Art Show 2014...

Well it's all over for another year...this year I was involved with the event over the whole weekend; unlike last year when we were away for the weekend to help at the Wandoan Camel Race Day.

Opening night on Friday is always an excuse to dress up...

The hall is filled with paintings for sale...lots of 'floral' paintings this year...

The church pews are rearranged and heavy boards placed on them for all the craft items to be displayed...

The pews are rearranged and hidden...

This year the Art Show was not opened by a politician...an artist called Glen Gillard did the honours...

Greg, the organiser,  introducing Glenn, who is on the left

On the Saturday I am usually rostered to help in some way with the Devonshire Teas...over the years, I have worked my way up from selling tickets for the D Teas to assembling plates of scones, pikelets with jam and cream :-)

I only worked in the morning as I had a school reunion in the afternoon...

On Sunday we still had a church service; a very cosy affair with the congregation sharing the space with the crafts. Father Jack commented that if any of us were cold, we were welcome to buy any of the beanies and scarves for sale on the craft tables :-)

After the service, parishioners walked around the craft tables and quite a few items were bought!

On Sunday afternoon I came back to help with the 'packing up' procedures...collecting up each exhibitor's items and then checking the inventories...can be slow work. (sadly it became obvious that there had been a small amount of  thieving as some unsold items were missing :-( ) 

Items are collected into bundles ready for checking the inventory sheets; these sheets are all done via the computer these days and show what items have been sold etc...

On Friday night I had fallen in love with 3 paintings by the lovely Gwen Kelso...they were all of flowers; a complete departure from my normal art purchases which are usually landscapes. So on Sunday afternoon I went a little earlier so that the show was still open...and I looked and looked at the 3 paintings...finally I decided on the one with mauve/pink poppies with lots of royal blue and purple in the background. 

Later in the afternoon when Gwen came in to collect unsold items I went up to her and reminded her that I had been a Supply/Contract teacher at the same school as she had taught at..she did remember me and when I told her that I had bought one of her paintings, she gave me a big hug! The children in Gwen's classes always had a sketchpad in their desk drawers and every day after morning tea, her students would sit and draw in those pads for 20 minutes...it was a brilliant way to settle children and I'm sure that many students would have continued to draw for pleasure even when they left Year 4.

Gwen Kelso...

The organiser of the art show did not have final figures for monies raised when I last talked to him but he had been very pleased with the progress totals on Sunday afternoon...

I had sold 95 tickets in the Raffle but none of those lovely friends and family had their tickets drawn, but the money raised is very much appreciated.
Unfortunately there is a bit of glare on the glass of the pastel drawing of a very old door.

The 3 prizes in the raffle. 

So the 30th Annual Art and Craft Show was over for another year!

Pews all pushed back into place...