March 20, 2017
The Wondai Regional Art Gallery has been having a busy time this month, hosting three separate art exhibitions in the main building and on Sunday, a touring workshop for children from Brisbane’s Gallery Of Modern Art.
The principal exhibitions were opened on Friday, March 3, and will remain on display until early next week.
The main gallery features “Eclectica” by well-known Childers artist Patricia (“Ginger”) Deller-Smith, which showcases a lot of the work she’s been experimenting with in the past few years since she last exhibited at the gallery.
Some of Ginger’s works that drew most attention on opening night were her intricately constructed wall-hangings, which were inspired by her experiences with yarn bombing.
Ginger said she’d lost count of the hours required to make each piece, but she was pleased with the final effect.
Her exhibition also features slumped, kiln fired and copper foil glass work; pottery pieces with some yarn work incorporated in them; and various types of prints.
The front gallery, meanwhile, houses a collection of pastel landscapes by new South Burnett resident Kaye Kerner, who recently moved to Murgon with her husband from Yowah, 160km west of Cunnamulla, to retire.
Kaye has been an artist all her life, and hopes to open an art gallery of her own in Murgon within the foreseeable future.
And this month the rear gallery features “The Surface Of Water Does Not Reveal Its Depth” by Dilarnil artist Winka von Fahland, which was inspired by a yachting trip the artist took in 2010 which still haunts her.
On the exhibitions’ opening night, Gallery curator Elaine Madill arrived in a new mobility scooter to general applause.
Elaine explained she’d received the scooter as part of her rehabilitation from a heart attack late last year and found it a great help getting to and from the gallery, so regulars were likely to see it quite often over the coming months.
Deputy Mayor Kathy Duff had been invited to perform the official opening, but gave the honour of cutting the pink ribbon to Abigail Rollings, 10, from St Joseph’s Primary School in Murgon.
Students from the school are exhibiting works of their own at the Gallery’s Kidz Korner this month.
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On Sunday, a group of about 20 children and their parents spent the morning at The Studio in the rear of the gallery taking part in “The Gabori Sisters: Gathering by the Sea on Tour”.
This free travelling art workshop from the Gallery Of Modern Art (GOMA) was aimed at children aged 6 to 11.
The workshop was put together by Kaiadilt artists, Elsie, Dorothy and Amanada Gabori, and was designed to focus young minds on the sisters’ homeland of Bentinck Island in Queensland’s Gulf of Carpentaria, and the relationship of local people to that environment.
Some children took part in art activities in The Studio, while a smaller group – mostly boys – crowded around one of the Gallery’s office computers to play with multimedia aspects of the workshop.
The exhibition was made possible because of the Wondai Regional Art Gallery’s special status as a GOMA touring venue.
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The Wondai Regional Art Gallery’s next exhibition will be its annual Garden Expo Art Competition, which is timed to coincide with Wondai’s Autumn Garden Expo.
The Gallery will be blooming with floral pictures and other artworks that have a gardening theme, and it’s usually a riot of colour.
The Garden Expo Art Competition will be officially opened at 6:00pm on Friday, April 7 with wine, punch, finger foods and live entertainment.
Admission to the opening night is $5, but free from 10:00am to 4:00pm daily the remainder of the month.
I have an original piece of artwork painted by Pat Deller-Smith that you may be interested in. I am unaware of its title, but it’s painted in oils and has a lonely figure walking along a pathway alongside a river. Painted in greys and greens, It measures 32x28cm and is a very powerful piece of art. So please, if you are interested in this piece, feel free to contact me and discuss this matter further – Dave Smith