On a quest to open the world of visual arts to a new range of people, GAS thought it would be fun to encourage locals to paint or sketch other locals.

The Gloucester Locals: Portraits of Faces You May Know competition began taking expressions of interest last year and is due to hold its official opening on Thursday, February 6 from 6.30pm at the Gloucester Gallery.

According to GAS member Jean Buettel, the competition is designed to pique the interest of the whole community and encourage new people to come into the gallery.

"It has been in the pipeline for about a year and hopefully has given people the incentive to participate in something different," Jean said.

"The idea is to involve people within the Barrington Coast area to paint someone who lives in the postcode of 2422 and we're hoping this will involve people who normally don't exhibit in the Gloucester Gallery."

The group is expecting between 30 and 40 entries which will be literally unveiled at the opening.

Keeping the portraits under wraps is an idea borrowed from the Dungog's Archies competition.

"We thought it would be a bit of fun to hang the entries and cover them with paper until opening night and reveal them one at a time," Jean explained.

The hope is each artist will bring along the subject of their work to help add to the excitement.

The exhibition runs from February 4 to 23 in the Gloucester Gallery, 25 Denison Street.

The cost of entry to the opening is $5 per person.