British sculptor and Hampstead School of Art principal Isabel Langtry is the "distinguished guest sculptor" at this year's Wollombi Valley Sculpture Festival.
Her visit will, festival director Susan Leith-Miller says, provide an insight into international perspectives on outdoor sculpture and the role of public art.
The festival, now in its 21st year, kicks off next Saturday, September 14, and features 180 works. They can be viewed in six indoor galleries, at three vineyards and throughout the historic hamlets of Wollombi and Laguna, meaning visitors can contemplate individual works at length without feeling crowded or pressured to move on.
Wollombi Valley Sculpture Festival is the longest running regional sculpture festival in NSW and continues to attract an ever-increasing range of respected sculptors. There are now guided tours and a schools program on offer, too.
Distinguished finalists this year include Armidale-based Ingrid Morley, who has been a finalist in exhibitions such as Sculpture by the Sea and who most recently won the 2024 Sculpture for Clyde in Batemans Bay.
The festival will also include works by artists local to the area, including Paul Selwood, Roger Macfarlane, Stephen Paul Coburn and Will Maguire, and relies on the efforts of more than 100 local volunteers.
If you're going to be in town on September 21, head along to the Stonehurst Long Lunch at the stunning Stonehurst Cedar Creek Winery. It's a five-course, long table lunch set among sculptures and pear trees at Stonehurst Cedar Creek, with plenty of Stonehurst wines to enjoy as well as live music. Book by emailing wines@stonehurst.com.au.
Susan Leith-Miller has been the festival's director since 2019.
"When I retired to Wollombi and was offered the role, I thought 'We could do something exciting with this'. I've always loved sculpture and marketing is my strength," she says.
"We changed the name from Sculpture in the Vineyards; it wasn't working for our community, and there was no location. By changing that name, and broadening it to include the whole of the Wollombi Valley, there was a real shift in momentum."
I ask her what she's most looking forward to at this year's festival, and she talks excitedly about the pews having been removed from St John's Anglican Church at Wollombi this year to make way for sculptures.
"I'm proud of our prizes, too, because they're not really about money; they're prizes that people really want but can't get ... more like money-can't-buy experiences," she says.
"I mean, a prize where you go to London to feature your work at the Hampstead School of Art, or a workshop with Harrie Fasher, or the Kangaroo Valley Invited Artist Award, or the Governor's Prize where your art is exhibited at Government House - you can't put a money value on any of these."
The 21st Wollombi Valley Sculpture Festival runs from September 14 to 29.
Local talent in Mudgee
Nine sculptors from Newcastle and the Hunter region are exhibiting at the 2024 Sculptures in the Garden at Mudgee in October.
They are Samuel Troyer (Newcastle), Roger McFarlane (Newcastle), Grahame Wilson (Teralba), Bridget Whitehead (Cardiff Heights), Peter Tilley (Carrington), Lee Sherlock (Maitland), Michael Rumble (Nelson Bay), Tobias Hynes (Murrurundi) and Paul Bacon (Wootton).
It's the exhibition's biggest year yet, with more than 250 artworks from 130 artists. A third of the entries are coming from new artists making their Sculptures in the Garden debut.
The festival runs from October 12 to 27 in the gardens of Rosby Wines.
