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This entry was first posted in April 2016, but was deleted by mistake and is now re-posted Northlanders have been enjoying a wonderful exhibition at Kaan Zamaan Gallery in Kerikeri.  I have blogged before about the stained-glass of Kathy Shaw-Urlich, the British-born woman of Maori descent who now lives at Whatuwhiwhi in the Far North. Kathy trained in the mediaeval skills of stained glass painting. She draws on imagery from her Maori heritage as well as her European background and uses those wonderful skills to produce amazing work (see my previous blog entries in 2012 and 2013  http://newzealandglass.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/kathy-shaw-urlichs-tokerau-matariki.html , http://newzealandglass.blogspot.co.nz/2013/02/new-glass-for-whakapara-marae.html ). Kathy was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014 and has been undergoing a range of treatment for the disease.  The panels which are the centre-piece of this exhibition were created in a ten week period of respite from treatmen...

Northland’s renowned Māori stained glass artist Kathy Shaw-Urlich has died peacefully after a long battle with cancer.  Kathy preparing panels for the wharekai at Whakapara marae in March 2013 Kathy was born in England, but as the daughter of Ron Shaw an English aircraft engineer and Desiree Joan Browne, a former Miss Northland, she affiliated to Ngāti Hau and Te Uri o Te Aho o Ngāpuhi. She made her first visit to New Zealand at the age of 26 to visit her Māori grandmother, and as a proud descendant of Patuone she eagerly explored her Māori heritage and especially her connection to her grandmother’s whānau of Ngāti Hau and Whakapara marae. Although never one to promote herself, Kathy in fact achieved considerable success. She topped her class and won a national competition as well as a scholarship while studying at the Swansea Institute, in Wales, before completing a Masters in Fine Art at Central St Martins in London.  In 1990 she exhibited glass panels at New Zealand H...