Artist Edwin Gardiner has a series of recent works showing at the Q for the next week, a composite of two exhibitions, in fact. In Price of Oil, the works "attempt to use industrial symbolism and degradation as a metaphor for the damage the oil industry has caused to the environment". The second series is about spaces - "specifically the echo of human presence that these spaces leave behind". Recent Paintings by Edwin Gardiner, 2011-2014 is showing at The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, 253 Crawford Street, Queanbeyan, until September 6.

Interested in the arts? Of course, since you're reading this column - Arts Exchange is for people like you to come together, learn new skills and be inspired by skilled tutors across various mediums. Workshops are open to the public and anyone is welcome to attend - no experience necessary! The next workshop is on visuals arts with Julie Ryder, on September 6, 10am-12.30pm. Cost is $2. For more information, email playingfieldstudio@gmail.com.

From the far reaches of West Belconnen, the Strathnairn members are once again converging on BAC for their bi-annual exhibition. Curated by regular Canberra Times contributor Peter Haynes, the show highlights the diversity and quality of the work being produced by artists working out at the homestead, from professionals to skilled amateurs. Strathnairn By the Lake is showing until September 21, with a chance to meet the artists on Sunday, September 7 at 3pm. And in the foyer space, Jemima Parker continues her explorations of the blurred boundaries between art and fashion, with drawing, screening and textile processes. She has created "sculptural textile objects that can be installed in the gallery space or worn on the body, together with a suite of works on paper. Hand-drawn patterns derived from urban surfaces shift between two and three-dimensional works." Transitions, by Jemima Parker, is showing until September 14, with a chance to meet the artist on Sunday, September 7, at 2pm. Both are at Belconnen Arts Centre, 118 Emu Bank, Belconnen.

Now this you've got to see: "Professional photographer Sean Davey will be setting up a studio on location in the Currong Theatre at Gorman Arts Centre and inviting people to sit (or stand) for a portrait. Anyone and everyone is welcome to Sean's corner in the Currong from 10am to 1pm to have their portrait made. Everyone participating in the project will receive a digital file of their portrait at the end of the project in October 2014." Gorman House Arts Centre is at 55 Ainslie Avenue, Braddon. Sean Davey is part of the Ainslie and Gorman Project Space residency program.

Vivien Tanner describes herself as, first and foremost, a painter of light, and that's what she's exploring in her exhibition now on at Bungendore Fine Art. "Whether it's the soft glow of dusk, the gentle diffused light of a misty dawn or the blinding light of noon, it's the light effect that attracts me rather than the subject matter," she says. Her works lean towards the impressionistic, with more colour and less detail to let the viewer interpret. Vivien Tanner is exhibiting at Bungendore Fine Art, 42b Ellendon Street, Bungendore, throughout September, with a chance to meet the artist tomorrow, Sunday, August 31, from 2pm-4pm.

There's a pair of exhibitions on back-to-back at the Front Gallery in Lyneham this month and next. The first, which finishes Monday, September 1, is of new drawings by emerging artists Clare Jackson and Georgia Black, called The Light Part of Every 24 Hours, which includes a collaborative work the duo have been working on over the past week of the show. And then, Salvaged, by ANU Graduate Adele Rae Cameron, which makes use of rubbish and found objects to "explore ideas of consumption, materiality, modern society and its excesses". The show is made up of sculptures and installations made from discarded materials found locally, by using textile processes such as weaving, binding and stitching which "have a historical connection to ideas of frugality, re-purposing and making-do''. The Light Part of Every 24 Hours, by Clare Jackson and Georgia Black, ends Monday, September 1, and Salvaged, by Adele Rae Cameron, opens Thursday, September 4, at the Front gallery and Cafe, 1 Wattle Place, Lyneham.

The latest show at Form in Queanbeyan is exactly as described - a series of luminous encaustic paintings by Marijke Gilchrist. "From the Ancient Greece enkaustikos [meaning 'to burn in'] encaustic painting involves fusing layers of beeswax mixed with resin and pigments," says Gilchrist in her artist's statement. "The wax is melted and applied onto a rigid surface. Each layer must be fused to each other using a heat source. The artist uses a heat gun, blow torch or iron to fuse the layers. Encaustic painting combines layers and layers of wax, together, to create a deep finish, with a luminous, ethereal qualities." The works also incorporate paper, rust, shellac and dyed silk. The Luminous Landscape, by Marijke Gilchrist, is showing at Form Studio and Gallery, 1/30 Aurora Avenue, Queanbeyan, until September 14.

This just in from the folk over at Monster Kitchen Bar - life drawing classes on the second and last Tuesday of every month start soon. The classes are 6pm-8pm, and tuition and materials cost $20. For more information, email monster@hotel-hotel.com.au.