Rees helped put Gerringong and Werri Beach on the map with his internationally acclaimed paintings.

In 2013, as part of the Lloyd Rees Legacy Project a successful festival took place in Gerringong to commemorate Rees, 25 years after his death.

Since that time there have been a number of ongoing activities within the area.

For example, funds from the festival were donated to the local primary school for special art classes, and the Gerringong Bowling Club has a range of Rees’ prints on permanent display.

The festival was supported by Lloyd’s family, Alan and Jan Rees.

Thanks to Alan, another discovery was recently made.

In 1962, Rees was approached by Kiama High School about a project to paint representative pictures of the area, and create a mural for the then new assembly hall at the school.

Rees, who taught drawing to architectural students at Sydney University, arranged for a number of his students to visit Kiama and Gerringong, and as a result the six paintings were donated to the high school.

These were recently discovered in storage at the high school (a little worse for wear after 50-plus years) and the school is supportive of these works being restored, re-framed and displayed in a public place.

Kiama Library will display the paintings when they are restored, before they are returned to the school library.

An exhibition of the restored paintings at the Old Fire Station Gallery, Kiama will take place from May 10-15.

Therefore, the project team is appealing for funds to bring these legacy works back to life. 

The aim is to raise $6000, with more than $1000 collected thus far. 

You can donate via the https://lloydreeslegacy.wordpress.com/ website.