Midwinter in the Studio

Happy Midwinter, everyone

For the first time, I took part in a Midwinter Christmas Pop-Up Shop, filling the walls with some of my paintings in the Community Gallery on Princes Street here in chilly Dunedin. None of the paintings were particularly wintry or remotely related to Christmas, but it was all worth it! Juliet Walker managed the event and invited me to exhibit and fill the walls. Everything was so well organised and incredibly uncomplicated. Juliet and her daughter ran the whole show and made it all so easy for the rest of us artists. The shop had a wonderful European Christmas feel, and I’d love to do it again next year.

The biggest surprise was that I finally sold my painting “Lowland Storm”—the first original I’ve sold this entire year! A lovely lady from Invercargill walked in within the first five minutes of the shop opening, saw my painting, and bought it on the spot. Thank you so much if you’re reading this!

At the same time, the Riversdale Mixed Media Show was on, where I had been invited to exhibit. This show is always so well organised and of high quality. This year seemed even more impressive than usual. Sadly, I didn’t make it there in person to see it for myself. I had four of my still-life fruit paintings on display, and they have all now safely returned home, ready for the next exhibition. One advantage of not selling very much is that I never run out of artworks to exhibit! In fact, I’m almost relying on that this year, as I have several more showings planned, with some artworks potentially appearing in more than one exhibition to help spread my work around Aotearoa a little bit more.

During June I’ve been busy entering various competitions and preparing and packaging paintings to be sent off to exhibitions. This week alone both the Otago Art Society’s 150th Annual Exhibition and the Ashburton Art Society’s 62nd Annual Exhibition are opening, and I’m fortunate to have paintings included in both. They are new works and I will share them with you once the openings are over.

My airport exhibition is also still running for another two and a half weeks. Once that’s done and if all goes to plan, I hope to hold an Open Studio on the last weekend of July. I will have paintings and prints available to purchase directly from my studio. For this I have just received my latest prints from my photographer and printer, Murray Eskdale at Mint Printing, and as always, they look superb! This time, I also have four new designs available and in various sizes. Here is a sneak peek…

I’m also already preparing for my next solo exhibition at the beginning of August. It will once again be a fundraiser exhibition at Maori Hill School, with 30% of the proceeds going to the school. Please mark the date in your calendars! The exhibition opening will be held on Monday, 3 August, from 5.00–7.00 pm at Maori Hill School. I’d love to see you there!

So, there always seems to be plenty happening! At the very least, I’ve had a lot of fun along the way, and I’m very grateful to have this creative career alongside my work as a primary school teacher. Sometimes the two even come together, whether it’s through my fundraiser exhibition or helping make props for the upcoming school musical—which opens tomorrow! How exciting!