Bounty of art offered on Easter trail

 

By Julia Wade

Mangawhai came alive with colour and creativity over Easter weekend, with visitors and locals alike treated to a stunning and diverse visual array of the areas vast talent and artistic genius. 

The Mangawhai Artists Inc (MAI) annual Easter Art Trail gave viewers an opportunity to view the works of over 50 local artists, from multi-media paintings illustrating the areas natural beauty and dramatic coastline, to landscapes created from pure imagination and provocative graffiti art as well as delicate glass creations and dynamic wood and steel sculptures.

Nineteen venues were included in the trail including the Pioneer Village Heritage Church, Mangawhai Artists Gallery as well as private studios and galleries.  

MAI chair, Mary-Anne Boyd, says visitors were overwhelmingly enthusiastic for the art on show and variety of venues. 

“The Art Trail was inspiring and diverse… nurturing the wonderful tradition of people being able to see some of the many studios in the area and talk informally with artists,” she says. “Buyers were delighted with the impressive art works at very good prices and all appreciated the new road signs and the positive ambience.”

A number of sales were recorded especially in the last half hour of the Trail with one artist even receiving a phone call on the Sunday night from an enthusiastic buyer, asking to buy an art piece and commission more paintings. 

Although numbers were down from previous years due to Mangawhai having a range of activities on over the long weekend, hot sunny beach weather as well as the 12-hour road closure of State Highway 1 on the Saturday, some venues experienced higher than average visitors, Boyd says. 
“One of the busiest venues was the Heritage Church near the Museum, with well over 500 people visiting… and Mangawhai Artists Gallery was a buzz, with over 550 visitors in a single day, one of our highest visitor numbers recorded.”







1: The garden of self-taught metal sculptor Wayne Whyte was the ideal gallery to exhibit his signature corten steel art designs including stingrays, koru spears, botanical leaves and Kia Kaha surfboards. 
 
2: While venturing down the end of a ‘long, lost Taranaki road’, self-taught artist Wendy Clifford became motivated to capture the beauty of the Awakino Estuary in her unique, imaginative style. 
 
3a: Weekend Mangawhai local, Daphne Davies, showcased her extensive artistic talent from oil and acrylic paintings to intricately detailed ink sketches, capturing nature’s subtle light, gentle movement and depth of colour. 

4: Aquatic power and the natural environment are clearly inspirations for passionate surfer Lloyd Rayner, bringing life to pounding surf and peace to a coastline view. – PHOTO/Maureen Wilcocks

5: Love and intrigue for the fluidity of glass plus a dose of patience enable glass artist and sculptor Samantha Minnery to create delicate display bowls formed by the fusion of hundreds of smashed safety glass shards. – PHOTO/Jeanette Vickers

7: Besides the enchanting ‘Chimes of the artists palette’, a creation designed from using scallop shells for mixing paints, Gayle Forster’s  exhibition included paintings inspired from around Mangawhai as well as images communicating her experience of the Christchurch earthquakes.  

8: Well-known experimental photographer Jeanette Vickers with her new   kaleidoscopic images of water in action, ‘Blue baby-bird in the nest’ and the intriguing, ‘The gathering’.