Domenic Mico was never going to retire from the arts. The passion that has run through his veins since he was a young man is too strong.
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When he closed Smith's Alternative in 2015 he admits he was at a bit of a loss.
"I guess I was retired," Mico, 71, says, "but then I picked up a paintbrush again and everything changed."
His debut art exhibition Symphony in Colour opens at Form Studio and Gallery on March 22.
"When I started painting again I was doing landscapes and I wasn't happy, I knew it wasn't me, and these," he says, waving his hand at the large colourful canvases, "is what I came up with."
"Colour is the most important thing, they're like little bits of cosmos, the universe in colour, little flashes of nature that are built up layer by layer.
"When you're working on them up close in the studio, it's surprising when step back and see them from a distance, it's like wow, when you see them from afar they take on a different life."
Can the same be said about his own career? Has he, now that he's had time away from it all, had time to step back and look at the bigger picture?
"I feel very privileged I was given the opportunity here in Canberra," he says.
During his long career in community arts he founded the Canberra Day celebrations that became the Canberra Festival, Blue Folk Community Arts Association at Strathnairn, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, and the National Multicultural Festival. In 2001 The Canberra Times named him as one of the 75 people who had shaped the national capital.
Never shy to voice an opinion on the state of community arts, Mico is still somewhat critical of the ACT government who, he says, are just trying to "fill the spaces on the calendar" with festivals with no substance.
He hasn't been to the Multicultural Festival in a while, he says it's become "a celebration of communities with food on a stick".
"People are more concerned about where you can buy beer," he says. "We used to have groups coming from all corners for the globe, what's happened to that side of it?
"Everyone's a little bored by it now."
He understands that the art world is about taking risks, that creative people are always putting themselves out there, wondering whether people will like their play, their opera, their festival.
Is he worried about what people will think about his paintings?
"I am. I got really scared, it had been that long since I'd picked up a brush." Mico actually trained at the old Canberra School of Art and then taught art in the early 1970.
"But the fear soon subsides and it's replaced by excitement and you just paint.
"Painting is a different risk, doing an exhibition and exposing yourself.
"If I'm directing a show, I love it, there is that fear.
"But painting, and exhibiting like this, is very personal."
Symphony in Colour runs at Form Studio and Gallery in Queanbeyan until April 9.
