopath while Austrianborn Joe picked up his interest in drawing and painting - after making 6000 bricks!

He ventured across the road when the former church was up for auction three years ago. He returned home in the box seat to buy the property that had just been passed in and set about negotiations to seal the deal.

Joe told visitors at the weekend that when not painting, he still prospects for gold in the area.

He has one sizeable nuggest to his name and many smaller specimens.

But it was the art that Joe and other Loddon creatives showcased as hundreds of people traversed the region for the seventh edition of the arts trail.

For Joe, there were his landscapes to be admired and still life creations. He said life drawing allowed him to hone his observational skills and develop the sensitivity and expressiveness evident in his linework.

Joe has also captured the dusky glow of twilight, he says it invites the viewer to contemplate the fleeting magic emanating from the ambient fading light.

His latest work, Late Afternoon, took pride of place on the old church wall. Painted in acrylic, sun over the Tarnagulla hills captured in its glory ... Joe’s type of inspiration.

- CHRIS EARL