Early in 2013, Stanley Palmer spent a week on Great Mercury Island – a private island eight kilometres of the Coromandel Peninsula known for its bird and abundant marine life and what remains of a volcano. The main chain of the Mercury Islands consists of the large Great Mercury Island (also known as Ahuahu) to the west, Red Mercury Island (Whakau) to the east, and five much smaller islands between the two (Korapuki, Green, Atiu/Middle, Kawhitu/Stanley and Moturehu/Double Islands). Only the Great Mercury Island is inhabited – the others form part of a nature reserve.

New paintings are in response to the time Palmer spent there and explore the grassland, farmland and coastal area of the Island. Layla Walter responds to Palmer’s work and time she has spent previously on the island with new cast glass work in colours and forms to echo Palmer’s imagery and palette – farmhouse dahlia flowers in sunset shades of pink, red, yellow and orange; and native tui works in vivid shades of green and blue.