What’s on your Plate

Just before my visit to the Auckland Art Gallery, I read a blog post from Artista…thoughts on art in London about ‘Parallel Painting Paths – Mondrian and Nicholson converse at The Courtauld.‘  Walking to the Frances Hodgkins exhibition that day, I passed this painting by Ben Nicholson which looked so similar to the one in Chloe’s [...]

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Treasure Trove – Frances Hodgkins, Choi Jeong Hwa, Reuben Paterson, Gretchen Albrecht

Such a beautiful day in Auckland Sunday. I decided to wander up to the Auckland Art Gallery and have a decent look around – I had visited once since coming home from England, but just for a quick visit to listen to Anna Miles talk on Frances Hodgkins. What a treat it is. I wanted [...]

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The Fatal Englishman by Sebastian Faulks

I picked this book, The Fatal Englishman by Sebastian Faulks,  up yesterday in the secondhand bookshop in Ponsonby. Three Short Lives is it’s subtitle. It is three short biographies, and the first one is Christopher Wood. As usual when reading somehting I really enjoy, I race through it lightly (unwillingly) and then need to go [...]

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Landscape Paintings of New Zealand: A Journey from North to South

A great book I received for my birthday in October. I have just finished looking at all plates and pages and thoroughly enjoyed this journey theorugh New Zealand in paintings.  I’ll start again now and study each artist in more depth as I go. The Fishpond review explains the format exactly. “viewing New Zealand … [...]

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art related happenings

A lot to post – it may all come in one go. I have just come from one of the Sunday talks at the Auckland Art Gallery that are happening while the Rita Angus exhibition is on. Today’s speaker was Principal Conservator, Sarah Hillary giving an illustrated account of her research into the diverse range [...]

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2009 The New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Awards

I see my tutor from Artstation for the last three years has won a merit award at the 2009 The New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Awards! Congratulations Matthew! Judge Dr Robin Woodward selected artist Frances Van Dammen as the 2009 winner of the NZ Painting and Printmaking Award.  For ‘Daisy’, an acrylic painting on canvas, [...]

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the Kunsthaus Graz

I was thinking of this gallery building in Graz after my last post on Auckland Art Gallery. I visited it nearly three years ago in the snow and winter.  A stunning building sitting right beside the river amidst the buildings of the ‘old town’. It was an amazing sight, and also a great art gallery. [...]

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Auckland Art Gallery Development

Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki is undergoing major restoration and expansion work, which will transform the building into a world class cultural facility for Aucklanders and visitors alike. Take a look at the webcam showing development. All exhibitions and events have moved to the New Gallery during the main gallery’s redevelopment. ‘Most of the [...]

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