Our Solar System

This year we have been very lucky to have Louise come and volunteer in the art room for a month. Louise came up with an idea to make our own imaginary planets. We had to think hard about what we wanted our planets to be like and what we would like on them. Things to consider were types of environment - temperature, landscape, planets, animals, cities, humans, buildings, water and communication. We completed our own fantastical solar system with a huge variety of planets.

Vincent - can you see the rivers?

Carolyn - Can you see the satellite tower

Helen - Can you spot the wind?

Gail - Can you find the cat city?

Charlotte and Janice - Can you see the flames?

Rachel - Can you spot the giant spiders?

Gail - Can you find the bird city?

Felicia - Do you spy the wild apple trees?

Brent - Can you see the ocean?

Self-portraits with a twist

 This month we have started a new project, so amongst the flamingos and map making there are new things emerging. Each artist is painting a self-portrait as realistically as they possibly can, the twist is the decorative antlers, horns and headgear that are added to the portrait. We have taken a small sample of different animal antlers and horns to use. Each artist chooses a design and uses paint, buttons and wool to personalise their headgear before it is added to their portrait. Antlers in the wild are only for males but both male and female artists are using this technique. The antlers are a way of each artist expressing something about themselves that is not visible to others by just looking at them. They have become an expression of our inner selves on our outer body in this case. Here are some of our self-portraits.

Christie

Devendra

Vicki

Carolyn

Andrea

Mapping landscapes

This week David started a new project called Mapping Landscapes. We imagined a landscape and looking down onto it from a birds eye view. David marked out where the land and the sea would be. David has added other features to his landscape like a crazy cityscape, maps, a boat and a plane. The final step was to imagine that the map was very old. We added layers of old wallpaper and shellac to age the collage. A fun quick project.

Flamingo Sculptures

This month we have been studying Flamingo's and creating sculptures of these amazing birds out of paper mache. Each artist creates the body of the bird out of scrunched up paper and tape which then covered in layers of paper mache. The neck is created in the same way and then joined together before the birds are painted and covered in feathers. We are taking an artistic license with our flamingos - you will notice they are a variety of colors!

The Neon Ladies out for the night

Artists from the left: Felicia, Carolyn, Devendra and Janice

David's Flamingo is the first completed sculpture and is proudly hanging up in the art room. David loves the color blue so it's easy to understand how his flamingo is this gorgeous cobalt color.

Kezia has almost completed her flamingo in this beautiful bright pink. The final touch will be to add the eye details on. The legs of the flamingo are made from bamboo.

Bridie's completed flamingo went for an adventure in the garden. Doesn't he look at home!

Sumptuous palaces from the East

Woolly Walk Along

As part of our art exhibition we displayed the Woolly Walk Along film and photos of our section of the art work. It was great for our knitters to be working on such a huge community arts project that was enjoyed by so many people over the rugby world cup. 

Please click on the link to the Woolly Walk Along film

http://vimeo.com/30327159

A successful show

The Artistic Manoeuvres exhibition was a huge success. We received over 140 visitors to the show which only lasted for 2 hours. At times it was hard to move! Our visitors were impressed with the huge range of work on display. We asked people to put a sticker on their favorite art work. It was great to see that so many different art pieces received a sticker. However, we did have a few peoples favorites! Wine and cheese was thoroughly enjoyed as was the live kitchen staffed by George and Bobbie who provided cakes and tasty treats fresh from the kitchen throughout the night. Thank you to everyone who attended and made the evening so fabulous and of course thanks to your wonderful artists for all the hard work throughout the year!

Our orchestral section 

The hall all set and ready to go

The silent orchestra

A selection of art/craft pieces

Sumptuous Palaces from the east

Mosaic wonderland

Crazy hand sculptures

The Legend of the Tamaki Basin explored through set design, costume and a movement film

Peacocks on display

Photos and a video about the woolly walk along that we participated in

 A quiet corner in the jungle

Our miniature theatre with the puppets we have created

Live piano music to accompany our orchestral art works

Some excited artists

Enjoying the show

Linda was buzzing with excitement about her art on display

Brent was proud to see his photography being appreciated by our visitors

Peter bought some art at the exhibition off a fellow artist

Nicole was proud of her work on display

Great to see all our hard work has paid off tonight!

Jean was proud to see her mosaics on display

Our pyramid with our egyptian art work on display

Our eastern arts corner