“As a child growing up in rural New Zealand I remember the huge, rustic, metal mailboxes before the cattle stop at the front gate of the wild and beautiful Taranaki farms of my grandparents.”

Such memories and more inspired Tamahere woman Jenny Scown to stage the latest exhibition, Rural Delivery, at her Inspirit Studio and Gallery, from June 2.

“The concept for the exhibition was in part inspired by my own rural background and the book ‘It’s in the post’ – the stories behind New Zealand stamps, by Richard Wolfe,” says Scown.

Tamahere’s Inspirit Gallery and the NZ Lifestyle Farmer magazine are inviting entries for a competition to coincide with an upcoming exhibition at the Pencarrow Rd gallery.

To celebrate a century of NZ Post’s Rural Delivery Service, the competition organisers are looking for the most creative and original rural mailboxes in the country.

Entrants are asked to take and submit a high quality photo of the mailbox they wish to enter in the Rural Delivery Mailbox competition.

Autumn Rapture is the latest exhibition at Tamahere’s Inspirit Gallery.

The exhibition, which runs until May 5, reflects the transient beauty of autumn in the Waikato.

It features painting, sculpture, printmaking, mixed media and jewellery by a range of talented artists. View the slideshow.

Building a new art gallery from scratch was a huge gamble but it paid off for Jenny Scown, owner of Inspirit Studio and Gallery, in Tamahere.

“A good friend said to me, “build it and they will come”. And I thought, “what’s the worst that can happen?” she says.

From glass sculptures and ceramics to designer jewellery, colourful prints and bold paintings, the light-filled space in the countryside is a treasure trove.

Lyndsay Patterson, one of New Zealand’s most highly regarded glass artists, will exhibit a special collection of his latest glass work at Inspirit Studio & Gallery in Tamahere.

The exhibition, Of Time and Place, will include his quite magical riverstones, which are inspired by making glassware for The Hobbit movie.

Patterson is co-owner of the well known Chronicle Glass Studio and Gallery situated in the historic “Old Town” precinct of Whanganui.

We’re all reveling in summer in different ways – ways that artists often capture or distil for us in their artworks.

Touch of Summer is the upcoming exhibition at Tamahere’s Inspirit Studio & Gallery and it will be interesting to see which artists reflect summer the way each of us sees or experiences it.

The mixed media group exhibition starts on January 26 and will run for a month showing the great kiwi summer through the eyes of diverse and original New Zealand-based artists.

Artist Richard Macdonald finds birds intriguing – much the way art lovers view his hyper-real paintings.

Macdonald is the featured artist at Tamahere’s Inspirit Gallery until mid-January.

Auckland-born and now Tauranga-based, Richard considers himself a predominantly self-taught painter with a creative compulsion.

Saxon Lodge owners, Rowena Robinson and Rex Hannam, fruit and vegetable growers extraordinaire, are the newest supporters of Tamahere Forum.

They join a small but loyal group of local businesses and groups enabling Tamahere Forum to continue to bring our district news that is local, relevant and current.

Saxon Lodge joins long term sponsors, the Tamahere Community Committee and The Lifestyle Block Bloke.

Tamahere’s Inspirit Gallery will celebrate its fifth birthday with an exhibition featuring the beautiful, symbolist paintings of Cambridge-based artist Santie Cronje English and the unique ceramic art of Aaron Scythe.

It will also be a homecoming exhibition for Scythe, who recently set up a new studio in Te Aroha after many years working in Japan as a highly regarded artist.

The exhibition, Of Paint and Clay, will run from November 11 to December 11 at the Pencarrow Rd gallery.

Painter of sought after fantasy art, Elvira Baranova, is the featured artist at Tamahere’s Inspirit Gallery this month.

Baranova’s paintings have a surreal flavour as she is inspired by the world’s myths, fables
and other imaginative tales.