Taranaki . My creative community

Well we just love Taranaki, it is a reigon on the West coast of the North Island of NZ that centres around the striking Mount Taranaki. Where ever you go in the reigon, the mountain is just there, in the background, like a kind but strong authority figure who’s just keeping an eye on the goings on . Lots of days its cloudy too and the mountain is blanketed in the sky but it makes it all the more special the next day when it appears again.

Ive been to alot of places in the world but never had the chance to get to know a mountain. it feels good, really good ,to feel connected with the world above and be constantly reminded of the vastness of existence.

We have made a few friends in and around that area in the time we have spent in NZ and most of them are artistic. i actually have made more creative connections in Taranaki than here in the Bay of Plenty.

So I took the opportunity to include myself in a group show in Stratford as part of the Print Council of Aoetearoa New Zealand ( PCANZ)

https://www.printcouncil.nz/

https://www.percythomsongallery.org.nz/looking-forward-2021/

here are 2 lovely collages that i used all of my powers to get “exhibition ready” and couriered to the gallery in time. “Bursting” and “Passive” based on the studies i have been doing of a San Pedro cactus plant near my house, and in the format set by my “chop” series of work. A series that i hope to grow and expand for many years..

Now on the underside of the mountain live a very special couple, who i have had the pleasure of getting to know via some Glastonbury connections that are just too good to even try to explain on here. They are slowly becoming a very solid part of our whanau and i know that i will learn alot from them both, on many levels in the future.

On the weekend of the PCANZ show opening i organised a very precious child-free weekend and took the coach alone across the north island. the coach trip had some hiccups in it and i ended up hitchhiking and the opening itself was cancelled due to VERY bad storms. But the result was that i spent more time than planned at the far end of Oeo Rd and filled an entire sketchbook up with observational drawings. Which is something i fail to do most of the time as my child tends to block my drawing brain. Drawing is so valuable, using etes is so important. These 2 are experts at it.. what an honour to watch them both at work …

http://www.mariannemuggeridge.nz/

www.rogermorris.nz

Finally Stocking Prints Online!

Wow so finally i’ve taken a big digital step and turned the stack of past print work i have stored up in my house into a Shop! If you like my work and want to support me, but don’t have a mural-able wall.. now you can buy work on paper, or on notebooks, or on cards.

This has been a loong time coming. So proud of myself for applying myself to the end…Etsy Shop opens officially on june21 with a massive 25% off storewide. It ‘s mid-winter solstice here ..i should be nesting and calming down, going inwards but instead i’m launching a shop..

Can’t say i’m still not feeling resistant to this online life. The past month of web updates and arranging images for the shop and constant uploading and editing on a variety of various devices has not left me feeling exactly thrilled about the future. I’m super sensitive to tech, the glowing screens really get in my dreams and anxiety in the night instead of sleep is a steep slippery slope to very bad mental health.

There’s been some dark days.. BUT tomorrow is the darkest and the shortest before the days start getting longer and brighter and with any luck i’ll be able to generate some sales on etsy and be able to work more on paper with a platform to sell all over the world..

>>>>>SUPPORT MY ART LIFE HERE<<<<<<

Pixie the Caravan. A Tale from Taranaki.

We drove across the North Island of NZ to the region of Taranaki for a weeks holiday. We went to see if the houses prices were as painful on the other coast as here…. and i can confirm that yes they are.

We stayed with friends and also in a variety of AirBnbs, including one in the centre of New Plymouth; The wonderful colourful home of Rhys and Diane Masters. I felt instantly at home there and it made me sadder than ever to be living mostly in a beige coloured rental home in Papamoa.

Within 2 nights of staying there they had decided to commission me to decorate their vintage caravan .

They delivered the tiny caravan to our perfectly sized driveway the following week and then went off on their bikes for a 2 weeks cycle tour of the East Cape. leaving me just enough time to get my paint on.

I used Resene Lumbersider paint on all the surfaces of Pixie. Eventhough each panel seemed to be made from a different material! It was slow and tricky painting in and around all of the tiny edges. i listened to alot of podcasts.. took alot of coffee breaks and tried my hardest to ignore all of the activity in the neighbours house. One whole family moved out and one whole family moved in right alongside me whilst i was balancing on a childs chair to paint leaves all over this caravan.

Rhys and Diane turned up all cycled out and grinning happy with their new caravan!

This is their cycling blog:http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/RandDinNZ

I am doing everything in my power to ensure that i have an much vibrancy and energy in my life when i am at their age and stage in life!

Redefining health and fitness. Papamoa NZ

WWW.REDEFINED.NZ

When i found out there was a brand new fitness and yoga centre just opened just a few km from my house i knew i had to get involved….. my intentions and motivation was clear, and by clear i mean it was really refreshingly obvious that i could become an asset to this establishment..i have alot of passion and energy to put into the right place.. this happend to also be at the right time..

Brand new businesses purpose built from scratch aren’t something i ever came across in Europe. There just simply isn’t enough space for everyone to construct their own ideal building. Here in Papamoa, Bay of Plenty, the population is growing day by day.. construction is everywhere. schools, houses, shops and of course. car parks are popping up where nature used to be, before my very eyes.. everyday.

I’m in 2 minds about this..mostly it makes me deeply sad, but some of this new growth is of course positive. and can be done consciously. I think the guys behind Redefined have done everything they can to ensure this new venture is positive. for people and for the planet.

And so it all came about like a khaki green dream….. I was trusted in this glorious new smart space to paint all the large leafy shapes that i wanted.. the sound system was great and i was really really calm the whole way through the process…. I was even uncharacteristically calm for a few weeks afterwards.. like the Zen really got into my cells.

And now i see my own work everytime i go to class and am assisted in my longer term dream to be calm, to breathe, to look within rather than externally. and to accept myself wholly. getting there guys.

Then there was the Pilates Studio..

A more specified design was requested for this neutral space. I wasn’t sure about painting something so outside of my normal style, after the next-door mural had flowed so freely..But in the end i loved using these colours and the smooth shapes are satisfying and quick to paint.

Bloom Daycare Papamoa. Mahi tahi . with Pinch and Punch

“We love our mural! It has taken our playground to a whole new level. It sparks so much joy and imagination amongst our children and it looks stunning. ”

— Keri. Bloom Kids manager

In the midsummer heat of the NZ Summer. I partnered with fellow Papamoa resident and pattern loving parent Jasmine Kroeze to paint this epic 50m wall adjacent to the fantastic Bloom Early Childhood centre.

It was hot, the surface of the wall was as thirsty as we were and the kids in the playground certainly kept us on our toes…there was alot of noise and alot of paint was used.

Sharing the design process took the weight out of the correspondence and the admin. And when the nerves took hold around the same time that the January sun really started to blast down. We were there for eachother to remind ourselves how awesome and capable we were. Despite of and because of our personality differences, this project felt great from start to finish.

Jasmine is a design wizard and since this mural i have seen her professional artist practice go from strength to strength. check out her website you won’t regret it

www.pinchpunch.nz

Painting these giant flowers with their stylish offset lines was very exciting i' think i’ll use that again… and again.. and again…..

Guardian of the blossoms

A public commission for Greerton Village with support from Tauranga City Council and Resene paint.

DEC 2020

Bay Of Plenty Garden and Arts Fest 2021

Percy Rd Art. Our place in Papamoa.

Studying the plants in and around my everyday life has brought me closer to each and every place that i have lived. One thing that everyone learnt from the Covid-19 Lockdown ( fortunately very brief here in NZ) was that the smaller, slower things in life are really worth looking at properly. I walked my toddler around the block just as much as every parent on my street during April 2020 and the main advantage for me was that by the time i got organised with enough equipment to start screen-printing again on this side of the planet, i knew exactly what i wanted to illustrate. These shapes and these colours. Papamoa, what a place.

I have prints galore of this “Percy Rd” series . originals and digital prints. and not for the last time i am going to say that i will have an online shop organised at some point….. soon… ?

Tauranga Racecourse .Highs and Lows of working at height

80 hours painting between 4 people over 9 days later….

Racing Tauranga. Greerton BOP. On behalf of the Garden and Arts Festival 2020.

Next installment of my work for The Garden and Arts festival is LIVE PAINTING and TALKING about murals to a CROWD as well as selling my own recently made SCREENPRINTS.

exciting! Stressfull! excting!

call 111 for coffee along Cameron Rd

wow this container was smooooothh, llike the Resene Lumbersider paint was made for this surface, which was an amazing feeling after having a totally contrasting experience at the last job.

on day 1 at Triple one coffee,on the corner of 18th Avenue and Cameron rd, Tauranga, i got so much green paint down on both sides of this container-turned coffee station that i almost skipped off home ( on 3 buses).

I jotted down notes to myself about competance, confidence and how i felt so sure i was in the exact role for my skills. old leaf shapes painted cleaner and bolder than ever were really exciting me and the power of just working to a tight design rather than leaving it up to to art/chance was coming through.

The standard day2 jitters ( “what have i started..?”) were eliminated by alot of tasty coffee and a suprise lift home from my neighbour who works nearby who infact landed me the project.

All went swimmingly over 5 days infact and finished in plenty of time on a sunny friday afternoon thanks to the last minute assistance of fellow pattern-geek and mum-of-toddler Jasmine of Pinch and Punch who i have since teamed up with on a few projects and who i am getting excited about living own the road from in 2021.

Evolution of a design. Fern Jungle

In 2015 i had just returned to my home town of Glastonbury UK from a big stint in NSW Australia, i had been looking at alot of exciting shaped plants but sadly not painting very much for a miriad of reasons… Keen to get back up the ladder i designed a mural for some friends in Somerset based on a basic painty prep piece i did on a wobbly table in the caravan i was living in. I had no idea this design formation later refferred to as “jungle camoflage” was to determine so much of my desin work, large and small for so many years.

This painting was born directly from the original prep piece and was sent to Australia as a gift to an old friend , wrapped in a tote bag printed with the digital repeat based on the very same canvas.

villaridge and fermob

In early August 2020 we were lucky enough to have a visit from this little Kiwi turned Glastafarian, Myfannwy.

Even luckier was that she helped me paint this mural in this lovely garden centre, did all the driving and packed even stranger-looking plant based lunches than me.

EVEN Luckier was that we got to talk, for 4 days. For once i was happy about technical hitches that extended the predicted length of this project. 4 days of child-free chatter with someone who actually understands..

There is literally no-body else on this planet who could have discussed the same socio-psyco-economic topics as me, in length whilst still getting alot done.

Being socially, economically and emotionally torn between the golden lands of Aoeterroa and the green lands of Somerset UK is a strange crack to be wedged in . Covid or no covid.

At her wedding earlier this year, a few glasses of champagne down, surrounded by her whole whanau (family) on their land ( whenua) . Having just wed in order to able to live in Glastonbury, She just turned to me and asked

“Faye they are all just so far away, how do we decide?” Nailing the eternal inner struggle of being bound to someone from the other side of the world.

Thanks Villa Ridge Garden Centre and furniture brand FERMOB for this tasteful brief and for providing a colour chart with pantone references. A new and proffessional feeling experience for me.

To Patio Rose cafe for the coffee ( obvs)

And for my Glastonbury brother Dolphin ( STAR SINGER SLIDES) for getting hold of her. Shes a gem. a real shiny one. i was so sad when she left and genuinely that hasn’t happened that much in my life. i’m working on it though…

Our Garden . New prints from the old house

At the end of the last UK summer, as i was preparing to host my last screen-printing workshop before moving to New Zealand, i made these prints of the flowers in my garden in Glastonbury.

Using a combination of open-screen techniques with photographic stencils ontop to make these layered almost collaged images.

Ghost printing with heaps of gloopy medium and paper stencils creates messy un controlled marks and textures whereas using tight and detailed stencils on screen adds the neat lines and details.

I love this method of working and am building up to working on some prints of my new “backyard” AKA Papamoa Beach BOP New Zealand. Using similar techniques to build up a memory of our lockdown time when i looked harder and longer at seaweed than i ever have. It was beautiful.

These “Our Garden” prints , both originals and digital prints on fine art heavyweight paper, ( all A4 size images on A3 paper) are now available to buy from Imprint Gallery, Historic Village, 17th Avenue, Tauranga, Bay Of Plenty, New Zealand.

They are the only original bits of artwork that i packed when moving my life here. Everything else remains on the walls in Glastonbury or stored in a shed. I miss my art. Alot. And i also miss the prices of art equipment in Europe . as slowly collecting up the necessary bits and pieces in order to print on paper here has been a costly project!

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A weekend at Lazer School

less than 3 weeks from enquiry to mural completion is my kind of project!

Incase you were as puzzled as me by the request of a mural at a lazer school here is the website:

Rejuv skin lazer treatments and training

Thanks to Heather for trusting me to get the colours right for her space. and the Bayhopper bus service for being amazingly reliable and remaining free to use.! Work commutes for me are distinctively different looking to almost everyone else in this country!

lockdown sketchbook

The New Zealand version of Covid-19 lockdown 2020 was a powerfull process, in that alot of “noise” went away. No fear, barely any illness even, just quiet. Among ALOT of social commentary, what happened in my mind was that suddenly i was inspired to just draw pictures for my own good without any need or desire to share them on social media. Part of the noise that went away for me was pressure to create. This is what i made and i don’t care if i never use these images for anything. ! what a relief!