ART News
Firstly, my painting ‘Dear Emily I Am Home’ has been shipped to Wellington for the Academy Prize for Visual Arts, which is a stand-in for the Parkin Drawing Prize. There's a public vote, and combined with the judges' decisions, finalists will be announced. I’d really appreciate your support—you can vote for my work here with Voting ID number 345, page 1. My sister-in-law Sal Spicer also has a fantastic piece in the lineup, ‘Florescent’ (ID 22, page 6).
Secondly, I’m thrilled to be the featured artist at No1 Parnell Gallery in Rawene this October/November. Work is well underway, and I’m excited about this wonderful opportunity.
I’ll also be participating in this year’s Printapalooza with Te Kowhai Print Trust at Hihiaua Cultural Center in Whangarei on Saturday the 25th. That involves designing and carving a 2.4m x 1m woodcut, which will be printed by driving a road roller over it—last time was epic, I can’t wait to do it again!
No printing this Sunday, but I did spend Monday afternoon printing and on Friday, my art friends Charlotte and Sian braved the weather to hang out, and we all tried tetra pak printing, which was super fun. We learned that water-based ink allows for multiple good prints from a single engraving.
Seems like a lot of information and not a lot of reflection.
Learning a new thing or two.
I could probably fill a book with the things I have learnt over the last couple of weeks, things such as how not to knit a sock, how to truly enjoy the school holidays, how to make lentil hummus and how to make sure your brayers are spotlessly clean especially if you are using yellow ink to start your collagraph print.
Todays printing session was a mixed bag, a new kawakawa woodblock ready to print, I still need to make sure the ink is rolled properly before it goes near the block, having a pile paper squares was super handy for handling the inked up block. I’m a bit worried about how I’m going to key up the next print though - should have thought that through better.
There was quite a long list of things I wanted to print, but I started a bit late in the afternoon and had had enough by the time I got to the collagraphs (which didn’t work how I wanted anyway). I did have a go at using the engraving function on the Cricut - and engraved a tiny kingfisher on a CD, and a larger one on a tetra pack scrap. Inked up and then wiped as much ink off as I could. Intaglio printing is quite moody, I like it and will definitely keep playing.
Sunday smudge day.
Sunday evenings might be a good time to slide into a little weekly journaling. Just a quiet chance to reflect on the week that’s been, unpack whatever happened in the studio today(Woodblock printing), and cast an eye toward what’s coming next. I’ve been meaning to keep this space more up to date, and maybe this is how it begins—no pressure, just a gentle rhythm.
Excellent news—I'm a finalist in the 2025 National Contemporary Art Awards. I’ll be heading to Kirikiriroa on July 31st for what promises to be a very fancy pants evening indeed. My artwork Rattle and Hum will be shipped off this week, carefully packed in a custom-built crate that Alan is putting together in the shed.
I’ve got a new painting showing in The Providores Gallery on Urupukapuka Island as part of a Matariki exhibition. My work honours Waitā, the star connected with the ocean and all the life within it. It’s a theme that runs deep for me. The gallery is at Otehei Bay, and the boat trip across to get there is glorious—an exhibition and an adventure rolled into one.
Today, I christened my new rolling press with its first proper ink session. The results were... educational. I now understand the true importance of having a decent stack of newspaper squares and rags on hand, of folding a scrap of paper to pick up the print paper cleanly, and of resting the woodblock on a square of tissue so it can be moved without smudging everything. It wasn’t all smooth sailing, but I learned heaps. I went for a stomp up the road to get over the less than glorious results and figured out that the best way forward might be to use my weekdays to prepare: carving blocks, building collagraph plates, and gathering textures. And reserve Sundays for printing, when everything’s ready and I can just roll with it (literally). Then I can journal all my mishaps and triumphs on Sunday evening.
Somewhere between all the ink, spinning, knitting and teaching, I’ve become fascinated by folding paper into tiny triangular patterns and spraying paint across the surface. There’s something mesmerising about how the folds catch the paint, how the lines intersect and echo. It’s a small experiment, but it’s tugging at something deeper. Maybe it’s just another way of chasing the places where lines meet and meaning unfolds.
So that’s where things are, this Sunday evening. A little progress, a little mess, and a whole lot of art. Hopefully next Sunday I will have some better ink stories and more good art news.
