Day in The Bay by Adelle MacNeice is part of an exhibition at the Turner Centre, Kerikeri, celebrating the sea.
Art in the Bar celebrates sea
Anyone who lives in the Bay of Islands, or anyone who has visited, knows the sea. It surrounds us.
An art show in the bar of the Turner Centre, Kerikeri, is celebrating the sea. Curator Joan Honeyfield says: “We’ve crossed her, we live on her edges, we enjoy her beauty and her bounty.”
The art show, entitled “Seafaring” and featuring a number of artists, celebrates our love, respect, awe and fear of the sea and the strength and majesty of Te Moana.
Adele MacNeice has entitled her exhibit A Day in the Bay. She says she started her artistic journey with a lipstick masterpiece on her parents’ bedspread at the age of 3. Later she moved to the Far North.
Judy King’s exhibit of four sailing dinghies is called Joy. She obtained a Bachelor of Contemporary Art from the University of Canterbury and Wintec in Hamilton. She says her art “reflects the story of my life as a woman who has sailed the world”.
Wendy Laurenson’s artwork Old Bones depicts an old dinghy she saw lying on a beach.
“She is long and narrow and her wooden ribs are rotting, her hull now holed and her paint skin peeling, her days on the waves are clearly over,” she says.
Joan Honeyfield’s exhibit Ipipiri represents the eastern Bay of Islands. Born in Canada and raised in the US, she is now living in the Bay of Islands.
“Exploring the magic of serendipity and the satisfaction of a well-crafted line or shape or form is what it’s about for me, and, all in fabulous, mouthwatering colour,” she says.
The Art in the Bar exhibition opened on Monday, March 4, and runs until Friday, March 29.
New exhibition entices visitors to Kohukohu
A new exhibition at the Village Arts Gallery in Kohukohu is drawing visitors because, unusually, the works on display are primarily monochrome.
Exhibiting are ceramicists John Parker, from Kerikeri, and Richard Parker, from Auckland, and Kerikeri artist Jane Molloy-Wolt.
John Parker’s work consists of a long string of 25 vessels and bowls in a range of shapes, scale, texture and glaze. He is well-known in craft circles and theatre design. His elegant, precise shapes belie the fact they are all hand-thrown and his work is sought by collectors.
His work, and that of Molloy-Wolt, are in pale greys and deep blacks. They offset the bright chromatic ceramics of Richard Parker.
The Molloy-Wolt works are entitled “Lines of Descent” and display textured notations in black on white, grey or a dull pink background and represent her most recent exploration of mapping events.
Richard Parker’s ceramics range in scale from a large platter through to vases and to tiny dishes. He specialises in earthenware and firing methods from the tunnel kilns he has built on his property in Kaeo.
The method of cutting from a slab is used for vigorous Chinese-inspired fluted vases with symbolic “eyes”.
Village Arts has been operating for 20 years with a group of volunteers who work on behalf of the wider professional and creative community. It holds 10 exhibitions a year. The current showing runs until March 17.
Kerikeri author goes global
Kerikeri’s Lindsay Waller has spent the past 40 years working overseas in the commercial diving industry. The work has taken him mainly off the beaten track.
He was born in New Zealand and now spends time between Marbella in Spain and Kerikeri with his wife and two sons. Using this life experience he has penned his first book called Love and Other Afflictions.
It has been described as an international thriller and the plot explores the dark side of relationships and its opposite, true love. The heroine falls under the spell of a domineering control freak and is introduced to the darker side of life in sunny Spain while trying to appease a gangster faction of Russian property buyers.
The hero falls foul of Mafia bosses while supervising an offshore diving operation in Azerbaijan and ends up in a bitter and territorial bloody war before escaping to the relative calm of Baku.
The couple are reunited on the sunny Costa del Sol. She is recovering from an (unspecified) illness while he is feeling the effects of battle combat and gunshot wounds.
The book is available from numerous outlets in the UK and the US, from Amazon and other online channels. About 2000 copies have been sold.
The author is trying to get it established in New Zealand and is looking at having a book launch at Paper Plus in Kerikeri. The store has ordered a number of copies for sale. Waller will also host a launch at his house.
He has written a prequel, called Man Alone and is preparing to submit it to publishers in May. He hopes it will be out towards the end of the year. There is also a sequel in the pipeline called Corruption in High Places, which is due for publication in mid-2025.
Changes at the helm
The chief executive of the R Tucker Thompson Sailing Trust, which manages a gaffe-rigged top sail schooner from a base on the Opua wharf is resigning. Jo Lynch has been in the job for three years and says it’s time for a change and a rest.
In her time at the helm, she has steered the trust to a more professional approach by arranging sponsorships, promoting the youth sailing programme and the sundowner sailings, and generally lifting its performance overall.
The trust is seeking applications for the position from experienced general managers with an interest in youth development and with an operational achievement record.
In the meantime, other staff changes at the trust have seen three new appointments. Kelly Hamilton, from Ireland, is the new youth manager. She has been a member of the Outward Bound team at Anakiwa and recently spent a year with the Prince’s Trust in the UK.
Rachel Lawrence brings to the trust experience in an eclectic range of outdoor activities. She has cycled the length of New Zealand, freedived in the Philippines, went sport climbing in Thailand and Laos and motorbiked her way from north to south of Vietnam.
Connor Ardenne is an American who joins the trust as field co-ordinator. He is experienced in various staff roles and logistics and has tackled his own activities. He has cycled from one coast to the other in the US. He has, like Lawrence, motorbiked north to south from Laos to Vietnam and he has completed a freediving internship.
Planning is under way to promote the trust’s youth voyages. This year there are 20 seven-day voyages from May to December. If you know any young person aged between 14 and 18 who may be interested in a youth voyage, go to the website – tucker.co.nz
Bocky Boo Gelato opened in Whangārei in 2019 and quickly became a local favourite.