Drastic fire inspires Hawke's Bay art exhibition

Napier artist Sybil Roberts, who lost all her paintings in a garage fire recently is going to have a 'rebirth' art exhibition at Hastings Community Art Gallery. Photo/Warren Buckland

After a fire tore through a garage containing more than 600 pieces of art, local artist Sybil Roberts is rising "Out of the Ashes", with her latest exhibition set to open to the public next month.

The exhibition will take place at the Community Arts Centre open every day from February 12 to March 10 and showcase 21 paintings, seven colours and three variations all representing renewal, growth and the endless spiral of life through the motif of a tree.

The 21 50cm round wooden supports which were saved from the garage are the base for the paintings and act as a symbol.

On February 27 last year, the fire early in the morning destroyed 90 per cent of her garage contents, including her art work over the course of 10 years. She only managed to save 10.

If it had not been for her neighbours' dog barking and subsequently alerting people to the garage on fire, it might have been a different story.

After the initial shock of losing a large majority of her contents, the concept for the pieces emerged three months later as she had a "burning ambition to "burning ambition to express myself through these paintings".

"The tree of life is symbolic of strength, wisdom, rebirth, regeneration and that's what I needed to overcome."

"I've added a glow in the dark element in the shape of a flower of lights that symbolises emerging from the darkness into light," the Napier artist said.

"The paintings are the end result of my journey of healing and letting go of my possessions that were lost in the fire and moving forward with seeds of potential so I can branch out and grow into my best version of a tree of life."

They feature three hues of each colour of the rainbow - red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, and violet.

After she had come up with the concept, it took 120 hours over 10 days to complete the main part.