Art Connections May 2018

Art Connections PO Box 1018 Hamilton 3240 www.wsa.org.nz

Letter from Executive

By Laree Payne

As the Waikato Society of Arts, we attempt to offer access to many components of what a visual artist might desire and or need; education through our art school and workshops, opportunity and encouragement through the National Youth Art Award and the New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Award, a place to exhibit work in our Next Level Gallery and a network of likeminded individuals through our membership. Of course, however, we can’t cater to everything/everyone, the visual arts scene is diverse and ever changing. In celebration of that, I wanted to share a little information about the current resurgence of visual art projects happening in the Waikato. With winter almost upon us, it is an ideal time to get some fresh air by visiting these spaces and experiencing the profound creative energy which is bouncing its way around the Waikato. It’s more contagious than a common cold.

First on the list is Skinroom gallery which most of you will already know about. Located at 123 Commerce Street (upstairs), Frankton, Skinroom opened in 2015 with a steady roster of emerging contemporary artists who were predominantly Waikato based. Since the end of last year, Skinroom has had a little break while Eliza Webster (founder and creative director) has been working hard to revamp the space. Skinroom will be re-opening in May and we can’t wait to have it back.

Freit Contemporary is the newest addition to our local scene which opens on Tuesday the 1st of May. Founded and run by Gaye Jurisich, Freit Contemporary is located at 10 High Street in Frankton, just around the corner from Skinroom. To open the space, local artist Ahsin Ahsin is holding a solo exhibition titled Gucci. Inspired by street art as well as 80’s and 90’s sci fi, Ahsin’s work is bold, vibrant, fun and humorous. I expect it will be a great evening.

Colour Burger, founded by Lee Samuel, reopened

this year as Studio Two with Alex Wilkinson coming onto the scene as Lee’s business partner. Based in Te Awamutu, Studio Two offers a great selection of classes and workshops as well as a gallery space which predominantly exhibits the work of talented local emerging artists. Showing now is a group show of Hamilton based artists which is well worth the drive.

Tacit gallery, founded by Ellie Lee Duncan and Nicole Fairy, opened in January this year on Victoria Street, above the old Browsers. With a strong curatorial stance, Tacit gallery predominantly exhibits group shows of artists from around Aotearoa. Currently showing at Tacit gallery is an exhibition titled I understand if you’re busy. This exhibition was brought together by RM Gallery in Auckland and examines anxiety as a psychological and physiological thing that many of us experience. Ellie and Nicole have brought this exhibition to Hamilton, again, it is well worth a visit.

Weasel gallery is also new, opening only nine weeks ago, in the centre of town. Founded and managed by moi (Laree Payne), Weasel gallery is a contemporary gallery which holds a new exhibition every three weeks. Currently showing is an exhibition titled No Holiday which is a group show of three artists; Rachel Hope Peary, Nicolas Megchelse and Chelsea Pascoe. Brought together as abstract minimalists, No Holiday is a playful exhibition where traditional notions of painting are considered, and then pushed. No Holiday is showing until May 12th.

Last but certainly not least, Ramp gallery (part of WINTEC’s school of Media Arts) is currently showing an outstanding exhibition which is titled White Rainbow. Curated by the esteemed Karl Chitham (Director of the Tauranga Art Gallery), White Rainbow brings together eight of New Zealand’s most noteworthy contemporary painters; Selina Foote, Kirstin Carlin, Judy Darragh, Richard Maloy, Peter Gouge, Cat Fooks, Johl Dwyer and Saskia Leek. Installed atop Richard Maloy’s

May 2018 Art Connections

expansive blue cardboard installation, the works exemplify the diversity of contemporary painting. It is a must-see exhibition. White Rainbow is showing until May 23rd.

As you can see, I have more than enough to write about, our visual arts scene is alive and perhaps better than ever! Go and check out a few of these spaces and be inspired to create over these colder months. I don’t believe any will disappoint.

Important Dates: Exhibition at ArtsPost: 7 Sep-tember – 8 October

Opening: Thursday, 6 September

Entry form due: Monday, 27 August (forms available next month)

Work due: Monday, 3 September

Workshop: Saturday, 15 September, expres-sions of interest by 1 August.

This year’s guest artist is Valerie Cuthbert, an

award-winning painter/printmaker living in

Auckland’s North Shore. After many years teach-

ing secondary school, she became a full-time

artist in 2000, working first in fabric and acrylics

and then taking up printmaking in 2004. Today

Val is print tutor at Estuary Arts Centre in Orewa,

where she organises print workshops through-

out the year and runs an open studio once a

week for casual students. She also has students

once a week at her home studio.

In 2016 Val was a finalist in the NZ Painting and

Printmaking Awards and this year has two prints

275 Blossoms (detail), linocut by Val Cuthbert

Waiprint 2018

included in the Worldwide Botanic Art Exhibition

at the Auckland Botanic Gardens. Thematically,

Val’s work draws heavily on the flora and fauna

of her garden and the larger New Zealand land-

scape. Her exhibition within Waiprint will feature

several of her prints of native birds.

Waiprint Workshop: Printing with Colour

For her workshop, Val will combine dyes and tra-ditional printmaking.

Morning: using polysol dyes to create images then overprinting these in multicolours using cut and torn stencils, found objects and small plates and stamps (provided).

Afternoon: using either plastic or aluminium to create a drypoint plate to overprint one or more of the polysol images.

When: 15 September

Where: WSA Print Rooms, downstairs at ArtsPost

Cost: to be confirmed, but approximately $65-75

Expressions of interest: to hold your place, please email Janice at jmeadows51@gmail.com by 1

Call for Entries: Aesthetica Art Prize Now Open

for Submissions

The Aesthetica Art

Prize is now open

for entries, pre-

senting an oppor-

tunity for emerg-

ing and established artists to further their involve-

ment in the art world. The award is an internation-

ally renowned prize presented by Aesthetica Mag-

azine and judged by industry experts.

Enter for your chance to win £5,000 and showcase

your work to wider audiences!

Categories for entry: Photographic & Digital Art;

Three-Dimensional Design & Sculpture; Painting,

Drawing & Mixed Media and Video, Installation &

Performance.

Deadline for submissions is 31 August 2018. Vis-

it: www.aestheticamagazine.com/artprize

Art Connections May 2018

Martists, Next Level Gallery 4 May to 23 May , opening night 3 May,

Members Exhibition, Next Level Gallery 14 June to 4 July

Entry form Waiprint due 27 August

Works for Waiprint due 3 September

Opening event Waiprint and NYAA 6 September

Waiprint, ArtsPost Gallery 7 September to 8 October

National Youth Art Award, ArtsPost Gallery 7 September to 8 October

Waiprint workshop ‘Printing with Colour’ 15 September

Members Exhibition ArtsPost 13 October to 13 November

Calendar of Events and Exhibitions

Paulette Bruns has been a Watercolour artist for over 10 years. She has been em-

ployed as a tutor by the Waikato Society of Arts for 2-3 years, teaching three wa-

tercolour adult classes and three children's mixed media art classes per week,

plus also running the School Holiday Art Programme all of which she thoroughly

enjoys.

Whilst watercolour is her true pas-

sion, she also loves the balance of

teaching children. Having raised 2

(now grown) children, she is loving being back around

young children seeing them create, learn and have fun

with a variety of art mediums.

Watercolour can be a daunting and challenging medium

for many, but is hugely rewarding to work in once you

have learnt the basics. It has an ability to show light and

luminescence due to watercolours fluidity and transpar-

ency that other mediums can struggle to do.

Paulette believes we should never stop learning, as

there are always new ideas and points of view in all are-

as of art. She finds it hugely rewarding to help people

learn a new medium or refine, master and expand their

current skills.

WSA Art School: Meet our tutors

May 2018 Art Connections

Notes from an Elam First-Year

Hello to all! My name is Nicole and I am current-ly the secretary on the WSA Executive Com-mittee, a position I hold while also attending Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland. For those interested in the current art scene and the young and fresh ideas emerging from Elam I am here to open the door to this world! Growing up and going through high school I had never really ventured beyond painting and draw-ing. I distinctly remember experimenting with clay in a WSA art class when I was much younger and feeling very dejected at my lack of natural skills with this material. Walking through the doors into my first work-shop at Elam there was no comfortable material to fall back on, we were divided into modules and first up I was to be working with Time-based Performance Art. After intense discussions led by Professor Mi-chael Parekowhai, and being exposed to great performance artists like Marina Abramović, Fran-cis Alÿs, and Andy Warhol eating a hamburger, we were then split into groups and given four days to come up with and polish off three live performances.

Certainly, there is value in being pushed into a task with a group of strangers where you are sitting on each other’s laps before even learning one another’s names. I felt as though Mike P had placed this module right at the beginning of se-mester one to announce both genuinely, and playfully mockingly, ‘Welcome to art school!’

The structure of FINEARTS101 is that we all meet in our assigned studios with our module group on Mondays and Thursdays for four hours. An introduction will be led by tutors and then a presentation of work expected. This requires hours of work outside of class time, in particu-lar keeping a consistent workbook. In the end, marking looks at the amount of effort, work, research, and thinking a student has put into a project. A great final presenta-tion does not count for anything if the meth-odology and work process isn’t evident. One sentence in the assessment criteria at Elam is, ‘Studio practice relies on…a commitment to making art – even when you are unsure of what you are doing’. The key message is that

the value of an idea is irrelevant, the production of art, good or bad, is what matters most in partici-pating in the culture of Elam. Taking this challenge, my group made a solid com-mitment to one another to meet regularly for over 5 hours every Tuesday and create art. From videos of ourselves individually brushing our teeth, braid-ing one another’s hair in studio, or climbing onto a (very unstable) roof and hanging our shirts off a weather vane, we committed. We committed to each other, to the gestures we were presenting our audience, and we fully committed to making art.

Beyond the final grade, my group of 15 strangers connected – we even filmed an all-night sleepover party in the Elam studio as a final hurrah. I can’t help but think these bonds are really what we were supposed to get out of this module. Facing the art world alone is daunting and unwise, it is certainly trusted peers that are needed to provide critique and support to get us through tough times. Alt-hough I am barely two months into this world, the friends I have made are already influencing my art making in ways beyond what I could have anticipat-ed. Not everyone has the chance to lie in the middle of Symonds Street with like-minded art-enthusiasts but finding connections and building a sounding-board-audience for our art is always invaluable.

‘Your audience are the most important people in your career’ – Michael Parekowhai

To view some performance experiments, check out my group’s YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/watch?v=twBPUp0OuTI

Art Connections May 2018

ART SCHOOL NEWS

By Sybille Schlumbom

Kia ora all,

Term two has started, and if you are a student of the art school, you know how busy the first week is, so I will keep it short.

I enjoy seeing you all coming back after the (nonetheless busy with school holiday pro-gramme) term break. It is also exciting to see more new faces coming into the art school, many of them just arrived in Hamilton and looking for a way to socialise with like-minded people.

A warm welcome to all of you, and if you have a skill to share, or looking for a class we don’t offer yet - please let me know .

Kia kaha ,

Sybille

Artyfacts from Haydn - the curious case of

Madam X (2)

This is the curious case of Madame X painted by

John Singer Sargent in Paris and at it's showing

(1884) caused such a major storm that Johnny boy

had to make a run for

England.

You would have

thought with Sar-

gent's devastating

skills he could slap up

this number in no

time, but no, this is a

carefully worked out thing. Up to 30 sketches and

watercolours were worked up. As the final work

was to stand out in the crowded Paris Salon, Sar-

gent chose a large, almost life size canvas to work

on. At Madame Gau-

treau's suggestion Sargent

traveled to her estate in

Brittany where he worked

up these sketches. This

watercolour and graphite

is near to the final idea of

showing off the miles of

white fleshy shoulders and

neck of the Madame. But

work was slow. She was

not inclined to sit for too long. She got bored easi-

ly, distracted by social engagements. But she also

had a four-year old daughter, a mother, house

guests and domestic staff.

Hard to find staff these

days.

Sargent complained of the

hopeless laziness of Mad-

ame Gautreau.

Finally, John got started

on his big canvas. For her

pale flesh he got out his

lead white,rose madder,

vermillion, viridian and

bone black.

The table provides sup-

port for her elegant

hand, and echoes her

curves. Our eye sweeps

up to the slope of her

shoulder and neck, her

face turned away in per-

fect disdain of the fa-

mous and unreachable.

The crescent tiara was her idea. The dress strap

originally was so faint as to be almost not there,

so encouraged the imagination. That was to be

part of his undoing, so to speak.

He wrote to a friend:

“ Dissatisfied with it, I dashed a light tone of rose

over the background..”

And wa - lah, there it was.

His idyllic Summer at the chateau “basking in the

sunshine of my beautiful model is over.” he

wrote.

May 2018 Art Connections

Opportunities and exhibitions

Creative Dynamo Workshops

This suite of 3 workshops will make your creative life easier, helping you get organized, motivated, and excited about sharing your work. Stop telling yourself you should just work harder. Stop feeling guilty about 'procrastinating'. Stop freaking out whenever you show someone your work. Using practical exercises, conversation and self-reflection, these workshops develop crucial psy-chological skills for managing your creative life.

All workshops will be held at Creative Waikato, 131 Alexandra St, Hamilton . The cost per work-shop is $50 (with lunch provided).

Here's the link to the workshops on our website (including registration links): http://creativewaikato.co.nz/creatives/workshops

These workshops are aimed at people with a com-mitted creative practice, and are a great profes-sional development opportunity. Not only are they useful for people's own practice, they also provide useful ideas and techniques that can be passed on.

Building creative habits Are you struggling to find time for your creativity? This workshop will help you to build powerful crea-tive habits, so you can fit creativity into the rest of your life. 9.30am - 3pm, Saturday 21st April

Managing creative motivation Do you find yourself avoiding your creative work? This workshop will help you break through creative resistance, take better risks, and manage your mo-tivation. 9.30am - 3pm, Saturday 5th May

Sharing creative work Do you have mixed feelings about putting your work out there? This workshop will help you to en-joy sharing your creative work, including managing fear of criticism and standing up for your work. 9.30am - 3pm, Saturday 19th May

INKMASTERS PRINT EXHIBITION AT INKFEST 2018

$10000+ in prizes - entries close 14 May

OPENING EVENT: Fri 27th July 2018: 6:00pm

EXHIBITION: Fri 27th July 2018: 10:00am

- Sun 19th August 2018: 2:00pm

Inkmasters Print Exhibition is an international

juried exhibition. It brings together the best print-

makers from our region and attracts national and

international artists from around the world. The

prints may be traditional, contemporary or cross-

disciplinary and can be of any size or format. The

launch will include a public lecture and awarding

of the prizes.

Selected artists only are required to pay entry

fees.

Please find details at: inkmasterscairns.com.au

Art Connections May 2018

Next Level Gallery

The Next Level Gallery is taking

bookings for the year now: en-

quire at the office,

wsa@wsa.org.nz

New work by Colin Gibbs

Open weekend 5-6 May

GibbsLang Contemporary Art Gallery

555 Matangi Rd, Matangi Village, R D 4, Hamilton

Ph 027 2484 884

Kia ora

In May last year we had an art adventure in the

Highlands of Scotland. We have finally got the

paintings hung.

Please join us any time between 11.00 and 5.00 on

Saturday 5 or Sunday 6 May, for a cup of coffee or a

glass of wine, and to see

the HIGHlands exhibition.

Nga mihi,

Colin and Catherine

Botanical Art Worldwide

Ngai Tipu Taketake - Indigenous Flora

Twenty-five countries are highlighting their unique indigenous flora in this first ever international bo-tanical art exhibition. The Auckland Botanic Gar-dens will showcase 50 works by 41 New Zealand's botanical artists, including international award winners plus works by three Auckland secondary school students.

Auckland Botanic Gardens, Visitors Centre Gallery, 102 Hill Rd, Manurewa, 30 March - 1 July

Special event on 18 May -- World Botanical Art Day

www.botanicalartworldwide.info

www.friendsabg.co.nz/en/botanical-art.html

Frames for sale

I’ve got a few frames for sale,

low quality but clean and sim-

ple for easy exhibition framing.

Just ask at the office when

you’re coming in, or contact

me on 021-1735391. Sybille

May 2018 Art Connections

FROM THE EDITOR This WSA Art Connections Newsletter could not

be created without contributions from members.

If you have written articles you think suitable for

our newsletter, please let me know.

And a very special thanks to SHARP, who continue

to help us substantially with printing, and

Warehouse Stationary, corner Ward and Anglesea

Street, for copy paper.

WSA OFFICE AND ART SCHOOL 120 Victoria Street, above ArtsPost Gallery

PO Box 1018, Hamilton 3240

Phone 07 839 4481

email artschool@wsa.org.nz for art school wsa@wsa.org.nz for all WSA enquiries

Office Hours: Mo - Fri 8.30am - 4pm

Website: www.wsa.org.nz

Editor: Sybille Schlumbom

07 839 4481 email: artschool@wsa.org.nz

NEWSLETTER ADVERTISING RATES — A GREAT WAY TO SUPPORT THE WSA

Inserts $80 per page (printed and delivered to WSA)

Full Page $240 (available only if space available)

Half Page $120 colour

Quarter Page $70 colour

What’s on and Member’s short ads – up to five lines are free.

WSA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Patron: Joan Fear

President: Michelle O’Brien

Past president: Dr Carole Shepheard

Vice President: Lee Samuel

Secretary: Nicole Fairey

Committee: Hilary Batt-Ramage

Liz Kneebone

Ellie Lee-Duncan

Laree Payne

Treasurer:

Auditors: Graham Haines