Part of Collie’s very own art collection will soon be sent off to Perth for some much needed restoration after the Collie Art Gallery received a grant from Lotterywest.
Collie Gallery Group Board Member Don Clark said some of the paintings in the collection were in dire need of restoration work.
“Before we had the gallery they were stored in less than ideal conditions,” he said.
“It was back when people smoked in offices, there was no temperature control, no humidity control, it was less than ideal for storing paintings.”
“Now that we have them stored in a temperature and humidity controlled environment in the gallery, it’s time that we started to look after them and it’s time we got the ones fixed that need restoration.”
“There are twenty of them, and some of them are in dire need of restoration and quite a few of them need re-framing as some of the frames are in a terrible condition.”
Mr Clark has packaged the fragile paintings up and taken them to a specialist art restorer in Perth, who deals frequently with works from the Art Gallery of Western Australia.
The restoration will cost in the tens of thousands of dollars, and Mr Clark said they were very grateful to Lotterywest who made it possible.
The majority of the Collie Collection was originally acquired from a bequest by an art collector called Claude Hotchin.
Claude Hotchin was a prolific art collector and philanthropist, with bequests of paintings running into the thousands throughout the state.
From 1947 to his death in 1977, Sir Claude bequested thousands of paintings to country shires, metropolitan hospitals and universities.
The majority of the artwork in the Collie Collection is oil-based paintings, and some are water colours and acrylics.
The restoration process will take between one to two months to complete and the gallery hope to hold an exhibition of the works in April next year.
For more information on the Collie Art Gallery and their upcoming and current exhibitions go to www.collieartgallery.org.au