Opinion: Helen English - National art awards lead to enthralling weekend

Hamurana painting titled "Down time" by Helen English. Photo / Supplied

I finally made it out for the weekend. This would not be an unusual thing to do but, between major home improvements and the ubiquitous tremors of Covid, it has been an insular year.

I put a piece of artwork up for exhibition in the Taranaki National Art Awards titled "Down time", painted during the lockdown in March/April, and so we travelled to the opening in Opunake.

The painting is from the lakeside at a friend's place in Hamurana.

As I was there, I took photos and imagined painting the scene, buying a canvas with that in mind, but life kept galloping along until it came to a grinding halt in March.

Painting that scene was about creating a realism, but it also contains my thoughts.

The tree over the scene both frames the picture and pushes the outside world away.

The one manmade object, the weather-battered and water-worn boat, is a symbol of longevity and comfort. Time away from the madness of the world.

Now it has become the object which brought me back out into the world in my first journey away from Rotorua since March.

I knew the exhibition would be amazing, and it really was.

To see the diversity of art in such a place is really something that needs to be experienced rather than told. We were absolutely enthralled.

The next day we visited the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in Taranaki and the studio of a fibre artist whose work we bought at the exhibition.

She told us about a place where the ocean view is incredible, so off we went again.

It was a weekend of following our noses and loving every second of the unexpected. Definitely one for the memory banks!

• Helen English is a local arts tutor.