Local artists open their studios to the public for Oakura Arts Trail

Richard Landers and his glass sculpture, Spiral Shell.

Once again this year the artists of the Oakura Arts Trail will open their studios to the public.

The art trail coincides with the Taranaki Powerco Garden Festival and is held on the weekends of November 2 and 3 and November 9 and 10.

Many of the artists are also involved in the Fringe Festival which means their studios will be open during the week as well. Open hours are from 10am to 4pm.

The 11 artists on the trail this year are Richard Landers, Kris white, Margaret Scott, Linda Barbour, Diane Loake, Sally Laing, Rob Wright, Belinda Lubkoll-Young Susan Imhasly, Jeff Salisbury, and Lena Amgath-Duff.

Richard was awarded second place and peoples choice award at the 2019 Glass Awards in Auckland. He was also one of the top 10 at the NZ Art show in Wellington.

This year, two new artists will be involved. Belinda was a finalist as a second year jewellery apprentice at the Jewellery Design awards in Sydney this year. She works as an apprentice with Rob Wright.

Lena is an acrylic painter originally from Sweden. She paints abstracts with lots of colour.

Sarah Smither will open her home as a Place of Interest for the first weekend of the trail and will be showing recent drawings and work from her private collection of Michael Smither.

Although he no longer lives in Taranaki, Michael has always been regarded as one of a major artist who was born and lived in New Plymouth for most of his life.

A good place to start the trail is at the Molloy Gallery and Sculpture Park which is the studio of Steve Molloy.

An exhibition of all the artists' work will be held at the Molloy Gallery, at Tataraimaka, where all participating artists will have work on display. The opening of this exhibition is October 30.

A feature of the trail this year is the workshop weekend on December 1 and 30.

■ Brochures for the trail can be found at all studios, the Puke Ariki i-SITE, the Crafty Fox and on the OATS notice board next to the chemist. Look out for the large yellow and blue flags which will help to guide you to the artist studios. For details on the artist and the location of their studios, go to www.oakuraartstrail or join them on Facebook.