Old school postage inspires art

Cherry Novis admires the artworks on display at Villa Coffee House. Photo Bevan Conley.

Some visitors to the Villa Coffee House in Liverpool St Whanganui have been surprised to learn that the art adorning the walls is the work of Whanganui Intermediate students.

Art teacher Stacey Hildreth said the multi-layered artworks are inspired by Wellington artist Sandy Rodgers' work Post Gods, Post Myth, Post Man.

"All the year 8 students have created works and the ones on display at the cafe are the creme dela creme.

"The others are on display around the school."

Each artwork is made up of many layers of newspaper, tissue paper, and collaged images.

The main image has been delicately drawn in pencil, then Indian ink carefully painted to create the stamp, and then a final shellac layer applied.

Sophie Dean's monarch butterfly is one of the works on display at the cafe.

Ms Hildreth, who started working at Whanganui Intermediate this year, said she has been "blown away" by the students' talent.

"Many of the students didn't really understand the significance of a postage stamp as a record of an event or time-period," she said.

"Most post now comes as postage paid, or we just email, so it was interesting to see how they responded to the stamp idea as an artwork."

Villa Coffee House owners Zina and Ross Hurst said the works have attracted a lot of interest from their customers.

"We exhibited work by Whanganui Intermediate students last year and we are happy to do it again," said Mrs Hurst.

She said there have been a number of people have been asking if they can buy the artworks.