April 13, 2015
The Wondai Regional Art Gallery’s temporary home at the Wondai Town Hall is ablush with flowers this month … or at least, with paintings and photos of flowers.
On Friday night the Gallery unveiled their April exhibition, the annual Wondai Garden Expo Art Competition, a now traditional curtain-raiser for the Wondai Autumn Garden Festival.
The exhibition opened a week later than usual because of last week’s Good Friday public holiday, but the delay seemed to have no effect on the opening night crowd.
This year’s competition theme was “A Garden In The South Burnett” and it attracted a large number of entries in all media, including photography.
The exhibition was opened by Imbil artist Christopher Hardwick, who was filling in for curator Elaine Madill while she is away on holidays,
Competition entries were judged by well-known South Burnett artist and art teacher Gary Eyre.
Christopher congratulated the artists on their efforts, which he thought were so outstanding that he created two additional cash awards – the MC”s Choice Awards – for works he thought demonstrated great aesthetics in addition to the major prizes.
This year’s winner was “Bloom” by Lisa Jorgensen, a large, vibrant and textured work in acrylics showing early morning light in a garden.
Runner-up was “Taste Of Honey” by Nanango artist Trish Erkens, a watercolour showing the movement of honey eating birds around flowers.
And the third prize went to Elizabeth Greensill’s “With Love From Ringsfield House”, an elegant watercolour showing a bouquet of flowers in Ringsfield House’s gardens that also won the People’s Choice Award on the evening.
Highly Commended awards went to Nanango photographer Jenny Ball for “Bee-utiful”, a macro photograph of bees on a sunflower; and Gold Coast artist Kylie Madill’s “Anzac Poppy”, a stylised work welding the competition’s garden theme to upcoming Anzac Day commemorations.
Christopher’s Hardwick’s MC’s Choice Awards went to Judy George for her acrylic work “Garden Path”; and Lisa Jorgensen for her acrylic “Toil Of Love”.
Wondai Garden Expo president Helen Young congratulated the prize-winners and thanked the Gallery for supporting the long-standing event.
The Autumn Garden Expo, which will be held at the Wondai Sportsgrounds this coming weekend, is one of the largest of its kind in Queensland and always draws thousands of visitors and garden product exhibitors to the town.
- The Gallery’s April exhibition will remain on display at the Wondai Town Hall from 10:00am-4:00pm daily until the end of the month.
