Recent Acquisitions features impressive works generously donated to Orange Regional Gallery by artists and collectors.

The exhibition includes works by Tim Maguire, Fiona Lowry, Judy Cassab, Mclean Edwards, Joanna Braithwaite, Kate Beynon and Ildiko Kovacs - all made possible through the Federal government’s Cultural Gifts Program.

Hill End artist Luke Sciberras donated one of his major works Swallow Nest Creek, Hill End, painted in 2014 for an exhibition of Hill End paintings exhibited at Jan Murphy Gallery in Brisbane.

This work marks a new beginning in his art practice when he started working on a huge scale and a rectangular format. Using the rich colours of the earth in Hill End and powerful, gestural brushstrokes, Luke has created a work that is visually powerful and confident.

The highlight of the exhibition opening was the donation of Charles Cooper’s striking painting Brierly by Lynette Sisley, mother of the late gallery director Alan Sisley.

Mrs Sisley purchased this work from the exhibition Pedestrian (curated by Jaime Tsai and held at the National art School Sydney in August 2015) especially to honour the memory of her son, who was Orange Regional Gallery’s Director for 23 years and who instigated the gallery’s partnership with Orange Health Service.

Putting the gallery’s valuable artworks in the hospital was a world first initiative and shows the generosity and empathy Alan had for his fellow man.

Brierly comes from a series of works based on the signs and symbols we see as we drive along our roads and highways. Charles Cooper's paintings are ambiguous in nature and graphic in impact. What appears to us at first as geometric compositions with modernist overtones turn out to be allusions to the specific, mundane road signs.

Brierly is based on a speed hump and the artist is asking us to view these road signs as metaphors for our own journeys.

We still have seats available for our tour to Versailles: Treasures from the Palace at NGA, departing on Tuesday, February 21.

It is a splendid exhibition and a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see and experience an extravagant period in French history.

There are more than 130 paintings, intricate tapestries, gilded furniture, monumental statues and other objects from the royal gardens and personal items from Louis XIV to Marie Antoinette.

Bookings: 6393 8136. The tour departs from the Visitors Centre at 7am and returns to Orange at 8pm. Cost is FORG members $95, non-members $140.