FAMOUS artist Hazel Mann coloured the cultural backbone of Biloela with her country landscapes and contribution to the arts as a founding member of Brigalow Arts Festival Committee.    

The 81-year-old was also a category award recipient in the abstract water colour section at the recent Brigalow Art Show and took home a prize of $1000 for her work. Hazel is a regular contributor to the festival and also entered a new section depicting the Callide Mine.

The festival is now in its 19th year and it was held in the Banana Shire at the Biloela Civic with more than 180 entries submitted from all across the greater Central Queensland region.

“I was very surprised because along with the award I received a life membership to Brigalow Arts Festival Committee for my contribution to art in Biloela,” she said.

“I was the very first one to be given this honour.”

A group of women began the art show in the 1970s and by 1983 Hazel Mann was very much involved in helping put it together. 

In fact, so successful is Hazel as an artist, an exhibition of her work hangs on the walls of Kianga Memorial Hall, Moura, themed around the mines profiling the machinery and surrounding mountains. 

Around 30 paintings also decorate the walls of her home at Wahroonga Retirement Village where she still works away at further developing her talent. 

“The best part of painting is making my first mark on paper,” she said.

“When you come here it doesn’t take long to become one of the family and the people working here are very good.

“We have great entertainment here and I love the bocce challenge and the beauty care.”

The grandmother of five, and great grandmother, always enjoyed painting as a young girl and further developed her passion for painting at 25-years-old through formal training at more than 10 art schools in regional precincts.

“I have won around eight major prizes competing against many artists who have very big names in the industry and my paintings have been sold to people in England and America,” she said.

“I just love painting and hope to start the journey all over again.”

The blues, greens and earthy tones used throughout her work reflect the countryside and many feature water within her compositions. 

“I have a book showcasing more than 300 paintings I have done at home,” she said.

Wahroonga Retirement Village Manager Josephine Bain said “everyone knew Hazel the artist before I met her.”

“I was absolutely amazed when I saw her work,” she said.

“We had an art exhibition here a few years ago and she sold a lot of her paintings.

“When people come to our service it doesn’t stop them from living their normal lives, it doesn’t mean you stop living and Hazel is testament to that.”