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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Lifestyle
Doosie Morris

‘I love romanticising our own city’: the Melbourne painting that’s become family lore

‘It makes me feel like I live in a gallery.’: Ally Smith with her painting Dog on Swan Street – and her dog
‘It makes me feel like I live in a gallery’: Ally Smith with her painting Dog on Swan Street – and her dog Photograph: Ellen Smith/The Guardian

In 2017, Ally Smith’s mother wrote a birthday message to her daughter’s fiance. The note was penned on the back of a promotional postcard for an art exhibition that took place in 2009. “When I saw this birthday card, I was just so taken by the painting it featured,” Smith says.

It went straight on to the fridge, where it remains to this day.

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