"Forest has the Blues" at the Auckland Botanic Gardens

Just one week after packing up our installation and group exhibition at the Depot Artspace we reinstalled "Forest has the Blues", in a slightly different format, at the Auckland Botanic Gardens.

"Forest has the Blues" thanks Toni Mosley for her invitation 

to accompany "Symbiosis" in the beautiful Huakaiwaka gallery.

To read about the background of the collaborative project 

"Forest has the Blues" 

please visit my earlier blog.

Installation was much quicker 2nd time round. 

Being a different space it wasn't simply a repeat 

of what we had done before although we did repeat some 

of the groupings that worked especially well.

 We wanted to include a higher proportion of the 

Pukekohe High School students' work as this venue is closer 

to their home turf so we hoped they, and their families, 

would have more of an opportunity to visit the exhibition.

Moth plant & Morning Glory linocuts by Toni Hartill

 Student Celebration

To celebrate the students' involvement we held an informal 

gathering at the gallery towards the end of the exhibition period. 

This was a great opportunity to meet some of the students 

who had participated, and their families.  

 

 Symbiosis

A group exhibition looking at relationships 

between plants, trees and organisms. 

Curated by Toni Mosley.

 

Artists:

 Rachel Schanzer

Kheang Ov

Phillipa Bentley

Toni Hartill

Donna Dold

Nicola Ov

Elle Anderson

Celia Walker

Prue MacDougall

Esther Hansen

Helen Bankers

Two of my works were included in this exhibition:

"Ngunguru" - linocut by Toni Hartill

"Kohekohe" - linocut by Toni Hartill

All good things must end and so on the 10th Sept 

we took it all down again and it is now wrapped and stored away 

til a new iteration of the show emerges next year.

We are currently planning and experimenting to decide 

how we will evolve the show, stretching and developing 

our skills and ideas.

We have new venues booked for next year 

so follow our progress as we work towards 

these all-new installations and exhibitions. 

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Forest has the Blues

Many, many thanks to everyone 

who has visited 

and responded so positively 

to our efforts!

"Print Matters - Works on Paper"- a selected exhibition

by Toni Hartill

 Friday sees the opening of this much anticipated PCANZ exhibition:

"Print Matters - Works on Paper" 

opens Friday 15 June, 2018  at 5.30pm

ArtPost Galleries, Hamilton, NZ.

Open June 15th - July 16th.

Selected by Mark Graver.

With my main focus this year being to work towards the "Forest has the Blues" print installation, which opens in less than a month's time, I have been working in series on a number of works on the theme of the disappearance of the Kahikatea forests in New Zealand. You can read more about the background of this theme in a previous blog post here. 

"Forgotten Roots" (detail) Linocut by Toni Hartill

When I work on an idea or theme I prefer to work in series, ie. on a number of works, either simultaneously or consecutively, to allow my ideas to develop more fully, to push my skills  to new levels and to go in directions I hadn't foreseen at the start. 

Rather than coming up with a completely new theme for Works on Paper, I tried to "let go" and produce a couple works that were more loose in their creation, breaking away from the colour palette of the previous works and being more spontaneous and loose. 

Multi-layered construction of linoprint works by Toni Hartill

I had been experimenting with an unusual format for my series, playing with a multi-layered approach, almost book-like in its construction (a whole new head-ache in itself. I'll write more about this in another blog.) 

Detail showing translucent paper overlay by Toni Hartill

For the sake of speed with a fast-approaching deadline, and to avoid hanging complications, I decided to keep the construction of these 2 works simpler but I still added in the use of tracing paper which, well, I'm totally not sure if that's a wise material choice but, I like the translucent quality and wanted to continue with the ghost-like layering so... hopefully it'll stand up to the humidity changes in the gallery... time will tell... gulp!)

(If anyone has suggestions for an alternate 

or more archival translucent paper I'd love to hear from you!)

Lino blocks by Toni Hartill

Lino prints - experimentation by Toni Hartill

Linocut by Toni Hartill

Etched lino by Toni Hartill

Etched lino by Toni Hartill

So, with a growing collection of lino blocks, including etched lino patterns and textures, I set to slinging the ink around and cranking the works through the press multiple times - I lost count how many times actually. Works like this are fun to produce as I work quickly and spontaneously, although tinged with a smattering of stress as to whether or not I'm going to mess it up at any moment!

Detail by Toni Hartill

Detail by Toni Hartill

Detail by Toni Hartill

I was very happy and honoured to hear my works were selected for this show and am looking forward to attending the talks and catching up with the other artists this weekend.

"Where Once a forest - Waipu and Waikato"
Linocut and monoprint by Toni Hartill

"Where Once a Forest"

"These works have been created as part of a series of works 

focusing on the disappearance of New Zealand’s Kahikatea forests, 

particularly in the Waikato and Waipu regions. 

It is reported that New Zealand has lost up to 98% of the original Kahikatea forests 

nationally and what remains is unlikely to ever recover 

due to its location on fertile farming land."

Exhibiting artists include:

Elle Anderson, Jacqueline Aust, Hilary K Batt-Ramage, Kathy Boyle,

Marion Bright, Ingrid Buedenbender, Wayne Churcher, Deborah Crowe, Sally-Ann Davies, Maggie Dawson, Julia Ellery, Jo Giddens, Esther Hansen, Diane Harries, Toni Hartill, Susanne Khouri, Catherine McDonald, Prue MacDougall, Emma McLellan, Stephanie Mclellan, Susan Marshall, Janice Meadows, Rosemary Mortimer, Antonia O’Mahony, Shin-Young Shin-young Park, Trevor Parker, Terri Reddish, Sue Roots, Carole Shepheard, Basia Smolnicki, Michaela Stoneman, Marci Tackett, Rosalie Thompson, Robyn Tillman, Celia Walker, Jill Webster, Christine Anne Wylie.

 Floor talks Saturday 16th June: 

11am - 12 noon at ArtsPost Galleries by "Print Matters" selector Mark Graver.

2pm at Waikato Museum, Te Whare Taonga o Waikato (next door) exhibition selector Carole Shepheard will give a talk about 'Boundless: Printmaking (further) beyond the frame.'

"Where Once a Forest" and "There Be Treasure" marquette 

Lino cut prints by Toni Hartill

 Endnote: I thought I was stepping away from my usual colour palette after working on previous works in this series, which are all more earthy in tone with some veering towards mauves and greys. Feeling quite chuffed with myself for supposedly breaking the mould, I took my works upstairs to package them. The first thing I noticed on seeing my marquette hanging on my pinboard- they almost perfectly matched the colours of my 3D rockpool "There be Treasure" which is hanging in the "Boundless" exhibition at the Waikato Museum gallery next door to ArtPost! 

aargh! 

I DO hate to be 

predictable and 

matchy-matchy!

Thanks for visiting!