What You're Looking For
Strip Paintings are works by MintFace, the painter behind The Line gallery... horizontal bands of colour painted onto the fascia signage of the strip's buildings. The trick that makes them belong: every colour is sampled from the street itself... the neighbouring shop signs, the facades, the awnings. Each work is literally made of its own block. And every single one carries one red line. Finding it is your job. Counting where it sits... that's between you and the painting.
The works went up with the blessing of the buildings that host them... art borrowing the street's spare surfaces, the street lending its colours back. Each one is professional acrylics on panel, sealed to live outdoors. More walls join over time, so this tour grows.
The Route
Five works, one street, one table... and a sixth on the way. Start at the 200 block end, walk west along the north side to Value Hub, double back into the 300 West laneway for a sit-down coffee and the gable, cross the main road, and finish at the gallery. Stop 6 is one hop back over the road.
- Distance: about 250 metres of footpath. Four minutes if you didn't stop, which isn't the idea.
- Time: 45 minutes to an hour with a sit-down coffee and looking time, plus however long the gallery keeps you.
- Going: flat the whole way, all footpath plus one sealed laneway. Pram and wheelchair friendly.
- Cost: free, no booking. The works are outside and always on... come in daylight for the colours.
- Parking: park once and walk the rest.
- Coffee: Cambodia Bakery & Cafe at 215 is right there, a few doors before Stop 1, with doors open by 6am on weekdays. Or hold it for Stop 3, which is a table. The morning guide has the rest.
- The gallery: The Line is open Wednesday to Sunday, 10am–6pm.
227 West
Look up... it's on the timber fascia between the 2degrees sign and The Cutting Booth, above the Floorless Dance Studios door.
The Colours
This one is built from the shopfronts either side of it. The sky blue is the 2degrees sign on its left. The black is The Cutting Booth's sign on its right. The cream is the Commerce Buildings plaster overhead. Navy, grey, white and a blush pink fill in the rest... a gap between two signs that finally got a sign of its own.
Find the red line.
- Kami Sushi... some of the freshest sushi in Hastings, a few doors west at 233.
- Holland Fashion Shoes... real brands, real sizes, and staff who know a good fit (Tue–Thu and Sat).
- The Lolly Shop... bulk sweets at the end of the block, gluten-free options included.
Keep to the north footpath and head west to the end of the block. Cross King St (the side street, not the main road) and you're in the 300 block. Want a coffee for Stop 3? Sutto and Dax Cafe are both just up King St North, on your right. Then carry on west, past Pandit at 311 (that's Stop 6, coming soon) and the laneway beside Music Works. Value Hub's yellow sign is just past the laneway, same side.
328 West
Look up... it's on the verandah fascia, right beside the Value Hub sign.
The Colours
The loud one. The yellow belongs to the Value Hub sign right beside it, and the painting leads with it... purples, slate and navy keep it from shouting the whole block down. Before it went up on this verandah it stood in The Line's window during Fotofest, so you may have met it already.
Find the red line.
- Big Boss Barbers... walk-in cuts right next door, chats included.
- Anna's Beauty Lounge... manicures, pedicures and nail art, from a salon that trains local youth.
- Falekai of the Pacific... Pacific food, culture and family, a few doors west at 335.
Turn back east a few steps to the laneway you just passed, beside Music Works, and turn into it. Look for the striped table.
The Coffee Stop
Look down... for once. It's the table.
Halfway down the laneway the tour does something no gallery lets you do... it hands you a seat on the artwork. This Strip Painting isn't on a wall. It's a table. Same street colours, same red line... find it... painted onto the place you put your cup down.
So put a cup down. Grab a coffee from Sutto or Dax Cafe on the way through... or, if you're an international visitor, show your passport at The Line gallery and they'll make you one for free. Yes, really. The gallery wants to meet you.
Find the red line.
- John's Bakery & Cafe... pies, sweets and cooked meals if the coffee wants company, at the west end of the block.
- Lili Beauty... gel, shellac and nail art at 326, and Lili fits in last-minute appointments.
- Beyond the Box Escape Rooms... themed rooms at 334 for when the crew wants a challenge. Book online.
Carry on up the lane. Stop 4 is further in, in the window of the mint brick gable.
300 West Laneway
Look up... it's further up the lane, in the boarded window of the mint brick gable.
The Colours
Back here the neighbours aren't signs, they're surfaces. The mint is the paint flaking off this very gable, the brick red is what's showing through it, and the green is the corrugated iron shed beside it. Orange, maroon and cream run through the lot. It's the only one of the five standing upright, its bands running top to bottom to fill the window. This is also the lane where the WAMJam sessions set up... if you hear a band, you're in the right place.
Find the red line.
- Music Works... instruments and gear, and the power behind the WAMJam sessions in this lane.
- Hustle Surf & Moto... a family-run surf and moto store. If they don't have it, they'll order it in.
Head back down the lane to Heretaunga St. This is the crossing: cross to the south side... carefully, it's the main road. The long striped fascia at 320 is straight across from the laneway, between a phone shop's orange sign and Shammi's green one. You could see it from the table.
320 West
Look up... it's along the whole fascia of the F.King building, between a phone shop's orange sign and Shammi's green one.
The Colours
The first Strip Painting, and the longest... six metres of it. Look above it before you look at it. The coral and the turquoise come from the F.King building's own Deco panel, the cream from its plaster, and the green from Shammi's Tailoring next door. The building already had a red line of its own, running along the top of the parapet. Now it has two.
If the Deco panel caught your eye, the strip's facades have a story of their own: Wake the Walls Up.
Find the red line.
- Shammi's Tailoring... made to measure, alterations, and Islands and Indian style fashion.
- Knit World... a 300 block institution. Merino, mohair, and a pattern for everything.
- Cash Connectors... phones, electronics and repairs, open seven days.
Stop 6 is back over the road. Pandit is at 311 on the north side, between King St and the laneway... you walked past it on the way to Stop 2. The Line is next door to Stop 5, whichever you do first.
Pandit Coming Soon
Look up... soon. The panels go either side of Pandit's sign.
The next work on the line lands at Pandit... and the stop is worth it before the paint even arrives. Husband-and-wife team Pampa and Sahebrao run Pandit, serving the best street food you'll get this side of the Bombay Hills. The duo come from West Bengal, India, and have brought the best of their street food culture with them... cooked to the five-star standard of the international hotel where Sahebrao first made his name as a chef. Fortunately for us, the pricing is still street level. Pick up a couple of samosas and eat them in the laneway... or the samosa chaat if you're feeling a little more daring.
The painting's coming. The samosas aren't waiting.
The End of the Line
Back on the south side, next door to Stop 5 at 318, is The Line, where the whole thing started.
Inside: a screen of up to 1,000 cryptoartists from around the world, and Strip Painting panels in the gallery and its street windows. The works outside were born in here... Stop 2 stood in that window before it ever saw a verandah. Entry's free, and on a quiet afternoon you might have the room to yourself.
For the longer story of the gallery itself, read The Line: The Southern Node.
The tour ends where the line begins.
Got a Blank Fascia?
The project is open to more walls on the strip... vacant or occupied. The full story, the Maker, and commission details live at mintface.art/c/strip-paintings.
Next Walls
Pandit's is next... that's why it's already on the map as Stop 6. More walls are proposed along the strip, and a couple of the next paintings are already finished, waiting for their fascias. Walk it again in a few months and the tour will be longer. That's the point.
The works hang on private buildings and the laneway is a working carpark... look from the footpath, mind the cars, and leave the paintings to the street... except the table. Sit at that one. Shop and gallery hours can change; check What's Open before you go.
Four walls, one table, one coffee. See you on the strip.
Tour Sponsors
Walk the Line is free to walk. These locals keep it that way.
GSL Painting is Gavin's painting and property wash crew, at it across Hawke's Bay since 1989. Homes inside and out, commercial buildings and industrial floors, plus the soft wash, roof treatment and gutters that make paint last. Based in Onekawa, Napier, with crews from Taupō to Gisborne and Site Safe on every site. Proud sponsor of Walk the Line.