Current William Hodges Fellow Sam Mitchell and Society President Annie Bourque, awarded Pauline's dry-point etching 'Blade Shearers,' top prize at the Southland Art Society Awards in Invercargill last week. To view the winning piece and read more about the prize, click here.

On Sunday we hosted a special afternoon tea at the gallery, with a backdrop of Mother's Day paintings by Pauline Bellamy that span over 20 years. One new work is added to this series every year, as the family come together to sit for a portrait and celebrate the day. Samantha McKegg's suggests that the works "create a cross-section of motherhood in gentle yet emotive figurative pieces." See her review of the work in todays Otago Daily Times here.