Woodville Art and History Gallery exhibitions

Porcelain plates by Emily Hrstich.

Some special artistic treasures have been on display and for sale to the public in Woodville's Art and History Gallery during the Christmas-New Year break.

After a huge amount of effort from the Woodville Art and History volunteers, the Woodville gallery in the old i-Site building and attached to the Lindauer Replica studio has been displaying astounding artwork every day except for Christmas Day and New Year from 10am-4pm. And it is completely free!

Colourful oils by Ian Good.

In 2019, the Tararua District Council granted the Woodville Art and History Society Inc access for two years to the old library and i-Site to convert it into art galleries. Since then the society has raised $74,000 in grants, which have allowed it to extensively renovate the buildings using mostly volunteer labour and to shape them into amazing spaces to display art and items of historical interest.

Since Saturday, October 30, when the first major exhibition was formally opened with the work of recently deceased local artist Suze Phillips on display for sale in the major gallery for a period of a month, a regular succession of artists have displayed their work for sale.

The policy of the society is to have three galleries open – one for the work of Tararua artists, one to display items of historical interest and the third to maintain the Lindauer Replica Gallery.

The art gallery has four possible display areas the main one for rent for a month and three smaller spaces for fortnightly exhibitions. Kevin says the rent for the spaces is low but sufficient to cover costs, while commission on sales will help fund further development.

It has been incredible!

Each fortnight up to six artists have had exhibitions with the main gallery for the featured artist before Christmas the Pretty Family with Robin and her art from recycled materials, and David with his intricately created segmented platter boards, footstools and chess kits.

Other top artists also displayed in that time a huge variety of artwork both in the subject and in art medium. These included Sue McLeod's felted wool, Cherie Davis' horses in oils, Mandy Sutherland's fabric animals and witches, Nancy Honore's mixed-media portraits and flowers, Tania Emslie's and Tania Morrison's paintings and 80-year old Gabrielle Withers with her first exhibition, which included rural scenes in paint, thought-provoking abstract and detailed 3D sharks complete with real teeth.

Post Christmas, the featured artist with her intricate landscapes was Emilie Geant working in ink and watercolours. Vivian McKenna had detailed ink drawings of animals, each of which had extraordinary detail; Ian Gooch had colourful oil paintings, Margie Sutherland and Evan Davies each had contrasting photo prints, Christina Chappel presented acrylic paintings of animals, Sue McLeod again presented felted wool flower pots, Emily Hrstich painted lovely porcelain plates, and Heinz Speyer offered distinctive steampunk drawings.

Starting today the Art Gallery will display the top 20 framed entries in the Tararua District Council Tararua Photographic Competition in the main gallery with all other entries displayed by video, and work by Carol and Peter Laubscher from Eketahuna and Ella Domper from Norsewood will be in the other galleries for the month.