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Karin Adcock has taken her love of art to a new level, opening an upmarket boutique gallery on the weekend at her winery south of Broke.
Adcock, well-known for launching the Pandora jewellery brand in Australia, then selling the business to the parent company in Denmark, has been living at the Winmark vineyard that she purchased in 2016 for the last 18 months.
Last weekend she hosted a gala opening for the art gallery she had built on the property's former winery farm sheds. The gallery is immediately adjacent to the winery's retail cellar door, which also displays art.
The Winmark Art Gallery represents artists Rebecca Pierce, Felicia Aroney, James Ainslie, Erik Flygenring and sculptors David Ball, Michael Purdy, Ulan & Rachel and Katarina Wells. And Adcock is looking to expand representation.
The gallery currently has works on show that also include Simon Zablotsky, a Lake Macquarie-based designer of fine furniture.
There are several sculptures on the vineyard property (which has four dwellings that can accommodate a total of 34 guests) with a sculpture walk featuring works by Ball, Wells, Flygenring and Ed Hayes, Jim Hamilton, Sharon Taylor, Rode Vella, Alain Vagh and Wollombi artist Amanda Lockton.
Adcock, who was previously living on Sydney's northern beaches, has been living in the primary home on the vineyard estate while overseeing major investments in the vines and property.
While she has invested a lot of time and money in breathing life back into the vineyard's famous chardonnay vines, she's also surrounded herself with experts in that field.
When it comes to art, she's also very hands-on, to the point of moving her own office into the cellar door next to the gallery so she can personally greet visitors to the gallery.
"We've already sold some pieces," she says. "Many people come to the Hunter Valley two or three times a year. I want them to feel there is a reason to come because things change around and there is something to see."
Is it going to be difficult to get art buyers to come to Broke?
"I think it will work," she says. "The feedback I've had so far ... when you think about it, the Hunter Valley, with 150 vineyards, and nobody really is doing what we're doing here. To me, it's obvious, as David Bell, the sculptor who did Biosis [the property's signature installation] and some others say, wine and sculptures age very well."
The gallery is offering an "Art in the Vines" weekend March 12-14, with artist Rebecca Pierce, Aboriginal elder Gavi Duncan and guest speaker Corinne Estrada. The event will be hosted by Karin Adcock, and includes a Master Class "landscapes" with Rebecca Pierce, and presentations by Corinne Estrada on Paris, Monet and Van Gogh.
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