Beaufort artist, Angela Gerrard, has created an exhibition of paintings that may be some of the last to capture Mount Cole before the devastation of the Bayindeen bushfires.
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The exhibition acts as a way for Gerrard to donate to one of the organisations that help local communities get back on their feet.
The artworks are up for sale, and 20 per cent of proceeds will go towards the Beaufort Bendigo Bank Western Victoria Bushfire Appeal.
The Bayindeen bushfires swept through the region in late February, affecting around 22,000 hectares of farmland, residential areas and state forest.
Many of Gerrard's family and friends were impacted, and the fires came dangerously close to her property.
"It's a fairly small exhibition, but it's personal to me," she said.
"My family are firefighters so they were in the thick of it."
The paintings were completed by Gerrard in November, and they provide viewers with a last look of the landscape before its dramatic change.
They serve as a reminder of the previous landscape of the state forest, and Gerrard hopes that viewers will "engage their own memorable narratives of the area".
In her future works, Gerrard hopes to capture the regrowth and the slow return of nature to Mount Cole.
She takes photographs of the area to use as inspiration for her paintings; a task that has become emotionally challenging after the fires.
"I have taken some photos since, it's quite emotional at the moment doing that," she said.
"I haven't actually found that I could express that just yet but I'm sure it will come."
The exhibition will run until April 27 at Accent Framing and Art on Sturt Street.
