Classy art exhibition a 'positive' start to 2012

January 4th, 2012
[Photos by Marian Painter]

The annual art exhibition by members of the Motueka Art Group was opened last night, displaying an even higher quality of artworks by local hobbyists and professional artists than last year's successful event.

The three-week exhibition at the Chanel Arts Centre, now in its 21st year, kicks off the 2012 community events calendar with hopes that its vibrant artistic expressions herald a more positive attitude among Motueka residents to the potential of the town and its future development.

All of the hundreds of paintings being exhibited are for sale at very reasonable prices, including many unframed pieces in a bargain bin costing as little as $10. The exhibition, manned daily from 10am until 5pm by group members, will change over the days as some works are sold or rotated, so a second or third visit will be worthwhile.

About 40 members, their friends and invited guests attended the wine-and-nibbles opening, expressing unanimous praise for the quality and variety of paintings on show. The committee had gone to great lengths to hang the exhibits in a pleasing manner and to provide a convivial viewing atmosphere.

The guest speaker, David Armstrong, spoke about the strength that Motueka gains through the number and range of community groups which are active, one leading one being the Art Group. He said that in the two years he had been living in the town and reporting events and meetings for Motueka Online he had been struck by all the good things that Motueka offers newcomers.

But David pointed out one "minus" in his estimation of the life of the town: "An attitude which is too negative and pessimistic about future development and improvement."

He said he came home from "too many community group meetings and public meetings with the feeling that most of the people who are having the loudest say in town are the complainers, people who want everything to stay just the way it is".

"This makes it all the more refreshing when we see, as we do tonight, non-complainers such as yourselves expressing their love of our place in the world through their paintings and art works," he said.

He added that Motueka needs "a new agenda that emulates what your parents and grandparents did, with all their foresight, when they pitched in to make Motueka what it is today. We need an attitude that looks for the positives in new ideas, and considers them on their merits, rather than saying 'no' to all change on the basis of cost.

"We need to ask 'what can we do' rather than keep saying what we can't do. We need all the good things happening in the town to become infectious.

"We need an attitude that says, just like our artists are saying tonight: this is us, and using the strength and confidence of our imagination and the skills that we are learning, we can make this community a better and more vibrant place to live in and to raise future generations."

He hoped the exhibition, the first of 2012, could be a launching pad for year that sees a more optimistic and positive attitude in Motueka.

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