Top-notch art exhibition opens 2011 arts calendar

January 4th, 2011
by David Armstrong

David Ogilvie

Lynne Canton

The Motueka Art Group has opened its annual three-week exhibition of over 200 excellent works by local professional and hobby artists, displaying yet again the strength of the arts in the Motueka district.

About 80 members, family and friends and invited guests packed the Chanel Arts Centre last night for a drinks-and-nibbles opening and appreciated the high quality of artworks (mainly paintings) on display.

A high proportion of paintings are watercolours or pastels, and many depict coastal scenes and rural landscapes that are familiar to us.

The paintings were by a balanced mixture of local professional artists and "hobby" members of the Motueka Art Group, which meets weekly to learn from tutors and develop techniques and skills in various media. Such has been the strength of development of these skills that it was generally not possible to tell which paintings were by paid and amateur artists.

Motueka Community Board chairman David Ogilvie opened the exhibition, which he said was now one of the highlights of the Motueka holiday season. Noting familiar names, he said "Some of you have been hiding your talents unnecessarily for far too long."

He said art is to be seen in all sorts of everyday places - such as the design and engineering of the Ruby Bay Bypass, the Chanel Arts Centre building and the museum. "The architects and engineers of such creations in their own ways can be artists. And many of Motueka's domestic gardens show artistic talent."

"Art is hugely positive for our society, whether we see it consciously or subconsciously. Your role as artists is to interpret and illuminate, to enhance the mundane, to transform the ordinary, and to try to encapsulate the beauty and even the essence of nature. Your own talent is expressed by your own imagination and ingenuity. Combine your talent and your imagination and you get this result here as we see tonight.

"As an art group, you also have a significant role to play in encouraging art in our town and in our society. I encourage you as a group and as individuals to publicly support art works in town, to make comment and express your appreciation through the community board, because good art and good design deserves to be encouraged.

"Your task is to be the 'artistic yeast' in our society. Don't minimise that role. If I were to issue a challenge to you people for 2011, it's for you to enhance and emphasise our unique Motueka culture. Don't be timid.

The Art Group's coordinator, Lynne Canton, said the group's 43 members appreciated the help of several of its leading lights, and in particular Heather Tait who five years ago modernised the exhibitions to bring them up to modern standards and continues to organise the event.

Heather's husband Alan had also worked hard to create stands and wall-hanging fixtures to make the displays of a far higher quality.

The Art Group began way back in about 1968 when Joyce McMurtry began teaching students during the day at Plein Air Sessions rather than during evenings at the High School. During the next 18 years she probably taught in excess of 800 students. Some of these are still members of the group.

About 20 years ago the exhibition idea was born. Originally Joyce was the main focus of the exhibition but as her students improved, they too exhibited their art.

The Anglican Church was a venue for some time but then along came the opportunity to use 'the Stone Church'. "The Chanel Arts Centre is now home to the Music Society and the present day Art Group is indebted to their generosity in allowing us to use the building to hold the Annual Art Group Exhibition," said one of the group's longstanding members, Marion Painter. She also thanked Motueka Online for its help in displaying the monthly art works created by the group.

This year's 200-plus mounted paintings are all for sale, at very reasonable prices (the majority under $100). [Editor's note: as of January 10th, over 70 paintings have been sold and replaced by others.] The exhibition runs until January 28th, is open daily from 10am to 5pm and is free to enter.

And for those looking for a low-cost gem, there is a bargain bin of unframed paintings, mostly smaller and under $30, which are also of quality sufficient to grace any lounge room.

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