Hundreds, if not thousands, of artworks have gone up in flames at a Takaka artist's house.
Notable mural artist Chris Finlayson and his wife Nicola are now counting the cost of yesterday afternoon's fire.
Grant Knowles manages the Arts Bank in Takaka and is a friend of Mr Finlayson's.
He said there would have been a lot of the work in the house.
"Chris is very prolific - he's been painting since a child, so whatever he had, I would say he would have had a lot," Mr Knowles said.
"Occasionally I had him in for an exhibition. He'd turn up with 40 or 50 artworks, and I knew that was just a small touch."
Mr Finlayson had done a number of public artworks and murals in the area.