{"id":64011,"date":"2014-04-16T21:13:58","date_gmt":"2014-04-16T11:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=64011"},"modified":"2020-12-04T12:35:04","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T02:35:04","slug":"artist-debuts-at-age-84","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/04\/16\/artist-debuts-at-age-84\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist Debuts At Age 84"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Artist Bob Hehlen surrounded by his proud family members (Photos: Martin Stern)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

April 16, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

by Martin Stern<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most artists don’t wait until they’re 84 to hold their first exhibition but Bob Hehlen has a lifetime of experiences to share.<\/p>\n

Bob is a resident at Forest View Residential Aged Care Facility in Wondai.<\/p>\n

He was born in 1930 in Belfort in eastern France, not far from the Swiss and German borders.<\/p>\n

Bob was the youngest of four children. His mother was one of 15 children and she became unwell after his birth.<\/p>\n

He was raised by his grandparents on their farm along with his mother\u2019s 14 siblings. Bob worked on the farm with his uncles; he worked cattle and ploughed fields with a horse-drawn plough (actually a quarterhorse and a mule).<\/p>\n

He moved to Switzerland at the age of 20 to avoid going into the French Army. However while in Switzerland he was conscripted anyway and ended up in the Army, and then the Navy.<\/p>\n

In Switzerland he met the love of his life, Anna Regina, and the couple were soon parents of two sons, John and Joel.<\/p>\n

In 1964 Bob moved his family to Australia and became a builder by trade. Anna gave birth to twin girls Ingrid and Marjie.<\/p>\n

Bob started sketching at the age of 14 and has painted ever since.<\/p>\n

His daughter Marjie Zimmermann is now one of the South Burnett\u2019s leading portrait artists; and her twin sister Ingrid is also an artist.<\/p>\n

The exhibition, which was opened at Forest View on Tuesday night,\u00a0is in memory of his wife Anna who died earlier this year.<\/p>\n

It was opened by Michael Bishop, Executive Director Rural Health and Aged Care Darling Downs Region.<\/p>\n

Michael, himself a keen artist, said the exhibition was a credit to Bob and to the staff of Forest View for making it possible.<\/p>\n

Cr Kathy Duff, whose family has a long connection with Wondai Hospital, and Cr Ros Heit attended the evening.<\/p>\n

Bob will also be doing a painting for Wondai Art Gallery\u2019s Pole Art which will be displayed in Proston.<\/p>\n

He said he loved Forest View and the staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not a hospital, it\u2019s a home and everyone here is my family,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love to paint. The people here with me love the bright colours. They watch me paint and their eyes light up . . . actually, their whole face lights up.”<\/p>\n

Bob has 35 of his paintings on sale which can be purchased through the Administration office at Forest View.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Rural Health and Aged Care Darling Downs Region executive director Michael Bishop officially opens Bob Hehlen’s exhibition<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
A wall of Bob Hehlen’s art on show at Forest View<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

\"\"<\/a>
A glimpse of Forest View through the trees<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
\n

\"\"<\/a>
Sydney’s iconic Harbour Bridge<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\"\"<\/a>
The guests on opening night enjoyed a range of finger food<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Brisbane at night looking over the City Botanic Gardens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wondai artist Bob Hehlen, 84, has a lifetime of experiences to share in his first exhibition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":64226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[863,172,3],"tags":[23,26],"yoast_head":"\nArtist Debuts At Age 84 - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/04\/16\/artist-debuts-at-age-84\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Artist Debuts At Age 84 - southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Wondai artist Bob Hehlen, 84, has a lifetime of experiences to share in his first exhibition\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/04\/16\/artist-debuts-at-age-84\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-04-16T11:13:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-12-04T02:35:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/20140415artist.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"385\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Martin Stern\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Martin Stern\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/04\/16\/artist-debuts-at-age-84\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/04\/16\/artist-debuts-at-age-84\/\",\"name\":\"Artist Debuts At Age 84 - southburnett.com.au\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-16T11:13:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-12-04T02:35:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/9fc21a0d204b01cd41865c66eee33d7a\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/04\/16\/artist-debuts-at-age-84\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/\",\"name\":\"southburnett.com.au\",\"description\":\"Kingaroy and South Burnett News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/9fc21a0d204b01cd41865c66eee33d7a\",\"name\":\"Martin Stern\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/martin-stern\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Artist Debuts At Age 84 - southburnett.com.au","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/04\/16\/artist-debuts-at-age-84\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Artist Debuts At Age 84 - southburnett.com.au","og_description":"Wondai artist Bob Hehlen, 84, has a lifetime of experiences to share in his first exhibition","og_url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/04\/16\/artist-debuts-at-age-84\/","og_site_name":"southburnett.com.au","article_published_time":"2014-04-16T11:13:58+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-12-04T02:35:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"620","height":"385","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/20140415artist.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Martin Stern","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Martin Stern","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/04\/16\/artist-debuts-at-age-84\/","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/04\/16\/artist-debuts-at-age-84\/","name":"Artist Debuts At Age 84 - southburnett.com.au","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-04-16T11:13:58+00:00","dateModified":"2020-12-04T02:35:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/9fc21a0d204b01cd41865c66eee33d7a"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/04\/16\/artist-debuts-at-age-84\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/","name":"southburnett.com.au","description":"Kingaroy and South Burnett News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/9fc21a0d204b01cd41865c66eee33d7a","name":"Martin Stern","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/martin-stern\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64011"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64011"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":288756,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64011\/revisions\/288756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}