THERE was sunshine and yellow ribbon to match when a new arts collective gallery space and shop opened in Launceston on Saturday, June 3.

The new art collective shop, called ‘Zebediahs’, houses a number of artworks and craft items created by local artists.

The store is being run by Suzie and John Preston. John is the son of local famous landscape painter, Norman Preston — who previously ran the store around 30 years ago.

The store was officially opened, with a ribbon cutting ceremony, by John Lawrence, most well known for illustrating Watership Down along with over 200 other books.

Speaking about the opening, Suzie said: “The opening was a fantastic success, bright sunshine and a lovely yellow ribbon from Flower Scene for John Lawrence to cut.

“Rob Tremain, the town crier, stole the show with his wonderful oratory — it was just as well because we’d been working flat out right until the early hours of Saturday morning and hadn’t prepared anything to say!”

The shop was all set up for new customers to browse the variety of artworks. Suzie was most pleased with how the new shop’s flag looked as it flew outside the shop.

“The flag blew in the breeze — what a pity no one else makes use of their flag holders, wouldn’t the town look great with flags on every shop front?”

Suzie said it was a ‘race against time’ to get Zebediahs ready for the opening event, which was held at the beginning of the Charles Causley Festival. She said: “Zebediahs is a great adventure and it was a race against time to get it open for the start of the Causley Festival and St Mary’s flower festival.

“The shop looks amazing; bright, airy and crammed with beautiful things to look at and buy; the new cash register was kept busy for most of the first day.”

There was a display in the front window paying homage to John Preston’s father, Norman Preston, the local watercolour landscape painter who ran the shop around 30 years previously under the name ‘Tamar Gallery and Antiques’.

Suzie added: “There has been an enormous amount of positivity and enthusiasm for the project so far with 25 talented local artists and craftspeople involved. The White Room Gallery, located at the back of the shop, will soon host a series of exhibitions and workshops including a programme of themed shows as part of our ‘Freespace’ initiative.

“We’re looking forward to having some local schools use the exhibition space too. My vision of combining high quality craftwork with fine art looks set for success. We hope it will prove to be a bonus for the town and set an example of what can be achieved when people work together to combine resources.”