By Jesse Graham
Twelve Yarra Valley artists will have their work displayed on unusual canvases, using wine barrels to depict the valley at April’s Wine and Food Festival.
The Yarra Valley Wine and Food Festival will be held over the weekend of 1 and 2 April at Coldstream’s Rochford Wines.
As part of the festival’s Community Arts Exhibition, 12 artists have been commissioned to design 12 wine barrels, which will be displayed at the festival.
Healesville artist Denise Smith said she was covering the surface of her barrel with close-ups and silhouettes of birds, one of her favourite subjects to paint since moving to the valley.
“I … got a lot of inspiration from the (Healesville) Sanctuary,” she said.
“As soon as we moved up here, I signed up to be a guide up there, so I was doing that for about 12 years – that was really when my interest came about for doing more birds.”
Each of the artists is paired with a local primary school – Ms Smith’s school is Dixons Creek – and visitors to the event will be able to vote for their favourite barrel at the festival for a gold coin donation.
The winner of the voting will then receive $750 and an additional $750 will be donated to the winning artist’s school.
Ms Smith said she had seen snippets of other artists’ work from their social media pages, but most had kept their full design under wraps ahead of the event.
Yarra Valley Arts president Marcel Theunissen said the expected 12,000-16,000 visitors to the festival and the subsequent media coverage would help to promote the valley’s artists – along with the food and wine showcased at the event.
He said the Open Studios event, which will be run from September into November this year, will also be advertised at the event.
Festival general manager Ross Stevens said the exhibition would give visitors a chance to view the valley’s “unique arts and culture”.
He said the exhibition will also feature artists creating a large mural, based on the Yarra Valley theme, over the festival.
“It’s important to us that we involve as much of the community in this festival,” he said.
“We want to keep it local and ensure the community is 100 per cent part of this event and will benefit from it.”
For more information on the event, or to purchase tickets, visit yarravalleywineandfoodfestival.com.au
