Castlemaine Gallery and Historical Museum

 A lyrical whole page review of a Gallery exhibition of Thames boat paintings

  in the Weekend Australian at the beginning of November (see Dora Meeson but the article may be behind the Oz pay wall)  led us to this town that we had passed through but not stopped in before.

 The Gallery building dates it as founded 1913, but the present building is a great example of Art Deco and it is no surprise that Wikipedia says "The 1931 art deco building is noted for its elegant design and is heritage listed."

The town, although famed for gold digging days, is not so grand as Ballarat and Bendigo, but still has several attractive buildings besides the Gallery, particularly the Presbyterian church directly opposite it.

Besides this attractive exhibition, the representative Australian works in this small gallery included a good selection of Colonial artists and Heidelberg impressionists (the glamour work is Tom Roberts' "Reconciliation",

and I was delighted to see McCubbins' "Hawthorn Heath Paddock".
It was especially pleasing to view a self portrait  by Ian Armstrong dating from 1948 accompanied by a poem of tribute from an admirer half a century later. This artist and particularly his representations of central Victoria have charmed us sufficiently to hang three of his works in our home.  He never achieved major renown but that means we could afford him.







Afterwards we adjourned to the Botanic Gardens for a picnic lunch.The Gardens were gazetted in 1860. They are principally given to tree, rather than plant, specimens.