Magic Realism in Portraiture - The Group Show

30/09/2017

Tiriwa Watene is going to show his first oil painting. Begun at the Corbans Summer School, it's starting to look startlingly beautiful. Please join us at the opening Friday 13th, 5.30pm at the Opanuku Room. Or Sat/Sun14 & 15 October, 10am-4pm. Painters on-site. Come for conversation, cuppa and cake.

22/09/2017

Hester Ljósálfr, 17: Self-expression has forever been a core element of my life. A year or so ago I began to work with oils, which accelerated my art practice to expand in multiple directions. I am inspired by the ephemerality of physicality, by the brilliant cosm of the subconscious.

22/09/2017

Magic Realism in Portraiture, a Summer School class taught by the Awesome, with a capital "A," Liam Barr. Pictured, 20th January, here with Corbans' Estate Art Centre Director, Martin Sutcliffe

22/09/2017

Caroline Bensinger was born in 1945, Amerham, England. She emigrated to Montreal, Canada with her parents as a small child. She came to NZ in 1971. For the last 43 years, has lived and worked in Titirangi, West Auckland.

In her art, Caroline has worked in the mediums of etchings and oil paints. She currently paints with acrylic on canvas. Images from her unconscious and dreams inform her artwork. She often works with mandala shapes, a way – according to Jungian thought – of putting external order on internal chaos.

Since 1973, Caroline has exhibited work in Auckland galleries and venues. In 2013 she had a solo exhibition "Mandalas of Change and Transformation." Twelve hexagonal paintings (90 x 90 cm) at The Fiesta Coffee Lounge in Point Chevalier evoked the healing power of the unconscious. Currently, Caroline has a small body of 12 works on A3 paper; watercolours, coloured pencil and ink, showing at the Titirangi Library. The exhibition is "Grids and Feathers," thoughts on what truth might be.

22/09/2017

Val Enger studied art at school. She was accepted into the Elam School of Arts but decided to travel overseas first. She saw the great galleries of the world and immersed herself in art culture before returning to New Zealand. Val recently won the Bill Laing Memorial Pastel Art Award and a third prize at the Easter Show. She belongs to art groups in her community where she has collected awards. She exhibits and participates in exhibitions all around the country.
“I paint portraits and landscapes in oils, acrylics, watercolour and pastels. Each day opens my eyes to something new and exciting which I transfer to the canvas in my own style....”

22/09/2017

Janet Shepherd is a full-time art teacher at Summerland Primary, Western Heights, Henderson. She enjoys exposing children to a range of genre and materials and is constantly experimenting with different techniques and effects. Her own preferred art making is done in oil and sometimes acrylic paint.
Largely self-taught, Janet has developed further skills in painting and drawing by attending courses at Corban’s Estate Art Centre and more recently, Browne Art School. Until recently the main subject of her compositions has been landscape.
Since attending Summer School at Corban’s Estate Art Centre with Liam Barr in early 2017, and life drawing at Browne Art school, portraiture has become the next move in her development as an artist.
Projecting the essence of the person by getting them to talk through colour, background and supporting images is at the forefront of Janet’s inspiration. She has long admired the portraits of Rita Angus who also used this format.
Janet is currently working toward her own exhibition. She has been involved with a number of group art exhibitions held at Corban’s Estate Art Centre.

22/09/2017

Monica Paterson (Murrays Bay) comes from a background of computer graphic design, illustration, and fabric design. She uses figure and portrait subject matter in her painting and drawing. She weaves these together in works that connect to her Samoan genealogy. Monica has been mentored by painter Karl Amundsen for the last 5 years along with focusing on her family. Her influences are broad. They range from Rita Angus, Robyn Kahukiwa, Frida Kahlo and street art. This year she joined the Corbans’ arts community as an artist in residence.

22/09/2017

Tiriwa Watene - Te Taoū, paints at Karekare in Te Waonui-a-Tiriwa, the mighty Waitākere Ranges. He is a carver, painter, whakapapa man, poet and environmentalist. Te Ao Maori - the Maori world, and concerns for the environment inform his work. His painting "Loss,"
was a finalist in the 2013 NZ Painting & Printmaking awards.

20/09/2017

Artist Statement: Eleanor Bones

Is the 21 Century symbol of fertility an oil derrick?

The observation for this set of works was kick-started in 2001 while reading a New Internationalist magazine about the Middle Eastern oil conflict. After many years of visual diaries, research, talking and a road trip through "cancer alley" southern USA, the artworks became a set of emotive allegories about possible consequences of the universal theme of greed.

I communicate my thoughts through writing and many drawings. Finally, they distill to form an image.

Research fragments for Oil derrick - A Madona
- Venus of Willendorf symbol of fertility approx. 28,000 BC.
- Madonna and Child.
- 1928 secret meeting of Seven Sisters oil cartel creating worldwide oil price collusion.
- Morphing man and industry.

20/09/2017

In January this year, a summer school workshop taught by Liam Barr at Corbans Estate Art Centre brought painters together to deepen their drawing and painting skills, combining the real and unreal to build an original visual narrative. Out of the class, a group was formed. Friendships grew with regular painting sessions at The Studio, in Henderson. Now, we present Magic Realism in portraiture - The Group Show. Opening Friday 13th October at 5.30pm, in the Opanuku Room, the show will be open Saturday and Sunday 14th and 15th October, 10am - 4pm. Tiriwa Watene Caroline Bensinger and others will be painting on-site. View the exhibition and join the painters for a cuppa and conversation.

20/09/2017