It’s Spring, which means The Coromandel Open Studios Arts Tour is on this month! This is the 18th year of the Arts Tour, which happens every year on the first two weekends of October.
This year, it falls on October 5th & 6th and 12th & 13th, with an exhibition running for nine days at Hauraki House Gallery on Kapanga Road. Over these two weekends, local artists will open up their studios to the public so art lovers can view the work, chat with the artists, and see the working environment.
There are 36 artists taking part in a wide range of mediums, including painting, ceramics, glass, screen-printing, textiles, sculpture, jewellery, creative woodwork, photography and everything in between. Seven of these artists are new to the Tour this year.
This is a FREE, self-guided tour. Artist guides are now available from the Coromandel Information Centre, The Source, and various outlets across the Peninsula. A digital version can also be downloaded from direct from the Arts Tour website here.
The Tour’s “boundaries” are Kerata Hill to the south, Colville to the north, and Whangapoua Hill to the East. However, most of the artists are within an easy 10-minute drive of each other. Many of the studios can even be reached on foot or by bike from Coromandel Town centre.
The exhibition at Hauraki House Gallery on Kapanga Road is the perfect place to start. Each artist has at least one artwork on display, so visitors can pick up a guide and get a feel for who they would like to visit before starting. It runs right through from the 5th to the 13th and is open from 10-4 pm each day. There will be an opening night for the tour and exhibition on Friday, the 4th, from 5.30 pm, with special guest speaker Fiona Cameron, Chair of Creative Coromandel, to kick off the event. All are welcome!
“For many artists, the Tour is the highlight of their creative year, and they work extremely hard in the months leading up to it.”
If visitors cannot make it during one of these two weekends, some artists are open for the full nine days(look for the flags), and others are happy to receive visitors year-round. Just look for their “open” signs or grab a Coromandel Open Studios artist guide and give them a call.
The 36 artists participating this year are:
Allan Beaver (pastel)
Amelia Smith – NEW (mixed media)
Ashley Thor – NEW (ceramic)
Barbara von Seida (paint)
Caitlin Moloney (ceramics)
Cindy Alger (paint/sculpture)
Debra Dickson (jewellery/mixed media)
Diann Cade (paint/drawing)
Donna Scatchard (paint)
Elisabeth Carter (paint)(also music! – she may play you a song if requested)
Fran Campbell (paint/print/textile/mixed media)
Genevieve Morley (paint)
Gini Collin – NEW (jewellery/resin)
Glenn Benmayor – NEW (stone/ceramics/digital art)
Greg Taylor (wood)
Jacquie Ellis (paint/mixed media)
Jeremy Scott (photography)
Kay Ogilvie (ceramics)
Kevin Brett (woodwork)
Kim Brett (glass/jewellery)
Lettecia Williams (textile)
Lynne Fenwick (textile)
Murray Rainey (ceramics)
Natasha Hunter (paint/sculpture/ceramic)
Paul Cornwell (paint/drawing)
Pete Sephton (printmaking)
Petra Meyboden (ceramics)
Raewyn Penrose (textiles)
Riccardo Scott (ceramics)
Rose Dean (paint/mixed media/drawing)
Rosemarie Murphy (pastel)
Sally Tennent-Brown (textile/jewellery/mixed media)
Saskia Riemersma (pastel/paint/drawing)
Tony Calsaferri (paint)
Vaughan Udall (paint/mixed media)
Yvonne Szabo (ceramics/jewellery)
