Friends of the Tauranga Art Gallery Bus trips are always a wonderful outing, great company, exciting places to visit, a good day out.

This trip included a visit to Di Tocker, Glass Artist at Cambridge.  Visiting her studio and learning of the processes required to attain the beautiful artworks she is known for was a revelation and showed the commitment and why those glass pieces of artwork are usually very expensive.  I especially loved her works which showed a ladder seemingly inside the works and a ‘man’ sitting down within the works.  You can check it out at https://www.ditocker.nz/

We also visited Inspirit Gallery & Studio, Pencarrow Road, RD3 Hamilton.  A wide range of artists including many outdoor sculptures, and many exhibitions featuring a wide range of mediums – something for everyone here – including an amazing view of the countryside.

A special studio visit was provided to Barbara Smith which allowed us to see into the mind and workings of a contemporary artist which was very informative – although the family cat almost stole the show.

And time spent at the Waikato Museum with a talk from Leafa Wilson – about her work as a performance artist.  Also on exhibit at this time was a collection of Classic New Zealand Tourism Posters which were colourful and evoked memories for those older in the group – but for myself being ex-Cantabrian the exhibition ‘Beyond the Cordon’ with photographs recording the 22 February 2011 Canterbury earthquakes certainly brought about a lot of emotions.

An excellent day out as are all the Friends of the Tauranga Gallery trips.