April sun in Cuba prompts artist's visit

Cuban artist Osmeivy Ortega Pacheco at work at Otahuhu College.

When art teacher Malcolm McAllister went to Cuba in April to see how art is taught there, he didn't expect to return home with an idea brewing to bring one of the island's leading print makers to New Zealand.

But McAllister was so impressed by Osmeivy Ortega Pacheco's work, he obtained more funding from Otahuhu College benefactor and former Act MP John Boscawen, whose father Owen was once principal there, and the Wallace Arts Trust to bring Ortega to the south Auckland school.

Ortega is now two weeks into a five-week visit which has seen him working with McAllister's art students and those from the school's whakairo (traditional Maori carving school) alongside teacher and experienced carver Jay Mason. He is also visiting other south Auckland schools, including Al-Madinah, and will travel to Christchurch to meet artists there.

Some 15 of McAllister's students are crafting an enormous woodcut mural commissioned by Auckland Airport for the arrivals area at its international terminal.

Auckland Airport's general manager for people and safety Anna Cassels-Brown says the organisation knows high-quality artwork is produced in local schools and started the mural project three years ago to showcase that.

Bader Intermediate in Mangere and East Tamaki's Tangaroa College made the first two murals; this year the commission for the 2.4m wide and 1.2m high work went to Otahuhu College. The airport provides all materials for the mural which hangs for a year before being returned to the school that created it.

Otahuhu College's mural features scenes of native birds and people on the streets of South Auckland. Students need to finish the work in September for installation and unveiling in November.

Fahdil Ali, 14, loves making art and says watching Ortega work, particularly when he carves elaborate woodcuts in a matter of minutes, leaves him wanting to learn new skills and improve those he's already acquired in McAllister's classes.

McAllister's also been impressed by how proficiently Ortega works.

"I think the most valuable thing for the kids to learn is his discipline and focus - and that might not come naturally to teenagers - but to see an adult, who takes them under his wing and shows them the rigour of the art-making process, is something that will stay with them."

Grasshopper and Birds, one of the woodcut prints produced by Cuban artist Osmeivy Ortega Pacheco.

Born in Havana, Ortega planned to become a lawyer but, four years into his law degree, decided he wanted to study art instead.

While he's travelled for further study and work, Ortega has always returned to traditional techniques to make intricate nature-inspired images that explore Cuba's environment and culture.

When paper was scarce and expensive in Cuba, he would print onto rags that had been used for cleaning.

In New Zealand he has been impressed with the pounamu carvings at Auckland War Memorial Museum.

And what will he take back home from his Kiwi experience?

"I don't know exactly," he says, adding that he's impressed by the wildlife, particularly birds, to be seen in Auckland. "I need to be in Cuba again because you need to feel, to miss, and then what you miss you know that was the most interesting thing for you but I think everything because I've found that everything is interesting."

• While in New Zealand, Osmeivy Ortega Pacheco is exhibiting woodcut prints, together with work by fellow Cuban and poster artist/caricaturist Yaimel Lopez, at Northart Gallery in Northcote. Ortega talks at the gallery at 3pm tomorrow; the exhibition ends on Wednesday.