It's not often that you find a collection of paintings hanging amongst the grease and grime of a mechanic's workshop, but emerging local artist Franchessa Lean is changing that.
A long-serving staff member at Napier Port, Franchessapicked up a brush for the first time last year and discovered a talent for painting. She says learning to paint has been a long-held dream, but it wasn't until she stumbled across classes with Humanity Painters in Hastings that she decided to take the leap.
"I signed up for a class with Helen Kerridge, the founding artist at Humanity Painters, and fell in love with painting. I haven't looked back since," she says.
She says that painting is a great antidote to the hustle and bustle of her day job managing the administration of the port's workshop, which keeps the company's cranes and container forklifts humming.
"It's a highly complex, dynamic environment inside the port, and there are always plenty of things to be done. Painting is a great contrast – it's slow, it's focused, and it's calming. It's very therapeutic at the end of a busy day."
