Easter Art Trail features huge range of style, new hubs

This year’s Easter Arts Trail will be the biggest yet, with artist hubs for the first time at Whangamata Information Centre, new hubs in Opoutere and Whiritoa and the Whangamata Barber’s Shop.

Some 40 artists will showcase a huge range of art styles and media including ceramics, sculpture, fibre art, weaving, quilting, carving, printmaking, mixed media, fictionbased oil paintings, funky art mannequins, clay mosaic, garden art, and of course painting and drawing.

Whiritoa and Opoutere are new on the trail, as is the Whangamata Information Centre where you can pick up your guide and view works by Joanne Mahoney, Lesley Campbell, Lynne Robinson and Claire Fairweather.

Also in the town centre are two new artists exhibiting at the Barber’s – Brad the Barber – whose art is described as ‘fantasy based’, and Alyshia Wallis, another newcomer.

Jim Carbery is hosting a hub in this year’s Easter Trail in Te Pamahue Dr with his energetic, “naive” style.

Dianne Dudfield is a fibre artist from Waihi Beach.

She works on both an eight-shaft floor loom and a 16-shaft compudobby loom to create wraps, scarves, home textiles and mohair blankets, in wool, mohair, cotton and silk.

Dianne will be at Artworks Studio Hub in Given Ave during the Easter Open Studio Trail.

Jackie Hobbins will host a new gallery hub in Whiritoa, Pohutukawa Gallery. Her painting, Tangaroa’s Gift, won second prize in the Harcourts Challenge.

The next event of the Whangamata Arts Collective will be the midwinter mingle in August that gives artists time to create.