Coolangatta Restaurant says yes to Art Ministry

This southern area of the Gold Coast has many other attractive features that have made it such a pleasant place for people to live for a long time; as evidenced by the recent centenary celebrations of two of the local schools. Today, the Coolangatta coastline boasts plenty of high-rise and low-rise apartments that are highly sought after as both short - and long - term residences.

The Gold Coast/Coolangatta International airport has undergone a multi-million dollar redevelopment, required to handle a busy air-freight terminal as well as over five million passengers per year, catered for by sixty-four passenger flights to and from Coolangatta each day.

The Coolangatta Marine Parade strip is the major tourist area. Among the restaurants, shopping areas, high rise apartments, a new five million dollar beach front pathway and a wide open expanse of beach where each January the International Beach Cricket series is held, is a new upmarket restaurant, 'Coolies Steak and Seafood'.

Proprietor, Gail Buckingham, explained that her family have run restaurants all their business lives, and when this site became available, they snapped it up because they had recently moved into one of the nearby apartments.

Well-Being Australia chairman Mark Tronson, a Baptist minister, who resides in Tweed Heads on the New South Wales side of the border close to Queensland's Coolangatta, patronised the new restaurant as part of his 'Around the Tables' ministry responsibilities.

"During the meal, I noticed there was very little art on the walls," M V Tronson explained. "I suggested to Gail Buckingham that perhaps she might consider supporting the Art Ministry, and she responded very positively."

Gail Buckingham said that in all their restaurant years they had always had 'live' art resting on easels, so she invited Mark Tronson, to follow this tradition.

"My first task was to request Alan Birch from the Anglican men's fellowship, who is a retired builder, to construct two new easels which were then painted black with a burgundy margin," noted M V Tronson, who uses his family historical name, Tronson du Coudray – the missionary painter.

"I was then able to provide the restaurant with two of my own paintings, 'Love is Teenagers' and 'Love is Smudges', resplendent on two new easels, a couple of weeks later."

Art in restaurants and resorts is a key component of Well-Being Australia's Art Ministry where the art itself speaks to patrons. If they are not sold as fund-raisers for the ministry within three weeks, Mark Tronson exchanges the art works with something fresh.

Within a week 'Love is Teenagers' had sold from the digital photograph to Mr Basil Sellers who replied that he couldn't take his eyes from it," M V Tronson was pleased to report.