The seven artists are from various areas, as far as Kurri and Wollombi and Singleton.

“Many from the group had not been inside the Convent before and have just found it so inspiring,” explained Hope Hardy.

The art group want to contribute to the Convent Centenary celebrations in August and have acquired the assistance of well known artist Vivien Dwyer to help with research before beginning their artworks.

“We want to promote the Convent through artwork and vice versa,” Hope explained.

A workshop run by Vivien last week took the artists through the process of the initial inspiration of an image and how that idea develops through to the finished artwork.

“Follow up sessions will also be held and we will be getting other people, like Dorothy (Wishney, Singleton TAFE campus art teacher) to come and perform workshops,” Hope explained.

The group is amazed by the space that the Convent has for community groups to utilise.

“The Sisters have been so accommodating and are appreciative of the fact that people are using the rooms in the building,” Hope said.

“We would like to see other community groups utilising the space as it means a lot to the Sisters here and the more people using the space the better.

“We are aiming to have an exhibition at the Centenary that will also include our works on the Convent.”

For Sister Monica Sinclair, having the old kitchen used by a group like the artists is very pleasing.

“It is such a great usable space and we have a few more like it, so it is great to see people making use of it and appreciating what we have here,” she said.

The art group meets every Tuesday, making the space available for other organisations on the other days.