This painting is my local shopping strip - except the photo was taken in 1968 (image courtesy of the National Archives). I have lived in this area of Melbourne for 23 years so I couldn't help but want to paint this image. I love how the local milk bar used to cater for just about everything from chocolates to cigarettes and everything in between. I still feel the local shopping strip is vital to communities but sadly they are slowly dying due to big shopping centres and online shopping.
This is the second iteration of this piece, and the girl was originally in shade of blue, but after looking at her for a while, I realised she looked like Barbie, so I repainted her in pink.