Art show postponed

ST Mary’s Anglican Parish of Kangaroo Flat’s Winter Art Show has been pushed back due to the extension of the COVID-19 lockdown announced on Monday.

The show, originally scheduled for 23 to 25 July, features about 200 works from 50 local artists, with prizes announced in four categories, oil, acrylic, watercolour and other media.

Art show committee member Alison Niven said having to postpone the community event was “very disappointing.”

“We were hoping the lockdown would be lifted, we made plans how we could deal with that, it’s a whole lot more work now you have to repeat two, three weeks of work and do it all again,” she said.

Ms Niven said the church committee will have to e-mail all artists, sponsors, and their guest judge Terry Jarvis, to try and reorganise the show.

Jarvis lives and works in the Wellsford Forest at The Forest Gallery and usually spends his Australian winters teaching overseas.

Ms Niven said the church is “absolutely thrilled” Jarvis will be a part of the event, pending any changes to his schedule.

“Fortunately for us, usually he’s in Europe during their summer our winter, with COVID he hasn’t been able to travel this year, so we approached him, and he was absolutely delighted to say yes,” she said.

Ms Niven said while a lot of the work submitted comes from local artists that have been involved with the show before, she is excited by the range of artworks included in this year’s event.

“The variety of styles and things seems to increase every year, you always get your landscapes and they’re fabulous, and good sellers, but more and more we’re getting pencil drawings, mosaic and multimedia things and a lot more modern style of art,” she said.

“The artists have all been telling us how they were looking forward to it because we missed last year of course, so it’s been two years. We as the organisers we look forward to it every year.”

The art show has become one of the most important events for the church volunteers, with 20 to 30 members involved in running the show.

Ms Niven said a new date has not been confirmed however she hopes the show will go ahead in “about a month”.