A unique Exhibition held at the Wondai Regional Art Gallery. The story behind the display was that a truck had lost its load on its way to a antiques and collectables store. The boxes were now all empty. By using the clues provided you then had to find the items for the inventory list. The twist was that they had been ‘subject to change’ and were now hidden amongst the art displayed in the Main Gallery. Lots of Fun for the visitors to the gallery.

The Main gallery was filled with a wide variety of art pieces from sculptures, paintings and this particular installation all of which tied back to the items from the boxes that fell from the truck,

“I found this exhibition quite mentally challenging to work out. Every Piece of artwork I made, painted or drew had to come from one of those boxes. I deliberately made some things harder than others. The hard work has paid off though. People enjoyed the interactive aspect of the display“

After having gone through a selection process this design was chosen by the South Burnett Regional Council for the Art work for the back wall of their Visitor information Centre. It depicts the regions beautiful red soils and farming history while including the generations.

“this was my first large scale Mural that I have done on site. I was lucky as it was undercover and close to amenities. Changing from artists paints to house paint always takes a bit of adjusting to. I am very pleased with the results.”

Horses have always been a favourite subject to paint. Growing up around them and, in the past, riding and owning a few, it seems that they are my go to animal to try and capture through art. This art piece recently won the Oil/acrylic section of the Wondai Regional Council Art Competition

It seems sometimes things may take a long time but the outcome can be so worth it. This sculpture was made over four years ago and became the property of the South Burnett Regional Council Art Collection after winning an acquisitive art prize. Even though it was an honour to win, it seemed that the sculpture may never be properly appreciated. They started in storage and a few other places but now they have finally made it to their permanent home in the small country town of Proston. The setting has been a joint collaboration with the Proston Community and the Local council. They have done such a wonderful job and the setting was far more than envisaged when they were first made.

Sometimes you are in the right place at the right time. Meeting Joel Fergie aka ‘The Zookeeper’ who was in town painting a mural, turned out to be quite the adventure. Such a lovely person and willing to share his knowledge. Helping on the mural consisted of doing some base coats for his beautiful piece and gaining lots of insightful information. Working lower to the ground suited and a brush was way more comfortable than a spray can. So blessed to have been given the opportunity. Thankyou Joel.

Celebrating harmony day was theme for these six panels. Approached by local council, the objective was to design six panels for the public to paint on and then they would go on to be displayed. The panels represented that we all come in different shapes and sizes. They were depicted in different scenarios. the one below for example is of a farm.

Inspiration comes from all places. With another huge exhibition done and dusted Artist Robyn Dower has time to reflect on the list of challenges she accomplished. The Exhibition “INSPIRE” was held at the Wondai Regional Art Gallery in December2022/January2023. It included art installations, large and small paintings and large and small sculpture. The Art installation ‘Forgotten Heroes’ was based on a poem by her sister Kay Gorring. A beautiful heartfelt poem about a man reminiscing on his experiences in the war.

Some challenges were bigger than others when it came to this exhibition, none so more than that of building a life-size pony who was nicknamed ‘Dave’. He was quite the hit with the visitors

Then came some smaller sculptures all making up a successful exhibition

‘I have been so pleased with the results of the exhibition. I always like to challenge myself. Whether it is to sculpt bigger, paint smaller there is always an element of testing my limits to see what I can achieve’

After a slow time in her arts practice, Robyn is back to work producing some competition winners on the way. After a couple of years of constant changes, including Covid 19 and personal losses. She is back and has been working hard on her up Coming exhibition “Inspired” “It is great to get back to work and looking forward to my latest exhibition in December at the Wondai art gallery.”

Sometimes you just have to follow what your heart tells you. Robyn has long followed a diverse arts practice ranging from sculpture/ painting/ installations as well as public art. Having such a range of mediums to work with is always a challenge but one to relish.” I have always found the challenge of trying different things one of the most enjoyable things about what I do. I am never bored. “

Most recent wins were in the South Burnett Regional Council Art awards in October 2020. This was in the Sculpture section for an art work entitled “Feathered” and in the David Bryce Rural Art Awards with “First Officer” in December 2020

Kingaroy Heritage Museum Project

In the middle of 2019 Robyn was approached to do a series of Five paintings to represent the history of peanut harvesting for the Kingaroy Heritage Museum. It was originally meant to be one metre by one metre boards. They were to depict horse drawn implements up to the modern day machines. From 1920 through to 2020 to celebrate the centenary of peanut harvesting in Kingaroy. Of course, as usual, the project got bigger than expected with the original ideas expanded on to make it visually more appealing

The actual picture ended up spanning over 8.3 metres. With each picture creating it’s own challenges.

“The first challenges where changing black and white photos to colour. The next was marrying up photos to create the image required, this was sometimes up to four different images for one painting. This also required me to get people to model in order to get the right images. The pure size of the pieces made them difficult to move around and work on, not to mention the space it took up around my house. This whole project was a great challenge with lots of lessons learnt. It is now up in place and although it wasn’t the easiest thing I have done I am very proud of the finished product.”

Robyn Dower