Different again is Margaret Silverwood.
I admire her work very much but, in the past, it has never touched me. Here is an artist driven on, often against her will, to complete a piece. The detail required in her use of pastels and watercolours seems, from what she said, to almost cause her physical pain.
I so enjoyed her honest description and the other work she showed us.
A teacher to the core, an actor by instinct, Lee Morgan seemed to press us against the back wall as he bled forth about his strange work (inspired by teabags), and which evolved into ladies reminiscent of Impressionist paintings. He does not belie his city reputation as a rather mad extrovert and I was entertained by his presentation.
Andre Bronnimann, on the other hand, produces the very best of representative art and I always enjoy his work.
His meticulous method of creating his work seems to just mirror a reserved but dedicated painter.
What an interesting contrast to Lee!
The works that made me stop and look and contemplate, amongst the prize winners, I need to say, were by artists unseen before by me. Kay Benseman spoke with courage and honour of the loss of a baby and the healing capacity of guarding the daily flower brought to her by her young son.
When it succumbed, she photographed each one.
The result, a white frieze with each flower individually photographed on to it, helped to move her through her grieving and offered us the chance to share natural beauty and the chance to heal too.
The beauty of flowers caused Tracy Byatt to make her extraordinary sugar sculpture, Beauty Is A Fading Flower.
Totally unlike flowers made in icing for celebratory cakes, Tracy uses a most unusual skill to present us with 'nature morte' that triggered in me many emotions and thoughts.
Tracy spoke with humility, expressing surprise that her work should be amongst artists whom she sees are more worthy than herself. She is delightful, real and lovely.
I hope her work will develop and become quite marvellous and be recognised as unique.
This was a special evening.
Each artist is to be complimented and admired. I have to end by admitting that appreciating what one sees is so very personal. The present exhibition of all the accepted entries for this year's review is just so good, caters for us all and is not to be missed.
MIKE: No 1 Gloucester St is the home of Eva Bausch and Heina Petzold. Since buying the property less than two years ago, they have transformed it into the Awa Art Hub, a delightful setting for their individual talents. The front hedge now has an internal wall, suitable for positioning posters and Eva's powerful sculptures. For the AOS, several of her works were dotted around this space, the most prominent being of a sitting woman, bending over on her knees, long hair flowing down her back.
Made especially for these two weekends, it is a smaller version of the piece she carved, several years ago, for the Ellerslie Flower Show.
Like many of her works, it is sculpted from hard Oamaru stone, which she prefers to the softer variety. We were invited to touch a sculpture of the harder stone, fashioned 22 years ago. It was surprisingly smooth and had weathered well, maintaining its original colour without any signs of staining.
Her other stone of choice is Mt Somers, from a quarry now on private land. It has a rough, pitted appearance, resembling coral, but offers a smooth, yielding texture to the sculptor. Eva displays this stone to its best advantage, carving a delicate figure, often a baby, inside the outer shell of stone, producing a womb-like effect.
Their dilapidated garage has been upgraded to create a gallery and workshop for Heina, whose main focus is copper-enamel art. After drawing a design on to copper sheet-metal, he cuts it into small segments, then fires each one individually with metal-pigmented enamel-glass powder. The firing is repeated several times, cooling between each. Once the enamels are fused onto the copper, they can be replaced to form a large jigsaw puzzle, fitting together seamlessly.
'The Nest', in Glasgow St, is the studio where Leonie Sharp creates exquisite, delicate works from the feathers of birds. Her hook designs, the Hei Matau series, appealed particularly, with their iridescent glistening. All were genuine feathers, including peacock and pheasant, without any dyes being used. In the room was a coat stand, holding a magnificent piece of clothing, described by Leonie as a 'kahu huruhuru', a full feather cloak. The lower layer was white, the upper brown, with countless tiny feathers in varying shades of brown. She had made it specially for her daughter's graduation in Christchurch, where she gained a degree in Medical Imaging from Canterbury University. Leonie intended to take the cloak with her when she travelled south last Thursday for the ceremony. I wonder who was the prouder? Mother or daughter?
For Sue Kumeroa to open her home for the AOS for the first time, exposing her work to the public, was a huge decision. She felt extremely vulnerable, she told us, but had relaxed after a lot of positive comments. We first saw Sue's work recently at Expressions Gallery and were quite taken by it. She may well have a niche market with her painted and stitched cloth, although she has made contact with an artist in France who does similar work — and has exhibited at the Louvre! Trees in minimalist form feature in many of Sue's paintings, decorated with bright, cheerful colours, their outlines delineated by fine black thread. Sue began painting about four years ago, and has only been producing her stitched art for the past 18 months. Judging by the numerous red dots on her walls, Joan and I are not the only ones to find her work compelling.
Congratulations, Sue! Here's to next year!
JOAN: I really wanted to visit Fiona McGowan as I find her such a quiet, gracious person whose work always surprises me. In her new purpose-made studio, her work looked great.
It was the bonsai trees that took me by surprise this time. An art form in its own right, Fiona was able to explain how she seeds and tends them. Each one fits into a pot she has made specially. They are so interesting and look so content. After a busy week, Fiona tells me, she relaxes by pruning and enjoying them. I was very envious!
mjstreet@xtra.co.nz
