Spiral Gallery's plethora of postcards a snapshot of the widespread artistic talent in the Bega Valley

Spiral gallery member and artist, Keith Coleman said there had been over 400 entries this year, which went to show how popular their annual postcard exhibition was.

"We've been running it for 11 years and we obviously intent to keep going with it," he said.

Mr Coleman said one of the things he liked most about this particular exhibition was how people made use of the smaller canvas style to express themselves creatively.

"The form didn't inhibit people at all, in fact it seemed to do the very opposite. To the extent that we saw people taking two dimensional ideas and expanding it out to be three dimensional," he said.

"You'd think with such a small space to work with, it might restrict people but actually it seemed to test their imagination and liberate them."

This year there was a vast variety of art types, from food paintings, to wildlife, portraits, local heritage bridges like Cuttagee bridge, object paintings and landscapes.

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"We also had some paintings submitted by artists from the Tulgeen Disability Services in Bega, which were very beautiful and showed a real sense of colour," Mr Coleman said.

Mr Coleman submitted an postcard art piece of his own this year, which he dubbed Greetings.

Mr Coleman's entry featured a 3D sculpture that incorporated fishes swimming among the corals, to symbolise his environmental concerns for the Great Barrier Reef.

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Being an environmentalist Mr Coleman said he wanted to use his artwork to convey important conservationist messages, that people could in turn interact with.

"The Great Barrier Reef has seen better days and we need to remind people to take better care of it," he said.

Mr Coleman encouraged members of the community to visit and get involved with the postcard exhibition.

Mr Coleman added that the community ought to always keep an eye on the gallery space, because "there's always things going on at Spiral."

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