Art passion: from left Andrew Green and Denise Mayhew with Cambridge artist Carole Hughes. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Denise Mayhew and Andrew Green already had 10 Carole Hughes masterpieces in their Auckland homes.
Now they have 12 following their trip south on Saturday to Cambridge for the Passion for Art tour.
It gave the couple an opportunity to finally meet Hughes in the flesh and buy another two paintings.
Hughes started painting in 1994 experimenting with oils and now paints large and colourful paintings with different materials from Italy, France, Serbia, Bosnia, Spain, United Kingdom, and Cambridge, New Zealand.
People mingle around artist Carole Hughes workplace in Cambridge. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Twelve artists and art orientated businesses participated in the tour held around Cambridge on Saturday and Sunday. It was to have been held in April as part of the Cambridge Autumn Festival but when the festival was cancelled because of Covid, the art tour was postponed.
It was held at the same time as the Rotary Cambridge Garden Festival instead.
Potter Jo Beckett reported she was busy with out of town viewers – the furthest from Kerikeri.
“What a fantastic festival,” she said.
“I have never had so many people in my workshop … it was constant all day.”
Other artists linked to the Passion for Art Tour echoed Beckett’s findings, saying a surprising number of their visitors were people from out of town who had come for the weekend, many attending both the garden festival and the Passion for Art trail.
Hughes said this had been one of her best exhibitions to date in terms of visitor numbers, while the Cambridge Society of Arts said they had around 150 visitors over the two days. Both said sales had been good and the art centre said several visitors were interested in a series of art classes soon to come on stream.
Kirsten McIntosh said she was so busy with visitors that the painting she was working on remains unfinished as she was kept busy chatting to people.
“I got to meet so many wonderful people who took the time to visit my art display,” she said.
Wayne Sinclair, who opened the studio/shop he runs with co-artist wife Robyn Barclay, said their visitor numbers were also good throughout the weekend.
The garden/art combination was touted by many as being a particularly good one, enabling people to enjoy indoor and outdoor elements according to the weather.
See: Cambridge in bloom
