Artist Wendy Watson paints volunteers at City Mission Whanganui

Artist Wendy Watson fundraises for Whanganui City Mission by painting volunteers. Photo / Olivia Reid

Whanganui artist Wendy Watson’s new exhibition will showcase “everyday people with huge hearts” all while raising money for the Whanganui City Mission.

The exhibition, which opens next week, features 18 portraits of volunteers and workers at the charity with proceeds going towards it.

“As I paint them you sort of see beneath the skin and you see the person that’s there,” Watson said.

“So I’ve got these lovely people, ordinary, everyday people with huge hearts.

“These people are just ordinary people, they’re the people you walk past on the supermarket or the street, but they do astounding work.”

In 2024, during works in Aramoho to repair the Whanganui riverbank drop-out on Somme Parade, Watson painted the workers to show her gratitude.

Watson is a mixed media artist usually working with fibre, but she has begun to dabble in painting using both of these projects for painting practice.

A portrait of City Mission manager Antony Nobbs is also part of the exhibition.

Portrait of City Mission Whanganui manager Dr Antony Nobbs by Wendy Watson for fundraising. Photo / Supplied

“It’s awesome to be doing this,” Nobbs said.

“It really meets three needs; there’s fundraising, there’s respect and dignity for our volunteers, and then there’s also making relationships in the community.”

Nobbs is happy that his volunteers will be recognised for their work.

“One of the nice things is to be able to bring the workers from the background to the front,” he said.

City Mission Whanganui helps people in a range of ways including food banks, money management advice, and the most recent addition, the social supermarket.

To continue their work helping people in need City Mission needs donations.

“The City Mission couldn’t operate without volunteers, and the City Mission needs to operate because there’s just not enough funding to manage through other channels,” Watson said.

Money will be raised through purchases of Watson’s portraits which she hopes may be purchased for the people in the paintings.

“It would be nice if someone bought it for them, or on behalf of them,” she said.

“It’s a cool memory to have too... it’s something that will remind them of work some of them been doing for a long time,” Nobbs said.

All proceeds will go to City Mission as Space Studio and Gallery curator Sarah Narine has opted to not take commission as the hosting gallery.

The City Mission fundraiser exhibition opens at Space Studio and Gallery on March 25 and will be open to viewers until April 5, with an official opening event on March 26 at 5.30pm.

Olivia Reid is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.