You could use a birthday as an excuse to go on a pub crawl, join a winery tour or have a progressive dinner moving between friends’ houses.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
And I have before.
But, this year, I took the concept of the nomadic nature of these activities and applied it to a carefully curated ‘art amble’.
Have I grown more subdued or, maybe, more cultured simultaneously with age?
Or is it just that Shepparton establishments have come together thematically to offer foods, drinks, products and activities centred around the exclusive Facing Modernity: Degas to Picasso exhibition showing in Shepparton that had me excited for a different design of daytime celebration?
I love a good event theme.
When my kids were little, their birthday parties stayed strictly within themes, from the invitations, to the novelty party food, to the cake, decorations and loot bag contents.
I still do it now when I get a chance.
The three friends who joined me on Saturday for our art amble all went home with an artwork embellished make-up pouch filled with earrings, bookmarks, socks, stickers and a perfume atomiser all adorned with or inspired by classic artworks.
So, you can imagine how excited I was when the art amble idea struck me after reading through the Shepparton and Goulburn Valley’s Eat, Play, Stay & Shop brochure.
With over 50 options inside, there were more than we could fit in a day, so I narrowed it down to just a few that fitted the festivities for a fine birthday recipe.
I chose a breakfast at one venue before the exhibition, then a lunch at another venue and a dessert at another, followed by an art stroll to walk it off and a cocktail at one more venue ahead of creating our own artworks on mini canvases I’d also included in the girls’ loot pouches for a giggle back at my place.
Our first stop was Fiore’s for its Degas’ Ballerinas-inspired croissants.
Decadent and delicious, they also looked delightful and filled our bellies ahead of our awe-filled wander through the gallery of artworks.
Sure, the Degas and Picasso artworks were popular, but I’ve fan-girled over Salvador Dali’s surrealism since I was 15 years old, so to see one of his artworks in the flesh, hanging on a wall in Shepparton, was dreamy.
His artworks fascinated me more than any other artists’ I studied at school.
I can stare at them for ages, appreciating the technique, the vibrant colour palette and the mind-bending visuals that still give me endless food for thought.
The creations of local artist Tank – who is also involved with the program by hosting a surrealist art exhibition at his own gallery and offering a percentage off works, as well as running an Art & Ale painting workshop – are the only other artworks I’ve come across in 30 years since I discovered Dali that have had the same effect on me.
Imagine sharing a postcode with your favourite artist.
I’m lucky enough to not have to imagine.
Anyhoo, we took our time examining the classic pieces at SAM before finally descending the steps and heading to Shepparton Brewery for its ‘limited edition edible masterpiece Picasso pizza’.
If you’ve ever eaten a pizza at the brewery, you’ll know how tasty they are.
We were a little unsure when we saw it was a concoction of salted cod, squid ink aioli and a couple of slightly less adventurous ingredients though.
But, the ‘masterpiece’ description checked out; it was surprisingly delicious.
If there’s any day I’m going to eat dessert at lunchtime guilt-free, it’s on my birthday.
So I then dragged the girls, whose birthdays it wasn’t, to Apple Republic for their advertised gelato palette: a selection of fruit and dairy gelato flavours served on an actual artist’s palette.
How novel, and such a great way to sample multiple flavours, had they been open.
Alas, we missed out, but it was an extra few steps to help walk off the lunchtime calories at least anyway.
We kept walking the streets of the CBD in search of our own local street art.
We found works by Matt Adnate, George Manioudakis, Bula and, of course, aforementioned Tank.
After we’d tired our tootsies, we disappeared inside The Aussie Hotel for its exhibition-themed Picasso martinis and Matisse mocktails to strike the final formal item off our itinerary before heading back to my place to paint our own ‘masterpieces’.
We only scraped the surface of program offerings, but we had an absolute ball.
I highly recommend getting your girlfriends — or boyfriends — together and curating your own art amble before the once-in-a-lifetime exhibition and all of its supporting activities are gone for good.