The gallery’s latest array of exhibitions, including selections from the Max Watters Collection, opened this month – and will continue until Sunday, August 26.

But, who is this elusive trio of characters?

The portrait Three Well Known Australians has been posing this question to exhibition viewers since it began touring in 1983. 

The clues are in the painting but artist Martin Shaw won’t reveal the answer. 

What can be disclosed though, is the black and white dog sitting in the corner of the canvas is named “Pea”.

“The timeless painting has visited 205 venues over more than three decades,” Mr Shaw said.

“However, I’m glad it is returning to NSW country towns in 2018.

“And, it’s intended to keep touring the nation for many generations.

“The public is also encouraged to guess who the ‘three Australians’ are in the painting.

“They are then able to record their responses in the yearbook that accompanies the painting.”

Joining Mr Shaw’s Three Well Known Australians at the gallery are Maude Butta’s The End of the Vine, Paul Selwood’s A Survey of Small Sculpture, Wadagingie’s My Mother’s Endearment and The Losing Game.

The Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre, located on the corner of Bridge and William streets, is open Tuesday to Friday (10am – 5pm) and weekends (10am – 1pm).

FROM vineyard to table, Denman artist Maude Butta explores winemaking in her local community in her debut solo exhibition The End of the Vine. A resident of Denman for the past 30 years, Maude herself has first-hand experience of the inner workings of a winery, having worked for 10 years at Rosemount Estate. The collection of works that is The End of the Vine are dynamic and engaging in acrylic, watercolour, pen and ink, mixed media, collage and charcoal, emerging from a process of reflecting on and revisiting an industry that exists in a changing landscape that is the Upper Hunter region.

IN a natural progression following his survey of large sculpture at Maitland Regional Art Gallery in 2016, Wollombi, Hunter Valley sculptor Paul Selwood brings to Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre a survey of his small sculpture. While it by no means covers all of the themes he has worked on over a 50-year practice, it does bring together many of the key works from which many variations evolved.

INDIGENOUS artists from St Heliers Correctional Centre present works for 2018 NAIDOC Week. Artists worked with the overlying theme ‘Because of her, We Can!’, reflecting on the role women have played in their lives – mothers, aunties, grandmothers, elders, sisters, daughters and granddaughters – the driving force in their lives. They shared stories of their mothers, grandmothers and aunties telling dreamtime stories, sharing language and knowledge about culture. Memories of the commitment their mothers and grandmothers made to them and the opportunities they gave them were revisited. When asked to describe the women in their lives artists highlighted them as being very strong, knowledgeable, smart, caring, trusted, wise and committed.

ISOLATION, betrayal, pain, suffering, loss; a pervading sense of emptiness or sadness! Come and experience these very real human experiences through the Max Watters Collection. Works that include Charles Blandford’s Destruction of the Environment, Betty Gleeson’s Secret Tragedy II, Rew Hanks’ The Trojan Tiger Versus the Woolly Redcoats, Geoff Proud’s Lusitania Girls, Garry Shead’s Lane Cove 1 and Imants Tillers’ Displacement No. 15 explore these themes leading you down a darker, unforgiving path.