The cultural phase of our trip was about to begin. I had recently visited the Margaret Olley exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, and now we were headed to the Tweed Regional Gallery to see their recreation of her home, among other things. I had become acquainted with this beautiful facility two-and-a-half years previously when Michael and I were heading for a camping getaway at Iluka. We made it to the rise just past the gallery when everything stopped. 
While we were waiting for the RACQ and the NRMA to sort out their border disputes and send a flatbed truck to take us home, I needed to go to the loo in a hurry. And there within walking distance was the art gallery. I gave the facilities four stars, but didn't get to see any of the other delights, except the cute stone sheep and the glorious view.
The sheep are actually an art installation. I didn't photograph the sign that revealed the name of the work and the artist, because I thought I could find that out online. Sadly, my research skills have failed me so far. Anyway, they greeted me like old friends.We headed for the Margaret Olley Gallery, past a wonderful collection of photographs by Marian Drew, which were really impressive. You view rooms from Margaret's Sydney home through original windows and doors from the house in Duxford Street, Paddington. These include the kitchen, the yellow room and the 'hat factory'. All up, there are over 20,000 items. It is, at the same time, both intimate and overwhelming.
In the same part of the gallery, there was an exhibition of some of Margaret's works alongside those of her life-long friend and fellow still-life specialist Fred Jessup, who spent many years living in Paris. I was particularly impressed with their individual renditions of the same subject matter, namely fishing nets at Brunswick Heads (Margaret's is on the left).
On our way out, we passed an exhibition of lino block prints called Olley Land by Christine Druitt-Preston. These displayed the clutter of Margaret's life in stark black and white, but some were combined with embroidery and old doileys to create a multi-textured effect. Quite intriguing.
We finally had to drag ourselves away, because we had one more non-op-shop stop to go. Onwards and northwards...
