Art an enduring love, and challenge, for Lakewood artist

FOR 74-year-old Lakewood painter Anne Falkner, painting remains an enduring challenge.

She paints what she sees around her home and nearby locations, making the settings captured in her beautiful watercolours readily recognisable.

Her exhibition at the new Art Hub in Coastline Bank in Settlement City during October is part of an initiative to support talent and creativity of the Mid North Coast.

Each month, a local artist or photographer will have the chance to exhibit and sell their work, which will be hung on the bank’s walls.

“It’s wonderful – they don’t charge a commission!” Falkner said.

“I’ll replace any I sell and the bank will put the money straight into my account, which we opened some years ago when Bendigo Bank closed its branches in the area.”

Falkner has exhibited regularly since her first solo exhibition in 1979, including two exhibitions at Grafton Regional Gallery and numerous solo exhibitions in private galleries.

Her most recent exhibition, Plein Air Watercolours, was held at Long Point Winery & Art Gallery in late 2025. She was also recently honoured with the Roger Speight Watercolour Prize at Bonny Hills.

For Falkner, whose artistic career spans more than four decades, the exhibition provides another opportunity to share her distinctive approach to watercolour.

“My work is very literal,” she said.

“My watercolours are in a traditional style, and I paint in a purist manner. Local people will recognise most of the places in the paintings.

“I try to capture the character and atmosphere of a scene, rather than attempt to replicate it photographically.”

While most are landscapes, she also paints architectural subjects, still life, and occasionally a life drawing.

Falkner graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Architecture before working and travelling extensively, always with a sketchbook close at hand. She’s run a picture-framing business, helped build her own home, and operated a gallery.

With husband Lee, Falkner travelled extensively overseas and camped throughout Australia, experiences that have provided an enduring source of inspiration.

For several years, Anne has also coordinated the Paint Out Pals, the regional Monday plein air painting group of the Hastings Valley Fine Art Association.

The Art Hub was created as a welcoming space where regional talent can be seen and appreciated, a Coastline Bank spokesperson said.