Gallery Summer Hours. 10th Anniversary Celebrations

Special Notices:

Closure during the hottest days, and our 10th Anniversary Celebrations.

It is the policy of our gallery, for the Health and Safety of our Volunteers and the Public, to close our doors when the forecast temperature for the day is 35 degrees or more.

We appologise for any inconvenience that this may cause, however, I am sure that you will agree, that it is not pleasant to be in a HOT environment for any length of time, and unfortunately we DO NOT have adequate air conditioning to support us in remaining open on these days.

Because we are aware, that we have a lot of heat closure days during the Summer, we extend the length of time, that exhibitions run during this period, to give everyone the chance to come and view them and to purchase quality work that they fall in love with.

If you have any further questions you may call any of the committee members, simply follow this link or go to the page.


This is a photo of the dust storm which took place a few days ago not too far from Gawler. (post date 21-12-15)
It is courtesy of the 'S.A. Country Fire Service' who do a fabulous job here in S.A.
Many of our gallery members live on the land and need to be home to guard their properties also on hot days.
We hope that you all stay well and safe during the summer months.

Reminders and Updates

 A Busy Holiday Season Is Coming!!

Christmas Raffles are all wrapped up, chuckle. As you would expect!
We have 3 really BIG prizes with tons of goodies inside which I am sure will delight anyone who should win one of them.  Tickets are available at the Gallery Shop for only $1.00 each. Our books are made up of ten so you can buy the whole book if you like.
 The Raffle will be drawn before we close the Gallery for the Christmas break which is aproximately Sunday 20th December at 3pm.  I need to just confirm the dates for you.

The latest Newsletter is now online for everyone. We now have a new Editor, with the change of Committee on Thursday 29th October at our Annual AGM. I will list them all shortly.

The Exhibition Calendar for 2016 has now been updated also, there have been a few changes, so please take note, those of you who use this service to plan your future exhibitions. there are still only 6 room available for the whole of next year, so it would be a good idea to lock one in now and pay a deposit.

Membership is now just about apon us; and Invoices and reminders will be going out very very soon. Don't forget to renew yours as none of us wishe to have an admin fee added if we are late. details will be  on your form which will either be Emailed or Posted to you.

Gawler Health - Hospital ongoing Exhibition.
Just a reminder that hte next change over date for paarticipants is on the 1st Thursday of December at 1.30pm, Contact Mr Ron Brook for more information or check at the gallery during open hours.

Current Exhibitions

My appologies for being so behind with information for the Gawler Community Gallery.

Currenttly there are a lot of people on the sick list, myself included.

I will however do my best to bring you all up to date with all that  has been happening at he Gallery in the lst few months.

First the Mothers' Day Raffle Prize Winners - 1st prize- Alan Polkinghorne, 2nd prize - Jack Herlihen, 3rd prize - Jan Garner. Congratulations to all, I am sure the prizes were very well recieved by the respective Mother's,  and a Very Belated Happy Mother's Day to all.

The Following Exhibitions were opened on the 11th April and will close on the 17th of May.

Open Photographic Exhibition, Winner : Elise Eiffe with ‘Orange Poppy’.  
You will have to see this one at the Gallery to see how Elise has captured  the essence of this poppy. 
The second prize:went to Paul Johnson for his ‘Redcapped Robin’.  
These photographers  excel in patience as well as skill.






Hippy Divas by Portia Stanton Noble and and Pamela Zanker,
have a quirky, interesting collection of work in their ‘Hippie Diva Exhibition’.


Portia with her photos of the Sirens of the Vine are a delight of cheekiness. The vineyards and the juxtaposition of pretty models is quite fetching.

Pamela’s work shows such variety and ingenuity.  These are mostly abstract works and are definitely worth the visit to see them.

The Open History Exhibition

There is a vast variety of style, technique and subject entered into this exhibition all showing many aspects of South Australian History.

The Prize for this exhibition will be decided by 'People's Choice' by a counting of votes at the closing of the exhibition period on 17th of May. The winner will be announced here on the blog in the next post.

Member Information.

Kapunda, Barrossa Valley South Australia is holding a -MASSIVE ART SALE  with Lots of bargains,  Preloved & new art, craft, books, prints and materials, on from - 21^st May to 1^st JuneKCG, Main Street, Kapunda.  10-4 pm weekdays and 10-3.30 weekends.
If you are in the area and looking for a bargain hop on over and check it out.

Shop & Member News

We have extended our lovely SHOP, 

Into the 'Red Hen' room downstairs, which means the shop now includes both the Left and Right hand rooms as you enter the Gallery.
Why not come in and check out our wonderful shop.  See our Shop page for photos and updates.

Members may put extra work in now and it can be left to be rotated on an as needs basis. 

 All we ask you to do is help by keeping your consignment books up to date and do a regular stock take as we now have around 70 people with stock in the shop. (Ask LAURA WRIGHT  the Shop Co-0rdinator for more details.)  

REMEMBER TO PAY YOUR SUBS!!!   THEY WERE DUE JANUARY 1ST.

Example of display for
junior work which is unframed.

Please take the time to  become aquanted with the new Policy changes regarding membership.See the  MEMBERSHIP PAGE as there will be a small fine if you delay your renewals beyond the beginning of March.    This is to cover Extra administration required to process them.

NEW MEMBER CATEGORY -

The Committee has added a new category- 

We now have JUNIOR MEMBER - AGE under 18 years.  $5.00 year.  Gallery Room Hire  is the same as for adults, as it is already discounted.   

We will have a special area above the Cards, in the Hallway for Junior work that is unframed,   and will use a hessian hanging over that area, as we did for the Junior open exhibition last year.

DAY SHEETS

have been updated and now consist of individual days, (Thurs' Fri' Sat', and Sun')

Little jobs were added on each one for all of us.  It is working very well, and I am sure it makes the Shop Coordinators job a whole lot easier.  Thanks Colleen, brilliant idea.

RAFFLES

We will be running a Mother's Day Raffle again this year, along with a Father's Day and Christmas one. We are asking our members to be generous once again and donate items suitable to be included in any of these.
Here are a few ideas - books, perfume, soap, candles, jewellery, bags, Movie Tickets, Chocolate perhaps, little tools, nail polish, wallet-men or woman's, scarves, hats any other great ideas.

From December 2014

Attention Please

18-1-15 Update

I have updated the MEMBERSHIP PAGE as their have been a few changes here. Please take the time to read these and become aquanted with the new Policy changes, as there will be a small fine if you delay your renewals beyond the beginning of March.
This is to cover Extra administration required to process them.
Please note- that we have looked into this carefully and have found that Most Galleries do this.

16-1-15 Updaate
Newsletters and Exhibition Calendars have both been updated today.
All the NEWSLETTERS are now online and the  Exhibition Calendar for this year is now available for you to make forthcoming plans. select Link to view: CALENDAR 2015

Cheers from GCG Admin, Dianne

25-1-15 Update

November 6th to January 11th Exhibitions

Yvonne Jaunnay - Jewellery and Textiles Exhibition, 

held in the "Red Hen" room oposite the shop. Yvonne has a flare for display and all her beautiful jewellery looked fantastic, with a modern style and bright colours, she had several sales throughout December. Congratulations Yvonne.

Gallery Members End Of Year Exhibition,

We held this one upstairs, in the 'Overland' and 'Ghan' rooms. There were a lot of entries, which were both very diverse, and beautifully executed as you can see here.
Our members provide us with quite a variety of talent, with not only Paintings, but sculpture, Jewellery and Wood Turning to name a few.
All these exhibitions roll over into January, as we close for 2 weeks between Christmas and New Year.

Miniature Exhibition by Members,

This was held in the Christmas shop and there were many wonderful pieces of art. I think we had over 70 entries.

Miniatures

The Imagination of people never ceases to amaze me.

There were many different sizes and shapes, when it came to the finish of these magical little gems of work.

Miniatures

The appeal for the public was equally diverse,
ranging from the young to the very old.

Miniatures

What a wonderful gift these would make.


 I know I couldn't stick with just one, there were so many that I would happily have on my dresser at home.

People's Choice Winner for
Miniature Exhibition.

We ran a People's Choice Award for this exhibition, and our very own Presidents' piece was the Winner.
The award was presented to Ron by; Gawler's Lady Mayor - Karen Redman.       Congratulations Ron.

As a quick reminder; We close when the forecast temperature for the day is to reach 35 degrees or more. 
This is due to our Heritage Building having NO airconditioning, 
to keep our volunteers cool and well cared for.
We appologise for this but it is however out of our hands. 
Due to the Heritage listing we are not allowed to add it either.

WELCOME BACK 2015

Welcome Back to the 'Gawler Community Gallery' Blog.

I really MUST apologise for being away so long, there have just been so so many things happening in this volunteer's personal life. I do hope that you will forgive me.
I am back now and looking forward to a GREAT 2015 at the Gallery and with YOU - ALL our Friends!

To start with I would like to say that I hope you ALL had a Wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year. I know that I did, with my lovely grown up girlS, their Families and all the Grand Children.

As I am quite a long way behind with Gallery happenings and updates, I will post appropriate articles in order, starting with news from November last year.
These will appear as I get them done, which will not be too far in the future - I promise you !

Before I go today, I would like to share with you, some figures pertaining to the visitors we have had here on our Blog.

As we know I have not been back since October, and yet, as we see from the chart above, we are still getting SUBSTANTIAL VISITS to our blog and I THANK you ONE and ALL for you CONTINUING SUPPORT...

The Peaks of this graph indicate numbers of between 30 and 45 per day., the troughs are still registering - 1 visit, up to 10 visits per day. This is lovely to see.
We are also getting the majority of our visits from Australia (as we should) but also from the - USA, UK, France, Russia, Germany, India, Poland, Indonesia and Italy.

I must say it IS nice to see that we are reaching such a wide and varied Audience.

Feel free to leave a comment on our blog. in the space provided, we would love to hear from you.
cheers for now Dianne, Blog Admin'

What IS a Miniature

What Is a Miniature Painting?

As the next round of exhibitions; includes a Members' MINIATURE Exhibition, I thought that it might be helpful to have a little look at what we call a miniature.

The next round opens on; 6th November 2014
and the Entry Closing Date is; 4pm, 23rd October 2014. Late Entries cannot be accepted.

The organisers need time to list all entry details and produce the Catalogue which is very time consuming, so be sure that ALL your details are correct at the time of entry.

Now back to our MINIATURE's. Some may feel a little confused by this.

What is a Miniature you may ask. Well.....

Here at The Gawler Community Gallery we have decided to go with an overall MAXIMUM size of 5x5 inches, or 25  Square Inches.  Which is to say that 25 x 1 inch squares will fit into your square or rectangle, which then equals 5 x 5 inches maximum.
clear as mud eh!  

The upshot is that as long as one inch squares total no more than 25 then your work will fit the requirement as a miniature regardless of whether it is actually a SQUARE or a RECTANGLE,  or indeed if it is smaller than 5x5 inch, it is still acceptable.

What about overall size ?

What the.....I hear you say. 

Well again, As long as the painting itself is the correct measurement, then the frame can be 10 inch x 14 inch if you want, (or any size which enhances your work) so long as it has been mounted properly within the frame on mounting board.  The painting may be dead centre, high, or low in the mount, or even offset to one side.

I hope this has been of some use to you all.
We still have some miniature Canvases available through the Gallery Shop,
and you still have PLENTY of time to produce something, with 3 weeks yet until entries close.

Happy painting, I am looking forward to seeing everyones bright ideas and different finishes, in the Medium of your choice.
Cheers from Blog Admin Di

Appropriate Framing

An IMPORTANT Message from Our President

Regarding Framing...

The President wishes to impress on members the need for the correct fittings to be attached to paintings. 

14 paintings had to have rings replaced at the recent exhibition hanging which wasted a lot of time for the team. In future entries will be refused if unsuitably  framed.

Small- A rings and eyelets are too small for the Gallerys Hanging System(hooks).

Our Policies State the Accepted materials for finished framing and are as stated here-

Large D-Ring

Large D-Rings as pictured, 

Size; 20 x 12mm maximum weight bearing is 40kg

For Extra Large work a D-Ring with a Double hole for screwing into the frame is more appropriate.

Wire also needs to be of an appropriate weight.

Keeping in mind that ALL work must be EASILY LIFTED for hanging or display.

These are NOT available at your local Hardware Store. 

We carry D-Rings at the Gallery Shop (for a small fee) for your convenience, or you can contact our President Mr Ron Brook, or our Sponsor- Framer Dave Ferrell from 'Dial A Picture Framer, both can help you with these items at a very reasonable cost. Dave visits the gallery every month on the 2nd Saturday from 11am  until 12 and offers our members a good discount for his framing services.

Other Framing Requirements

First and MOST obvious is- to make sure that your frame is UN-DAMAGED. you really don't want it to fall apart when it is being hung or removed apon sale. (that would be a tad embarrassing!)

NO CORD, use WIRE.  Cord is only stapled and CAN slip causing a fall and damage to your art. The gallery cannot take responsibility for this.

Hanging Wire- needs to be an appropriate weight for the weight of the painting and also MUST BE PLACED 1/4 down from the top for framed work and FURTHER UP towards the TOP for CANVASES, so the piece sits flatter to the wall when hung.

HOW TIGHT?  The Wire needs to have some slack in it to enable the D-Rings to be moved out enough to place on our Hanging Hooks. See photo below!

If framing under GLASS suitable matting must be used. (we have unfortunately had ordinary paper used occasionally) it really does not make your work look good at all.

Appropriate Backing- Foam Core is best. It helps lighten the load (weight) making it less likely to fall and easier for those doing the hanging for exhibitions.

Finishing Off- Use a wide brown tape around the frame edges, which is also available from the above people.

All Art Work- MUST be both CLEAN and DRY.

At Right:- An appropriately Framed Painting.