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An art tutor and an amateur artist who met during an art course seven years ago are staging their sixth joint art exhibition in Mandeville.
Gore painter Julie Duncan, a tutor at the Gore Southern Institute of Technology (SIT), first met Helen Keith, when Mrs Keith enroled in an art for leisure course in 2019.
Until the end of August, the two artists have 19 paintings on display in their shared exhibition, Flowers and More at the Croydon Aviation Heritage Centre gallery.
They both lived and breathed art.
"We paint all the time, when an exhibition comes up, we follow [it],” Mrs Duncan said.
“We're very proactive artists,” Mrs Keith, who moved to Gore from Christchurch 35 years ago, said.
Mrs Duncan and Mrs Keith’s first joint exhibition was in 2021.
The current exhibition was inspired by the bright flowers in the artists’ gardens.
But, the display was about more than the subject matter, which also included landscapes and birdlife.
"It's not really about themes, it's about what you love to do,” Mrs Keith, who has been a tutor at SIT for two decades, said.
"Because if you love something enough, it shows in the painting.”
Gore District Council Visitor experience officer Julie Blackler, who was based at the Croydon Aviation Heritage Centre gallery, said the exhibition was an example of why art was important in Gore.
"It's the arts that will bring people into the town, whether the town realises it or not,” Mrs Blackler said.
"If you don't have it, you don't have a community.”
The gallery hosts year-round, two-month exhibitions.
Art displayed was available for purchase from the gallery.
Thirty people attended the Gore art for leisure course’s three classes a week over the course of a semester, Mrs Duncan said.
gemma.sinclair@alliedmedia.co.nz