All kinds of art displayed in a garden

Vince and Lesley Keats will have art in their garden next weekend. PHOTO/ STUART MUNRO

Next week Vince and Lesley Keats will be setting up an art gallery in their garden, ready for their fifth annual Art in the Garden event.

It's on November 5 and 6, from 9am to 4pm on both days, and in their 11 Mannington Rd garden. Mrs Keats is the secretary of the Wanganui Potters' Society and the weekend event raises funds for it.

Potters will have their work for sale. There will be outdoor art made of copper and wrought iron, and artist demonstrations on the Sunday.

Invited guests include Karl van Weersel who makes birdhouses, Ted Bardell who makes garden furniture and Frances Taylor who does topiary.

On Sunday Jim Farley will demonstrate throwing pots on a wheel, Diane Fazzini will make pinch pots, Rod Davies will draw portraits and Lorna McLean will sign copies of the children's book she and her granddaughter have made.

Mrs Keats has even asked Jack Marsden-Mayer for the loan of one of his driftwood dinosaur sculptures.

Members have helped tidy the Keats' hilltop garden, which has beautiful views to the north. There's lots of work to set it up - but the Keats are looking forward to the weekend.

"There's usually lovely weather and heaps and heaps of people. It's a lot of fun," Mrs Keats said.

Last year she was going to demonstrate stained glass work, but didn't get far.

"I think I cut one piece of glass and spent the rest of the day talking."

The weekend is a serious fundraiser too, with raffles, eftpos available and 20 per cent of takings going to the potters' society, to buy clay and equipment and pay rent.

The society has 83 members, and its Taupo Quay clubroom is open for their use on Wednesday mornings and evenings.

++ Art in the Garden will go ahead in any weather. Entry is free and there will be parking space in a paddock.