WHAT’S ON: Your art agenda for Spring 2020 revealed

WITH $8000 dollars up for grabs and countless wonders to see, spring is the time to embrace your artistic side in the South Burnett.

Can you guess the identity of Martin Shaw’s ‘Three Well Known Australians’? File Photo.

SPRING is the season of art in the South Burnett, with upcoming events and competitions set to please lovers and makers of all things creative.

First up, Wondai Regional Art Gallery will be hosting the annual South Burnett Regional Council Open Art Competition this October. The competition includes the Mayor’s Acquisitive Art Competition, with the winner receiving $3000, and the Open “Australian Poetry Theme Art Competition”, which offers contestants the chance to share in a prize pool of $8000.

The Mayor’s Acquisitive Art Competition is open only to residents of the South Burnett. The open art competition, however, is open to aspiring artists nationwide. Entry’s are open for six separate categories, including oil or acrylic, watercolour, and pastel; photography; sculpture and ceramics; Indigenous Art of Australia; children’s art; and children’s photography.

To celebrate the reopening of Kingaroy Regional Art Gallery, residents can soon enjoy several special works by local and international artists.

Between September 1 to October 3, the main gallery will play host to Niketa Law’s ‘Beyond The Dots’. Ms Law is a self-taught Aboriginal Traditional Contemporary Artist, who found her inspiration in the artistic component of her culture. A proud Bindal/Bigambul woman from Cherbourg, she loves to exhibit locally.

"One Mob" by Niketa Law. This painting is to show the many shades of Aboriginal people. The lines around the middle section is to showcase us being proud standing shoulder to shoulder as First Nations people. The sections that are by themselves are to signify the mob who maybe 'lost' who think they are all alone but they aren't, they just have to find their way home.

“Traditional stories guide my work, and as a contemporary traditional aboriginal artist I am influenced by the past and the present. Every piece I have produced has a unique story,” Ms Law said.

The Gallery will include the storyline for each painting to guide the visitor through Ms Law’s exploration of Aboriginal Culture and Aboriginal Art.

“My technique is derived from my knowledge of common Aboriginal Artworks and stories witnessed in my earlier years,” she said.

“My paintings are a spiritual representation of my own story telling built on feelings, values, circumstances and that of stories that have been passed down over the years.”

The Gallery will be hosting an Open Day on Saturday September 5 from 9-3pm. Niketa Law will be guiding visitors through her exhibition.

South Burnett Gem and Fossicking Club Inc. Exhibition will be hosting the “Findings and Grindings” exhibition between Tuesday September 1 and Saturday October 3.

This exhibition is about sharing the passion for the gemstones, crystals and minerals found locally and from around Australia.

The Club has a large range of tools and equipment that members can use to create their own special gem at the regular weekly sessions.

Workshops will take place on Mondays and Thursdays.

This one’s for our local history buffs. Visitors to the gallery are invited to guess the identity of Martin Shaw’s painting Three Well Known Australians, and record their answer in a yearbook.

Shaw said “he did have three Australians in mind, or Australian themes when he did the painting in 1982,” but declines to disclose whom or what he originally had in mind.

The painting, along with letters and year books from past travels, makes for a fascinating and fun exhibition as it records the thoughts and guesses from previous exhibition visitors from all walks of life.

“These yearbooks form a portrait of Australia – what people in 1983 thought is going to be different to what people think today,” he said.

Shaw wanted the painting to be a “historical social commentary” of Australia. He views it as a symbol of stability – a comforting constant in a time of political and social flux.

“The longer this painting keeps on touring Australia, the longer it’s saying something about the state of the country,” he said.

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