Grannes is a native, private garden of Greg and Glenda Lewin that features exceptional native plants and landscaping, interspersed with sculptures.

Mr Nicholls is a Wimmera painter who lived with his wife and daughter on the land.

He devoted his life entirely to drawing, painting and sometimes film-making, but rarely mixed with other artists and exhibited little of his work publicly.

Ballarat curator Merle Hathaway helped Mr Nicholls’ wife Rosslyn catalogue his work following his death.

She said some of the work on display at Grannes had just been recently found by Mrs Nicholls.

“There are about 600 works now because Rossalyn is finding more and more in draws, in cupboards and in filing cabinets.

“Some he has marked third rate, which are fabulous, so I think he was very critical of himself.”

Ms Hathaway said finding so much unseen work had led to the decision to take Mr Nicholl’s art to galleries in Ballarat, Ararat and Horsham.

“We pursued various galleries and the Art Gallery of Ballarat had a retrospective of his work,” she said.

“The work is really special, it did not follow trends or fads but it is just very good technically, particularly what he was saying about the environment.”

A major Melbourne art dealer saw Mr Nicholl’s work in Horsham and offered him an exhibition.

This was cancelled however, following the artist’s death, due to an aggressive brain tumour in 2010.

The Art Gallery of Ballarat held a major retrospective in 2013 with another planned for the Australian Galleries, Melbourne.

Mr Nicholls work is largely landscape based, sometimes incorporating figures and often interpreted within a spiritual or psychological framework.

Ms Hathaway said to call her on 0419 324 042 for more information about the exhibition at Grannes, 207 Pomonal Road, from 11am to 4pm on Sunday, October 9 or by appointment until 6 November.

Admission on is $10 for adults, free for children, with all proceeds going to the establishment of the Wildlife Art Museum Australia.