Sunshine Coast artists celebrating 54 years of painting, travel and love

A Sunshine Coast couple is celebrating more than 50 years of painting gorgeous landscapes and, aged in their 80s, will not give up their brushes or art gallery.

Artists Geoff McKenzie and Allison Shaw are celebrating 54 years of art (and love!). Picture: Patrick Woods.

A Sunshine Coast couple in their 80s is celebrating years of travelling, painting and swimming without a thought in mind of retirement.

It has been 54 years since Geoff McKenzie, 87, and Allison Shaw, 83, decided to quit their jobs, put a mattress in an old mini bus and hit the road.

The couple met at a party over a bottle of scotch.

They bonded over shared interests and have been together since.

Mr McKenzie said he began upholstery at the age of 14 and had often taken his rifle and his paint tools into the bush for a combination of “rabbiting” and art.

Ms Shaw, who was born in the UK and had travelled internationally, was working as a nurse in Victoria before they began their journey.

During their travels, they began selling paintings in Perth and were later invited to show their work at a regional gallery in Victoria.

Mr McKenzie said their traditional work was popular at the time, painting bush scenes of wagons, waterholes and more.

The couple then rented a home on Magnetic Island and painted by the beach, as passer-bys admired their work, before starting a gallery at the Gold Coast as the “House of Shells and Art”.

Artists Geoff McKenzie and Allison Shaw are celebrating 54 years of art (and love!). Picture: Patrick Woods.

Once again they hit the road, visiting New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia while renting empty shop spaces for short times to host mini exhibitions.

After buying and selling several homes in Victoria, they returned to Queensland to live in Woombye in 1981 and then moved to Montville, starting the Rainbird Gallery which is now known as the Montville Gallery.

In the early 1990s, the couple became involved in masters swimming, and to this day still spend four mornings a week doing laps at the Cotton Tree Aquatic Centre.

Their newly found interest led them to move several more times.

Mr McKenzie said the couple was settled in a retirement home but was still not retired.

In between their gallery stints, they have travelled the world, sketching and painting as they went.

The couple has a mini gallery in their home which boasts 200 paintings, from large canvases down to miniatures.

Artists Geoff McKenzie and Allison Shaw are celebrating 54 years of art (and love!). Picture: Patrick Woods.

Mr McKenzie said it was fulfilling to have led a life full of art and being given the freedom to travel wherever and whenever they pleased.

“You can’t always enjoy stripping some old chair and upholstering it,” he said.

Ms Shaw was 28 and Mr McKenzie was 32 when they first started painting full time, just two years after they met.

“A couple who swims and paints together, stays together,” Mr McKenzie said.

Their brand Wallaby Studios will open an exhibition part of the Sunshine Coast Open Studios Art Trail by ArtsConnect Sunshine Coast and in conjunction are hosting their massive 50-year anniversary exhibition.

Their exhibition is open to the public from 10am to 4pm on May 18, May 19, May 23 and May 24.

Originally published as Sunshine Coast artists celebrating 54 years of painting, travel and love