Opinion: Street art Tauranga's new attraction

Owen Dippie puts the finishing touches on his recreation of the Ina Te Papatahi portrait, originally painted by Charles Goldie in 1902. Photo.file

Six large new murals are coming to the central city.

National and international artists have been commissioned to create works of art on six otherwise unremarkable buildings in the city. Read the story on that here.

It seems to be a fairly easy and cost effective way to beautify our city centre. We don't have the streets full of period buildings that other cities like Napier and Wellington do, or the interesting modern architecture of a city like Auckland.

Our city centre is surrounded by picturesque harbour and beach views, but a fair share of its buildings are bland and boring with no common theme tying them together.

When I get asked about my hometown, it usually goes something like this: "Tauranga is a coastal city with stunning beaches and a big, beautiful harbour".

We rave about our natural attractions but it's not easy to describe our actual city.

A start has already been made to beautifying our buildings with Owen Dippie's Renaissance series and I think six more will add to the charm. See our gallery of his works below.

I will admit there are some Dippie works I like a lot more than others - I love the recreation of Goldie's portrait of Ina Te Papatahi and his Girl with a Pearl Earring, while there are others I don't like as much.

But even if I don't like them, others do, and that's the beauty of art.

Together, these murals will add colour and vibrancy to our city centre.

I'm looking forward to being able to tell people that Tauranga is not just a city with beautiful natural attractions, but one whose buildings are covered in art.

Image 1 of 10: The Ina Te Papatahi was originally painted by Charles Goldie but was brought back to life by Owen Dippie. April 2012.