Ken Done kept the crowd of 150 people, including 30 VIPs, entertained for a full hour.

"He was humorous, he was fun, he had a lot of great stories. He commanded the audience and he had another 10 hours of stories in him!" gallery director, Rachael Piercy said.

Ken's talked preceded the opening of his travelling exhibition of recent and mostly unseen works, Paintings You Probably Haven't Seen, and Print, Paint and Pixel an exhibition from Stephen Michael King, award-winning children's book author and illustrator.

Both authors had special guests and family members attending the opening.

"We were also really lucky to have Christopher Chen, the author of Stephen's latest book, called Bear and Rat," Rachael said.

Both Ken and Stephen were very appreciative of having such interest in their work.

"I appreciate all the work that people in regional galleries do," Ken Done said.

"It's a fantastic thing for a painter to have the opportunity to talk about their work, and to see and get the feedback and the enthusiasm for people in regional towns."

Stephen Michael King spoke of how unusual it was for him to see his work on walls.

RELATED: New exhibition at Yalawanyi Ganya

"What you're looking at in my exhibition is about 1/100th of my work," he said.

"I never get to see it on the walls. I don't put it on the walls, I'm a mark maker, I'm a producer, I'm constantly making.

"The thought of seeing my work, the thought of exhibiting it, really has just been too much trouble. It's like, 'I've got another drawing to do!'."

Stephen thanked Rachael and gallery staff for the considered placement of the works on the wall.

"The placement of objects in space is an artform," he said.

Both exhibitions run until July 10.

For information about what's on at the Manning Regional Art Gallery go to www.manningregionalartgallery.com.au.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: