Currently on show at Northart we have two outstanding shows that are well worth checking out, especially if you are looking for a special Christmas gift at an affordable price.

Pocket Edition. Small Works for Large Walls includes 284 original art works by 32 artists. All are painted on postcard-sized pieces of card and the variety of styles and subjects is just extraordinary.  Installed as a zip around the gallery walls, it still looks stunning despite the many sales since the opening. Wandering around it with a catalogue in hand is a very rewarding and relaxing way to take time out from a busy day.

The Christmas Show. In the other gallery spaces includes ceramics, small items of art and craft as well as cards and calendars. Both ‘Pocket Edition’ and ‘The Christmas Show’ are cash and carry – so once you have paid for the work you take it with you – and both close on Sunday 15th December.

The gallery will then close for the holiday season reopening on Tuesday 28th January. ‘Landscapes. From the Kelliher Art Trust Collection’ will front the year’s programme.

Sir Henry Kelliher was a longstanding patron of the arts and in 1956 he set up the Kelliher Art Award “to capture the grandeur of the New Zealand scene in all its changes through the seasons”, as he described it. The objective of the competition was to encourage realistic portrayals of New Zealand’s landscapes and the ways of life of its people. The Kelliher, as it soon was called, quickly became New Zealand’s premiere art event. Peter McIntyre was one of the early winners of the competition and other established and emerging artists were to follow. The Kelliher Art Award was held until 1977.

Today, the Kelliher Art Trust holds a superb collection of New Zealand landscape paintings, initially acquired from Kelliher competition prize-winning paintings augmented with others, acquired or commissioned by the Trust. Christopher Johnstone, curator of the collection, has selected works for the exhibition that will be at Northart. Included in it will be works by at least two North Shore artists – Robert Ellis and Aroha Gossage. The exhibition will continue until Wednesday 19th February.

For further information about gallery Time for Kids and other public events, go to www.northart.co.nz or contact the gallery