Congratulations to all KA&CS Award winners and thanks to everyone who entered work in the “New Zealand Icons” exhibition.
We had a good crowd of members, friends and family at the Celebration of the Awards on Saturday afternoon (despite the weather!) See some photos below, and more on our Facebook page.
Results are:
Art Awards – Winner: Nancy Anderson, “Thermal Wonderland”
Highly Commended: Merlene Beard, “Anything Goes” and Valerie Falkner, “The Voyage”
This year the Kapiti Arts and Crafts Society’s annual awards theme is “New Zealand Icons”. We are fortunate to have sponsorship, allowing the society to provide small monetary awards for first and second in each of the two categories, Art and Craft. This year our judge will be Harriet Bright.
While the exhibition will open on Thursday 16 June, we will celebrate the exhibition and present the prizes at a small ceremony and social gathering in the Gallery at 2pm on Saturday 18 June. All welcome.
The “Fine Feathers” exhibition in May-June 2022 showcases the creativity of our Spinning, Weaving and Knitting and Felting Group members: there are many fibre forms to work with!
We’re also enjoying the quirky crafts of Bill Davies, birdhouse maker.
After hitch-hiking around Australia and working in Western Australia with Aboriginal groups, Bill returned to New Zealand and started a family. As he was always interested in horticulture he ended up running a commercial organic vegetable farm in Te Horo. Back injuries put paid to that so he retrained as a potter.
After 20 years potting he started dyeing fabric using plants and pigments found locally. In the background he was making bird-houses and they have taken on a life of their own. He loves searching for odd bits and pieces to decorate them with. Most are donated by people who have bought houses before. His flock is huge now, and his own house has many sparrow apartments on it!
Opening on Thursday 24 March, our March-April exhibition is jewellery by local artisans – members of our Jewellery Group – and photographs by our guest, Vicky Brandt (more info below).
Here’s a sneak preview of some artworks to look out for:
Vicky is based in Paraparaumu on the beautiful Kāpiti Coast. Her love of photography came about after she and her husband closed their gift and homewares store in Johnsonville in 2015 and moved to Kāpiti. Taking long walks on the beautiful beaches and plentiful walkways in the area, Vicky started taking photos and soon became obsessed with learning more and more. She enjoys still life photography, bird, food photography and challenging herself to learn new techniques and different styles of photography.
The Society’s Annual General Meeting will be held on Wednesday February 23rd from 7.30 pm.
We will be electing a new President and Vice President, and the newly amended Constitution will be presented. If you would like an advance copy, please email the Secretary Anne White.
Notices of Motion should be with the Secretary 14 days prior to the AGM (by Wednesday 9 February).
A copy of the reviewed accounts for the year will be on the notice board in the workroom 14 days prior to the AGM.
Come to Kapiti Gallery’s Exhibition & sale of work by Society members – and see how featured artists Marion Henderson, Pauline Medhurst, Heather Chambers have responded to the challenge of this first exhibition of the year, with the theme “Morning Light or Evening Glow“.
“Clay Expressions” exhibition is now open at Kapiti Gallery, featuring work by our Pottery Group members, including guest artist Storm Davenport. Storm, a painter and sculptor, has spent fourteen years exhibiting throughout the Wellington region and greater North Island with work being held by many collectors both nationally and internationally.
Showing work her in galleries, art shows, fundraisers, community events and awards, she has won awards in both painting and ceramics.
Specializing in ceramic sculpture, she works from her home studio in Paraparaumu Beach where she has a gallery open to the public by appointment. Her work is inspired by ancient lost civilizations, and traditional firing techniques used to create refined but rustic artworks that tell a story.
From small wall-hung works to seven foot tall outdoor sculptures her works include:
The Warrior series: life sized warrior heads, breast plates and weaponry
Oceanic Life series: with whales, sharks, stingrays, jellyfish and kina
Animal series: white Rhino, bulls, war horses, buffalo, bear, warthog, mammoth, bees
Large outdoor totem series:
Black Arts
Life’s Backbone
Paintings:
Current series exploring themes of human contact and connection
Collaborative lighting artwork series with artist Peter Robson
FUNDRAISING
Some examples of fundraising work are:
5 years of gifted artworks to The Wellington Supper Club Auction for Ronald Ma Donald House with sales of over $10,000 gifted.
Ronald MacDonald Retreat Fundraising event 2015 gifted a painting which sold for
Wellington hospice Art from the Heart exhibition 2020
Kapiti Vaulting art show fundraiser The Vault, set up plus donation of commission 2019
Wellington Free Ambulance Art Show Fundraiser Artrove 2017 & 2018
CURRENTLY SHOWING AT:
Red Peach Gallery, Ahuriri, Napier
Artmospere Gallery, Waipawa
Artel Gallery, Otaki
Kāpiti Gallery, Raumati Beach
Images below include Storm’s current work and items exhibited at Kāpiti Gallery 2017 – 2019.
Our group is having a monthly challenge to paint or draw subjects we don’t usually paint.
For February it was a self portrait. We had produced some lovely ones and had a lot of fun showing them to each other. The March subject was a bird and some found that hard but all the same did some great paintings and drawings.
See more of our artworks on our Oil Painting page.
“Fabulous Fibre” exhibition and sale of work, with guest artist Mary Moon, will showcase the work of our spinners, weavers, knitters, fibre artists and felters. Most of the work on display will be for sale.
Mary has been an artist all her life, trained in oils and watercolour, and also has a lifelong interest in crafts. Now retired, Mary is currently focusing on Raranga (flax weaving). She did a year long course with Te Wananga o Aotearoa, learning all aspects of Māori weaving and its cultural context.
All her weaving is completed according to tikanga, from the harvesting of the harakeke to the final whiri (plait). Mary says, “I love that the items are from locally sourced materials, hand processed and biodegradable. At the end of their useful lives they return to Papatūānuku.”
Mary will be at the Gallery each Sunday of the exhibition, demonstrating the art of Raranga.
As well as spun, woven, knitted, felted and hand-crafted fibre artwork, Vivien Adams‘ prize-winning machine knitting will be on display.
Congratulations from Kāpiti Arts and Crafts Society to Vivien Adams, trophy winner in this year’s NZ Machine Knitter’s Society (NZMKS) competition.
Vivien won the Novice Cup in the 2021 competition which is part of the NZMKS festival, held this year in Stratford. The Machine Knitter’s Society includes members from Australia as well as New Zealand.
To win the cup, entrants have to enter four items: Baby, Adult, Non-garment, and competitor’s own choice. Entries are judged on presentation, fabric and seaming, finishing, design and degree of difficulty. The person who has the most points wins the trophy.
(“Novice” means the member hasn’t entered or won previous competitions, not that they’re a beginning knitter.)
You can see Vivien’s prize-winning work in Kāpiti Gallery’s “Fabulous Fibre” Exhibition in June; it will showcase the work of Kāpiti Arts and Crafts Society spinners, weavers, knitters, fibre artists and felters. Most of the work on display will be for sale.
Vivien, who is a member of Kāpiti Arts and Crafts’ Spinning, Weaving and Knitting group, is also newsletter editor for the NZ Machine Knitter’s Society, and her wonderful children’s knitwear is available through the Kāpiti Arts and Crafts Shop in Raumati Village.
As well as highlighting Vivien’s award-winning creations, the “Fabulous Fibre” exhibition will include traditional kete and other work by our guest artist, basket weaver Mary Moon from Ōtaki. Mary will be at the Gallery on Sundays during the exhibition, demonstrating basket weaving.
Fabulous Fibre exhibition and sale of work – Thursday 3rd to Sunday 27th June 2021
Kāpiti Arts and Crafts 
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