Vignette 20
Hard to call myself an Artist – continued
Sometime between 2004 and 2005 I decided that it was time to try out another art teacher. I picked up a card for Belinda Wilson while stocking up on my favorite products from Studio Art Supply in Parnell. I loved Belinda’s style of painting. She is famous for her Kiwis at the beach paintings. She captures the essence of this country’s great love affair with the water. It was clear that I needed to branch out, so I signed up for an eight week session after having a visit to her figurative drawing/painting class.
Belinda turned out to be a superb art teacher. She is dynamic, upbeat, and well prepared for each class. She encouraged and stimulated intellectual discussion about art each week. Her pacing was just right, and she worked our butts off during the five hour classes. Working from a live model is challenging, especially trying to pick up where you left off from week to week. Shadows and arm placement can vary enough to throw you off course. Belinda switches her topics each term: nudes, landscapes, abstract, still life, and plein air. She moves around the room in a no nonsense manner, and is known to take the paintbrush out of your hand and paint over something on your canvas without batting an eye. I love that she is so gutsy and bold.
Like Matthew, Belinda also has a loyal following. Patsy eventually joined up, and a couple other Matthew students converted as well. Sometimes you just need a different approach to move you further along. Belinda and I became friends as well as mentor/student. She has had a positive effect on my progress as a painter. I learned about being in the art business from Belinda. She continually pushes her own art practice further, and acknowledges that her students help this progress happen. I am indebted to Matthew and Belinda for bringing out the artist in me. I thank them both for being such incredible artists and teachers.
My next exhibition was held at the Red Shed in February 2006. I flew solo on this one. February is the heart of summer in New Zealand and with its arrival also come tourists to the island. Waking Up in New Zealand was the title of the show.
The paintings were mostly abstract with references to the flora and fauna around Orapiu.
My artist’s statement read:
As this series of paintings has evolved, I have been struck over and over again by little sections that stand out independently from the larger painting. These smallish bits are what I consider to be my pockets of relevance.
This work has allowed me to be part of a creative puzzle. A process of first illuminating the “pockets of relevance,” and then quietly connecting them back in the bigger picture. It felt like each painting kept asking me to zoom in and zoom out, to and fro, until it felt complete.
Meandering through these paintings are branches, cracks, braided rivers, roots, and channels cutting through estuary flats at low tide. Their lines connect the pockets of relevance. They speak to me of the natural complexity of life, and provide a perfect metaphorical network to anchor the individual messages into a bigger scheme. I feel that the bigger message is old and timeless, and continues on in a cyclical manner, no matter what events occur around it.
I embedded many small personal references throughout the paintings, and purposely left some peeking through in places and completely covered in others. The lines meander across and down suggesting branches or the path of least resistance that water takes.
One painting features a loose interpretation of taro leaves in a shaded area of our side yard. I embedded three very small Tui feathers in clear tar gel in one of the corners. I took a great deal of pleasure adding small artifacts that no one really could see unless they took a good deal of time studying into the paintings.
A man visiting the Island from Auckland bought a painting fifteen minutes after I opened the doors at the Red Shed. A very exciting way to start, I can assure you.
I had to call Scott to ask him to bring down another painting to replace the one that sold. Another painting was purchased by someone flying off to Dubai and another went with a young couple to London. Scott brought a triptych with some wood pigeons holding court in one of Stuart’s trees. Scott arrived and began to hammer nails in place for the three canvases, when a couple arrived and stopped Scott in mid swing saying, “don’t bother putting that up because we want to buy it.” You can imagine my delight. What a rush. Then they asked, “How much is it?”
The couple who purchased the Wood Pigeon painting called and invited us over for drinks the next afternoon. They are from the States and come to the island each year for extended stays. Last year they bought another painting of Oyster Catchers. This time we were invited to dinner. I can’t accurately describe what a thrill it is to walk into someone’s gorgeous home and see not one, but two of my paintings in prominent spots in their dining and living rooms.
The opening was casual and well attended by all my Island friends. Jae’s husband Mitch came along and played his guitar for a couple of hours. I sold quite a few paintings and it was the shot in the arm that I needed to put my hat in the ring for a small solo show the following year. My exhibition was successful; I sold most of my paintings.
2007
My Dad passed away on New Year’s Eve 2006. The following year I painted a tribute to his love of just being in his own backyard. I titled the exhibition, My Recent Trip around the Sun. I teamed up with Jennifer Town for this show at the Red Shed. We held this exhibition in the high tourist season of early February.
I hung this writing on the wall in lieu of an artist’s statement.
This series of paintings is a tribute to my Dad, Charles Ray Treat, also known as “Ray,” or “C.R.”
He was a quiet man with a twinkle in his eyes; a man who lived through the Great Depression, too many Presidents, too many Wars and my teen years.
He devoted his life to making mine rich with possibilities.
My Dad made 87 trips around the sun. I was lucky enough to be on 52 of those trips.
My Trip Around the Sun series represents a focused effort to artistically pay attention to the simple, wondrous events that transpire right in my own backyard over the period of one year.
I created a display case that housed Dad memorabilia: a See’s Candy box, a Navajo Squash blossom, a favorite fork, a cookbook, and memories on fortune cookie strips that Brett and I read at the funeral.
One painting in particular helped me make it though the loss of my Dad. I brought back rose petals from his favorite bush and incorporated them floating down and out My Trip Around the Sun was my third exhibition at the Red Shed. Once again I sold many of my paintings. Yay!
I now had confidence in my art, and took the plunge to have a solo show at the community gallery. My proposal was accepted, but over the course of the year the Director decided to have one large show featuring selected artists from the island. I was moved from solo show in the small gallery to a group show in the main gallery. Cool! The exhibition was titled, Resident on Waiheke.
I invited the Director of the Waiheke Gallery to come out to my house and pick which paintings she felt would be best for the Resident show before my exhibition Trip Around the Sun at the Red Shed. I wanted her to have first pick. While she was enjoying a glass of wine upstairs after setting aside the paintings she wanted, my neighbors dropped in to see my recent paintings. I told them to go downstairs and have a gander. They immediately bought two of the paintings that the Director didn’t choose for the gallery show. I told my neighbors that they would have to purchase them from the Red Shed as the shed depends on the 30% commissions to survive. I wondered what the Director thought watching that whole scene play out. It was very exciting.
“Fantail Trails” is the name of one of the paintings that my neighbors purchased. They wanted me to write about it for them.
An excerpt from my visual diary about the painting of Fantail Trails.
Written in May 07
Painting fantails needs to be abstract for my liking. I chose the straight black, white and gray lines in the tail feathers to be the markers. The intention was to position the birds carefully, where they stopped briefly before going through a series of complicated twists, turns, banks and rolls. They are amazing aerial acrobats. Using varied tail directions I hoped to impart their flittering movements into the painting. The movements in real life are lightening fast.
This painting has a painting behind it. A water tank and vines surrounding the water tank, and rows of overlapping bushes. This is my neighbor Stuart’s backyard. I have knocked this scene into the background, using it only as a large texture in order to draw the eye of the audience to the fantails and their trails. It was a good choice.
“Mangroves,” is the second painting they purchased and this is what I sent them:
Adaptation…I feel like I am always trying to adapt myself to live in this country. American culture is very different than Kiwi culture. I have learned about real friendship from my Kiwi friends in Orapiu. But I must say that friendships have been hard won and taken much longer than I would have wished. I finally feel that I have a place here, that I am accepted here, and that I am living my life in a new way that I have had to adapt to.
There is an estuary in the next bay over called, Te Matuku. It is the home of incredible sand spit with surrounding silty mangrove. Mangrove is a symbol for adaptation in my painting. It can live in a fresh and salt water mix. The roots stick up out of the silt seeking oxygen. Just like me.
I never can pinpoint when the colors of the grasses change, but there are times when the oranges are bumped up to gold. The rows of grasses behind the sand spit look soft from a distance. Up close they are filled with vivid rust colors, along with parchment, ochre, and leaf green. Step back and you can see Impressionism in action. Beautiful blending.
The “Resident on Waiheke,” exhibition brings me up to date with exhibitions gone by. The exhibition was packed with locals. It was very exciting seeing red dots go up next to my paintings. I sold five the first night, and four more before the show ended. Guess I should be able to hold my head up and say, “No, I am no longer a teacher. I am an artist.”
To view my paintings go to: www.yessy.com/kelleydiener
Upcoming exhibitions:
Ripe…a juicy exhibition that celebrates the promise of summer. Oct. 3 – 12 2008, Hosted by: Waiheke Art and Craft Supply, Pukeko Sign and Graphics and Grind Café.
Fish, Eat, Sleep – a playful look at the obsession of fishing. Jan. 17 – 25, 2009 Hosted by Kennedy Pt. Vineyard.
Avian – my fine feathered friends. Feb. 2009, Cottle Hill Winery, Keri Keri, Bay of Islands.
