Arts Collective Easter Arts Trail - featured in the Whangamata News 21.04.2023

I am proud to the included in the newspaper article.

Arts Collective Whangamata - Easter Arts Trail - 8 & 9 April 2023

Looking forward to this event over the Easter weekend.

I have been invited to exhibit at location No. 3, Sue Jamieson Art Studio, 306 Hetherington Road, Whangamata.

The dot painting practice continues

 My dot painting practice has now ventured on to larger stones and pots.

Cyclone Gabrielle, Garden Design and more

I was not able to feel creative during Cyclone Gabrielle but luckily we came through without damage. Now the weather has improved, I am working on a big garden design project, which will take up a good deal of my time during the next month or so. Also, I have a significant birthday in April, so plans and celebrations for that will eat into my creative time too. Consequently, it may be a couple of months before I can seriously get down to starting some larger dot painted artwork.

Practicing Dot Painting

Here are some of the items I have painted while I have been practicing painting dots:

I am now waiting for some special dot painting tools to arrive from Canada before I start on some larger dot painted artworks.

Big Arts Day Out 2023

Despite the terrible weather over the weekend, with no out of town visitors being able to get to Whangamata on the Sunday due to road slips, this event was quite successful for me. As well as the sales from my stand, I also sold one of my two entries in the Harcourts Challenge, "Making a difference to our Oceans". It was nice to meet the purchasers, as it gave me the opportunity to explain how I made the piece and how it related to the theme of the competition.

Making a difference to our Oceans - SOLD

My two entries for the 2023 Harcourts Challenge

The theme for the 2023 Harcourts Challenge is 'making a difference'.

Making a difference to our Oceans
40 cm diameter, mixed media

Entry #1: ‘Making a difference to our Oceans’ was created with recycled plastic, including some ground down polymer clay mosaic tiles, glitter and resin. (I had to photograph this in quite a dark room, to stop the light reflecting on the glossy resin surface, so unfortunately you cannot see the glitter in the artwork). My thought was that locking the plastic into the artwork means it will not end up finding its way into the oceans.

The Great Barrier Reef
30 cm x 30 cm, acrylic paint

Entry #2: ‘The Great Barrier Reef’ was dot painted with acrylics; the 'making a difference' is intended to be shown by a reef full of coloured coral and fish grading into a colourless version in the distance. It is meant to show that we (humankind) can make a difference to the future of the reef if we try. 

Harcourts Challenge & Big Arts Day Out - 27-29 January 2023

Really looking forward to this event. I have entered two pieces in the Harcourts Challenge, which I will post after the judging, and I will have a stand at the Big Arts Day Out. My display will show the gradual transition from polymer clay dot mosaics to dot painting. There will be a range of work, all for sale, and I will be dot painting some rocks and a canvas during the weekend for visitors to watch.

Review of 2022

The latter half of this year has been spent transitioning from creating artwork with round mosaic tiles to painting with dots. This has been a very gradual process, with lots of practicing, but I feel ready to start 2023 with some confidence. Consequently, I have made a temporary amendment to my website header, until I update the whole website to reflect the new course of my artwork.

I am excited to see how 2023 turns out, with my new ideas and a new medium.

What have I been doing for the last 5 months?

The End of an Era

Since completing 'The End of an Era' (July 2022), with some of my unused round mosaic tiles, I have only made one other artwork. 'Moana' was created with recycled plastic, including some ground down polymer clay mosaic tiles, glitter and resin (photo to be posted in January 2023). I will enter it in the 2023 Harcourts Challenge (judging takes place on 27 January), which has the theme "making a difference". Locking the plastic into the artwork means it will not end up finding its way into the oceans.

The rest of my time has been spent making small hand-crafted items and Swirl-StoNZ for the Christmas/Summer markets. I have also been practicing painting with dots, and a number of small practice pieces, like wall hung hearts, decorative pots, mugs and candle holders are amongst my market stock.

Currently, I am working on a second entry for the 2023 Harcourts Challenge, which is a scaled down version of a Great Barrier Reef painting, inspired by my visit there back in 2017. (A photo of the finished painting will be posted in January 2023). I have decided to paint this with dots, although it is quite fiddly as the canvas is only 30cm x 30cm, as part of the transition from dot mosaics to dot painting. The 'making a difference' is intended to be shown by a reef full of coloured coral and fish grading into a colourless version in the distance. It is meant to show that we (humankind) can make a difference to the future of the reef if we try. 

On another level, my move to expressing artwork with the dot painting, rather than dot mosaics, is hopefully 'making a difference' to my creative productivity.