Creative
Punakaiki and surrounds provide inspiration for painters, poets, potters, printmakers, music makers and many other creatives.
Anna Priluka
Anna is a painter and printmaker.
Her works are ecosystems on a small scale. Using traditional botanical and natural history illustration as a starting point, each relies on a range of sources – from ecological surveys or botanical identification manuals to recipes and gardening books.
They seek to celebrate the wonderful diversity and beautiful strangeness of New Zealand’s natural environment, while at the same time reminding us of the fragility that is inherent in such complex, interdependent systems.
Trevor Hayes
“Mostly I am inspired by the absurdity of our existence. In my poetry I am trying to make sense of it all while simultaneously trying, as Talking Heads might have it, to ‘stop making sense’.”
Trev has published a book of his poetry Two Lagoons with Seraph Press. His poems have also been published in Sport, Landfall and other literary magazines.
Review of Two Lagoons
Evelyn Hewlett
I work in the hope that the feeling of Punakaiki comes up through the soles of my feet to arrive in my paintings as some sort of aesthetic disclosure; new to me and the world. I have lived most of my life here and have two children and a Master of Fine Art in Painting (with distinction) from Canterbury University.
Review excerpt:
“Evelyn Hewlett’s exhibition is a constantly surprising and rewarding visual experience of mixed media paintings. In ‘Above as Below’ the painting fluctuates between an apparent chaotic organisation of forms (highly unstable but animated) and a beautifully constructed equilibrium of shape and colour.’
Warren Feeney Review; ‘Otututuism’ Left Bank Gallery, Grey Star
Fiona McDonald
Fiona is a versatile artist specialising in jewellery and painting. She draws inspiration from the ever-changing landscapes of the West Coast.
Her work is deeply influenced by the pounamu colours lying beneath the surface of pristine local rivers and the diverse avian species of the region.
Fiona is dedicated to protecting our fragile ecosystems and has actively worked to safeguard remaining populations of korora/blue penguins for many years.
In addition to her artwork Fiona offers private jewellery making sessions for visitors wanting to create something to take home as a reminder of their time in this unique environment.
Mary Anderson
I like to think of my work as environmental. It’s hugely about what I have absorbed living in this wild landscape.
Although my inner landscape is equally important my work centres on my environment and environmental issues. It’s overlaid with imaginings, dreamings and personal symbols.
My creative mission is to evoke wild places mixed with a nostalgic dreaming narrative brought to life with pencils, watercolours, oil paint and printmaking techniques.
All made in the hope we can preserve the places we love.
