Tag Archives: art exhibition

A Day Out – Part 1

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Today we ventured to Shepparton, a regional city which is a couple of hours drive north-east of where we live. The reason for our visit was twofold, seeing the Brett Whiteley exhibition at the Shepparton Art Museum and going to the SPC Factory Shop. For those who are not familiar with the acronym, it stands for Shepparton Preserving Company, an Australian food processing company based in Shepparton which is well-known for its various canned fruits and vegetables. I was hoping to stock up on canned tomatoes but more on that in my next post.

I did not think to take any photos of the very recent building which houses the Shepparton Art Museum. The current location opened to the public in November 2021. Here is a photo I found online.

The exhibition we visited was excellent but I chose to simply enjoy the works rather than trying to photograph them.

We then walked up to the rooftop terrace where we caught this view which is almost the reverse of the previous image.

On the way up the central staircase I spotted this artwork. It is actually a timber ladder suspended from the ceiling against a circular mirror which creates the illusion of the ladder extending infinitely upwards. Really intriguing………….

The design of the large glass windows frame the view to the lake and beyond.

The spectacular patterns on the bark of these eucalypts caught my eye from the outdoor area outside the museum cafe where we had a delicious lunch. The food was excellent and the majority of the menu was gluten free.

After we left Shepparton we took a short detour off the main road to see the historic Toolamba Bridge. The single lane, timber planked bridge which spans the Goulburn River was opened in 1900.

We made one more stop on our way home. These photos show some silo art at Colbinabbin. The series was too big to fit into a single photo so the 3 photos show the sequence. The idea of painting a silo began in 2015 in Western Australia and has expanded since then to encompass silos, tanks and water towers in dozens of rural towns across the country. The themes are many and varied but always have a strong local influence. The resultant Art Trails have reinvigorated many of the rural communities.

Next time I will share the details of our shopping exploits from today.

Family Time

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In my last port I mentioned that we had visitors coming to stay. Our daughter and 2 granddaughters who live in Brisbane have been to visit for a week. They spent the first couple of nights in Melbourne where they went to see Beetlejuice and then took the train to Warrnambool where we met them and spent 3 days exploring the surrounding area, including the Great Ocean Road.

At the whale watching lookout at Logan’s Beach but no whales in sight.

Some stunning scenery along the Great Ocean Road.

Finally, we had 2 nights at home before a drive to Melbourne today to drop them at the airport for their return flight. I managed to take up 4 pairs of jeans for the girls as well as trim the younger one’s hair.

Yesterday we went to Bendigo where we went shopping for a 16th birthday gift for our younger granddaughter, had lunch at at Italian restaurant and then GMan, our daughter and I went to see the Frida Khalo exhibition at the Art Gallery. Although the granddaughters weren’t interested in seeing the exhibition we did manage a photo of them near the entrance. They had gelato and went to the gardens instead.

It has been a full and interesting week and we thoroughly enjoyed spending time with the family.

Back to reality tomorrow as I finish washing the extra bedlinen and rearranging the guest rooms. I am also hoping to do a bit more fence painting as the forecast is for fine weather and not too cold.

Beautiful Bendigo

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The regional city of Bendigo is a little over 30 minutes drive from where we live and we go there regularly to access shopping and other services.

However, our day out yesterday was a much more pleasurable excursion than simply grocery shopping.

We went to the current exhibition at the Bendigo Art Gallery, ‘Paris: Impressions of Life 1880-1925‘. This exhibition is curated from the collection at the Musee Carnavalet in Paris runs for 4 months in Bendigo until 14th July 2024.

Late autumn in the Arts Precinct of Bendigo is the perfect time and place for a Parisian excursion without a long-haul flight to Europe. Although, I must admit it has whetted my appetite to visit the City of Light again after our brief one day excursion there in 2017.

A spectacular entrance.

A wall mural showing an interior of the Musee Carnavalet. I am putting that one on the travel bucket list.

Back outside – a streetlamp and sunshine.

A late autumn street scene in Bendigo.

Champs Elysees in Paris (taken in 2017).

We enjoy travelling but there is also plenty to do in our local area.

Home From Holidays

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I am back after a short hiatus. We travelled to Adelaide and surrounds for about 10 days. It was mostly about catching up with family and friends which seemed to entail multiple very pleasant lunches and a couple of dinners in a variety of establishments.

We also took a couple of trips down memory lane as we revisited homes and places of interest of importance from when we lived in South Australia from 1987 – 2001.

Of course, there was plenty of op shopping in ‘new to me’ op shops. I wrote about some of my finds in my last post. This continued for the whole trip. Today I am doing several loads of washing now that I have unpacked. This includes the various new additions to my wardrobe.

I happened upon an online advertisement for a Banksy art exhibition so we spent a rather thought-provoking couple of hours there one afternoon. I loved the fact that there was quite a bit of background information about the pieces which added significantly to the overall experience.

Finally, no trip to Adelaide is complete without some views over the water. Fish and chips with a view of the sunset from Henley Beach.

A bit further south and this is the view from a lookout at Aldinga.