“25 YEARS in Wamboin” is a retrospective exhibition of the private life in art of Roy and Betty Churcher during their years living at Wamboin from 1989 – 2015 and ‘CityNews” popped today for a look.

It has been curated by their son Paul in an intimate gallery space tucked away behind the family vineyard. Paul describes it as “a special opportunity to experience the art and environment that inspired Roy’s paintings and was Betty’s sanctuary to write, sketch, educate and advocate for visual arts in Australia.”

When UK-born painter Churcher and his wife Betty, by then  director of the National Gallery of Australia, took up agricultural land  in Wamboin a quarter of a century ago, they were in their  middle years and far too old, many of their sophisticated town friends thought, to set up a working farm.

And yet that was the dream of the pair. Roy continued to paint, inspired by the seasonal changes that they had  never enjoyed in early marriage days in  in Queensland, and Betty continued to draw even when she directed the country’s leading collecting institution, often finding inspiration in her sketching as she prepared yourself to make dignitaries.

One of the couple’s four sons, Paul, has lived since the 1990s on the corner of the property in a mud brick house he built for his family, and continues to run it as a working vineyard.

With a background in art installation, he has put together a beautifully-hung show of artworks by Roy and Betty in a shed on the property which he has refurbished, double-glazed and lined, to become an exhibiting gallery for a short time and, with the agreement of his brothers, a storage space for the longer duration. The other half of the shed will still house the tractor.

A selection of works by Roy are on show, some  for sale with  lots of red dots matching  the steady flow of visitors, Paul says, who have been through since the exhibition went up at Easter. Some of the visitors were old friends from Betty from Queensland, some of them members of the general public who admired the Churchers and some of them students of Roy, who continued to teach art in the district.

It is, as Paul stressed, a one off. After some necessary cataloguing, the works will be stored onsite, although the National Library of Australia will take works like Betty’s original sketches for her final book, “The Forgotten Notebook”. He expects galleries in Canberra to exhibit the works in future.

When “Citynews” caught up with the exhibition today, kangaroos were hopping among the vines as  visitors came and went in the beautiful autumn weather that had so inspired Roy’s art. You only have until tomorrow to catch it this unique show.

 “25 Years in Wamboin” at 67 Merino Vale Drive Wamboin – off Norton Road, until tomorrow Sunday,  April 3, 10am – 4pm.