BEHIND the picturesque exterior of 18 Westbourne Drive is an untapped artistic resource in the form of Nancy Merritt.
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Follow the brick path through the side gate to the back of the house and meet Nancy.
She will invite you into her home and show you a room full of such beauty you will hardly believe your eyes.
Lining the walls of this quaint blue room is a stunning array of watercolours and oil paintings, all created by Nancy herself.
This makeshift gallery details some of Bathurst’s most beautiful locations, while national and international hidden treasures have been revealed through Nancy’s personal experiences.
Nancy is not a newcomer to the world of art exhibitions, but this is the first time she has opened her home to the public.
While there is something intriguing about a self-taught, self-made artist, Nancy is not among them.
She underwent formal training in Sydney, and after World War Two she went on to become a commercial artist.
After marrying and having a family, she continued her artistic work through fashion in newspapers.
To be an artist, though, you can’t just put brush to canvas and hope something brilliant will appear; there needs to be something driving the creativity.
So what drives Nancy’s creativity?
Well, it isn’t something she can really identify.
“It’s in me and I just need to get it out of me,” she said.
“It’s a great hobby and it’s a great relaxation.”
Nancy, 87, doesn’t paint every day now as she is developing arthritis, but she said she recently discovered “a fresh enthusiasm” for her art.
She is now channelling her energy into making her recent exhibition openings a success.
Every Saturday throughout September, Nancy has had her paintings available for purchase.
Some of the pieces you can obtain include bush landscapes, detailed paintings of terrace houses from various parts of Australia, bunches of flowers, and some rather interesting works with great stories behind them.
In recent years Nancy participated in an art course where she was asked to recreate a story in art.
She chose The Nutcracker, and the finished product is hanging in her home gallery waiting for a new home.
It features delicate ballerinas in white tutus on a background of striking shades of purple.
Bright, colourful paintings of flowers are a popular find inside Nancy’s gallery, some of which are recreations of those found in her own garden, like Chirpy Dahlias and Spring Flowers.
However, if you’re after something with a little more culture, there are some great creations from her trips to Samoa, Fiji, and the Northern Territory.
Most of what you see in Nancy’s gallery are watercolours, but she doesn’t mind creating beautiful work with oil colours.
“I do a lot of watercolours, but every now and then I want to do an oil painting,” she said.
If you have an appreciation for art and would like a final chance to grab one of Nancy’s unique pieces, head out to Westbourne Drive at 2pm today.
Entry is free and Nancy hopes to put the proceeds from any work she sells towards fighting poverty by sponsoring a child through Compassion.