Hard waste confusion: Artist’s painting goes missing after it was left in the sun to dry

Did you pick up a painting off Tuart Street last week? That is the question on the lips of Bunbury-based Artist Simon Hemsley, whose artwork was pinched while it was drying in his driveway and is now calling for its return. Hemsley told the South Western Times he had just completed a painting of the Milky Way over the Torpedo Rocks in Yallingup, and had left it in a patch of sun on the front verge to dry. “It was about 3:30 in the afternoon, and there was a small patch of sunlight on the end of the driveway, pretty much on the verge, so that’s where I popped the painting,” he said. However, when Hemsley returned to the painting only 30 minutes later, it was missing. “I was a bit devastated, but our neighbours saw a car stop, it was a ute, but they didn’t think anything of it,” he said. Hemsley said he suspects somebody might have innocently picked it up thinking it was rubbish as part of the City’s verge collection. “I’m thinking it was taken by a very good art connoisseur or an enthusiastic hard-waste forager,” he laughed. Although he doesn’t have a photo of the exact piece, the artwork is mostly blue and green and is in a similar style to some of his earlier work (pictured). Hemsley said he was devastated when he found it missing, he is hoping the person who mistakenly took his artwork would happily return it. “It’s not the end of the world if it doesn’t come back, but if it does that would be nice,” he said. The piece can be returned to the house, or you can contact Simon Hemsley on 0488 772 839.