Fine Arts Whanganui Young Artist Scholarship winner prepares for solo show

Young artist, Tsubaki Scythe, is excited to have her prints on show at the Fine Arts Gallery. Photo / Lucy Drake

Being crowned the winner of 2019 Fine Arts Whanganui Young Artist Scholarship was one thing for Tsubaki Scythe, but now the young artist is having her first solo exhibition.

The Fine Arts Gallery will have six of her intaglio prints on display for three weeks as part of her prize package from the scholarship.

Tsubaki's work incorporates her culture through the images of a tui, a crow, manaia and dragons.

Tsubaki, a year 13 student from Whanganui Girls' College, was born in Japan and came to live in New Zealand with her family when she was 8.

"I started on small pieces to introduce the two cultures as the crow is Japan and tui is New Zealand."

She has incorporated mythical creatures into her prints to try to show her two cultures immersing themselves together.

"I start by taking pictures from online and print it out and put plastic over it and then scratch into the plastic using a scratching tool, and the deeper you go the darker the marks get."

She said she sometimes uses a magnifying glass when incising the extremely fine lines for her prints.

The fine detail is also expressed through black and white shades. Tsubaki said even from a young age she has enjoyed working with these shades more than bright, bold colours.

And she has carried her love for printmaking into her final year of secondary school but this year she is focusing her portfolios on the Kitsune, the Japanese fox and the myths that go alongside it.

Tsubaki hopes to one day be an author and next year would like to study creative writing at Massey University; however, she hopes to continue making prints and possibly illustrate her books with her art.

It used to take her 40 hours to make one print but it now takes her around 25 hours and she said her passion remains the same despite the time and dedication it takes.

Tsubaki will celebrate her first exhibition surrounded by family and friends at Fine Arts Gallery on Friday, June 26, and the exhibition will be open to the public from Saturday, June 27, until July 16.