February 9, 2015
Around 100 bargain hunters descended on the Wondai Town Hall on Friday night for the Wondai Regional Art Gallery’s annual “Under The Bed” Art Sale.
The Gallery has been temporarily relocated to the Town Hall for a few months while South Burnett Regional Council staff renovate the historic Gallery building to remove termites and attend to some drainage problems.
As it turned out, though, the timing for the renovation work couldn’t have been better.
This year’s sale of artworks, pottery and jewellery from regional artists has attracted a record 400 items, and Gallery curator Elaine Madill confided she wouldn’t have been able to fit it all into the Gallery, anyway.
Instead, visitors to the Wondai Town Hall found themselves facing row upon row of dividers covered on both sides with oils, acrylics, watercolours and works in other media.
They ranged in price from $20 to several hundred dollars, and cover most of the available floor space.
And at the side of the hall, they could browse tables laden with brilliantly decorated hand-made pottery and jewellery.
“We have had tremendous support from the Wondai RSL, Murgon Show Society, Wondai Show Society and Murgon Rotary Club, who all helped us by loaning us frames to mount this exhibition,” Mts Madill said.
“We’re incredibly grateful for the help they’ve given us – they’ve just been wonderful.”
Mrs Madill was also full of praise for South Burnett Regional Council staff who had relocated the Gallery’s phone lines, office equipment and other facilities to ensure the volunteer-run organisation “didn’t miss a beat” in the move.
She told the audience at the exhibition’s official opening Council staff had “bent over backwards” to assist with the temporary relocation and said she couldn’t praise them highly enough for their help.
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Guests in search of newer works were also treated to a breath-taking display of colour and monochrome photos on canvas by Cushnie photographer Penny Kittel, mounted in what little free floor space remains in the Town Hall.
Penny is a self-taught photographer and is having her first exhibition in the South Burnett this month.
She told the audience that she was “a day-dreaming, animal-loving, country girl who doesn’t take photography too seriously.”
But her photographs – shot at a variety of locations in South Australia and Queensland – drew praise from many and red dots from several.
Otherwise, guests at the opening night mingled and socialised for several hours, either talking with artists or simply searching the extensive range of offerings in search of a special buy.
As they did so they were serenaded by saxophonist Tom McKenzie, fed cold finger foods by the Gallery’s volunteers and served Clovely Estate and Kingsley Grove wines – or beer, if they preferred – by staff from the nearby Wondai Hotel and Cellar.
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The “Under The Bed” sale and Penny Kittel’s exhibition will run at the Wondai Town Hall from 10:00am to 4:00pm daily until the end of the month, when they will be replaced by the “Under The Bed Photography Sale” which will run through to the end of March.
After this – if all goes well – the Gallery will relocate back to its usual premises and its normal monthly exhibition schedule.
- External link: Penny Kittel’s Redbubble site
