February 10, 2014
Visitors at the Wondai Regional Art Gallery’s first exhibition for 2014 on Friday night helped christen a new band as well as take in a wide-ranging display of works.
The gallery has returned to its regular first Friday of the month openings after its traditional summer sabbatical, which sees the December exhibition displayed through January as well.
This month, the main gallery is displaying “Art For Art’s Sake – Works By The Childers Art Group”, a collective of artists from the Childers and Gin Gin areas.
The artworks on show include pastels, acrylics and sculptures. Four of the group’s artists attended the opening to speak to guests about their work.
The front gallery features a retrospective selection of works by award-winning Nanango artist Lyn Mangan, who has been painting and drawing for almost 25 years.
They include pen and inks, watercolours and acrylics.
The third gallery features watercolours by well-known North Burnett artist Sue Lederhose, who travels from her home in Mundubbera to provide watercolour classes at the Gallery each month.
The paintings – from Sue’s “Bites Of The Burnett” series – feature scenes from the South, Central and North Burnett.
Meanwhile, works by students from Tingoora State School are featured in Kidz Korner.
A good crowd packed into the Galley to meet the artists, admire the works, and enjoy the finger foods, wine tastings, live music and socialising which have made the opening nights a staple of Wondai’s social circuit over the last decade.
Curator Elaine Madill said that the Gallery’s exhibition schedule is now so full that it’s already begun taking bookings for 2017.
She also paid special thanks to Gallery volunteers Gil Smith, Peter and Paul who’d recently erected an awning between the Gallery’s rear pergola area and The Studio art workspace.
This had helped significantly expand available floorspace in the complex and also made both venues into an all-weather structure, she said.
“You are all just fantastic. Thank you so much.”
Gallery patron David Carter, who opened the exhibition, praised the works on display and the artists who’d created them.
He promised that 2014 would be “a very good year” for exhibitions at the Gallery.
“The Wondai Regional Art Gallery is now well-known for the diversity of art that passes through its doors,” he said.
He also noted that schools now have to book space for their students in Kidz Korner, which has become very popular with both regional primary school students and their teachers alike.
One fun part of the night, though, was the naming of a new band.
Local musicians Sue Bradley, Lyn Rodgers, Nora Erosa, Sue Clair and Lyn McEachern provided the entertainment for the evening, but admitted their performance was their first public outing and their band really didn’t even have a name yet.
All the same, the five women quickly gathered an enthusiastic audience for their toe-tapping renditions of pop and blues classics.
Someone in the audience soon suggested they should call themselves “The Wondai Wenches”.
And while this was dismissed at first, it soon proved so popular that by the end of the evening’s opening night speeches the name seemed to have stuck.
- All four exhibitions will remain on display daily between 10:00am and 4:00pm until the end of the month. Admission to view them is free.
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