A pop of colour is set to brighten Temuka’s main street.
The Temuka Art Guild will be staging a pop-up gallery for the third year in a row.
The guild has planned a soft opening for November 21.
Co-organiser Sandra Kelly said people had been asking if the group would be holding another pop-up shop this year, as some felt it had brightened the town’s profile.
She said signs directing tourists to the gallery had attracted a few more people to the main street than might necessarily have gone, and while they were there they had looked around a little.
Ms Kelly said some of those tourists had then stopped in other shops, buying things like coffee.
She said Temuka was a ‘‘unique town with unique and unexpected little shops’’.
The gallery complemented that, she said.
It had also lured people from the camping grounds into town.
She said some paintings could take three years of going back to until they were perfect, some took 40 hours to finish, while others were painted effortlessly.
Fellow artist Diana Peneamene said for those painted in much shorter amounts of time, people forgot that a lot of the work had been done before the artwork even began.
‘‘All that training and experimenting, all that time,’’ she said.
Ms Kelly said people did not need to feel worried about any hard-hitting salespeople in the gallery.
‘‘They can just pop in for a browse and a chat.’’
Unlike in previous years, this gallery would only be held for a month. However, it could be opened out of regular hours — in that month — by appointment.
The guild gathered weekly at Temuka Primary School and among the group were awardwinners, career artists and tutors.
‘‘We bounce off one another.’’
Members were very appreciative of the school allowing them the use of the facility.
Collectively, the group had over 20 members; only 10-15 would be exhibiting their work at the gallery.
Once again, they would be displaying and selling the late John Kelman’s work.
Mr Kelman had been a long-standing member of the group and had left them a selection of works.
It offered people another opportunity to see his work, Ms Kelly said.