21/07/2026
New work on exhibition now until 11 August. Here's the 'about' for this selection, and actually nearly all of my work ...
🌞 Beaches and Bikecountry: Virginia Watson
Welcome to my third annual-ish exhibition as Feature Artist at Wall to Wall Art Gallery.
It feels like just yesterday I joined the gallery. It also feels like an age, as I reflect on my professional development over that time.
My work has evolved as if on a train line, two tracks running parallel: Beachy characters on one track, Back country landscapes on the other.
Bike adventures inspire many of my paintings, and I can’t decide what I love more, coastlines and mudflats and all the quirky birds, or South Island’s incredible ‘bike country’.
Back country landscapes are dramatic in themselves, but there’s usually something else interesting going on too. I paint-in the story I see. If you casually walk past, you’ll probably miss it.
Coastal estuaries are dramatic, and story-rich too, but in softer ways. My shore/bird paintings carry the quirk and personality I notice.
About my Process
Mostly working impasto style, I use thick paint applied with a knife, like butter on a scone, but use thin layers of glaze where it’s needed.
I try to produce each piece completely by hand – source, cut and prepare my own canvas, boards and frames.
My husband makes the frames for the back of the canvas, and also the lovely finishing frames, using solid New Zealand timber.
This adds a lot of work but makes an authentic work of art, that I hope will become a timeless and unique treasure.
