HB OPERA HOUSE: Leaving her mark on the ceiling

KATE NEWTON
Much like Michelangelo's painting of the fresco ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, Masterton artist Tina Carter had scaffold erected and took to applying her design to the ceiling of the 90-year-old auditorium.
Carter's brief was to come up with a concept that would connect the old theatre with the new plaza, while keeping within the Art Noveau tradition.
After a year and a half of deliberation, the style of Gustav Klimt, renowned for his theatre artwork, was chosen and Carter and four other artists took to the 20 metre-high scaffold.
"It was a really big task and a huge act of contortion," Carter said laughing.
"Looking at it now, sitting in the auditorium and looking up at how high it is, I think 'boy, how on earth was I so calm?"'
The blue of music, yellow of dance and green of drama swirl across the ceiling and are tied together by the red, which signifies the community.
The figures, which include a mother and children and a pair of lovers represent the community and "personify the energy preceding a performance", Carter said.
The mother and babes were modelled on herself and her four-year-old twins, who were left in the capable hands on their Nana while Carter yo-yoed between Hastings during the week and Masterton at the weekends.
"That's our little legacy. They can go up there and see themselves," Carter said.
The stage of the theatre also came in handy for Carter to practise her lines for the Oklahoma musical she was starring in and she was able to confirm the "acoustics are fantastic".
No stranger to jobs of this size, Carter was chosen by architect Roger Shand.
Carter worked as an artist in Melbourne before moving home in 2001 and dabbled in the film industry which she believes gave her the vision of staging something as big as the Opera House ceiling.
Although coming up with the design concept took a year and a half to evolve, putting brush to ceiling took only five weeks of 10- hour long days.
"There was no rest for the wicked," Carter said.
"I revel in the challenge of something like that and seeing it all come together and being appreciated."
"What else would Hastings like?" she joked.
Now that the biggest task of her life so far is out of the way, Carter is getting back to basics with some artwork she would like to exhibit in Hastings.