Bowen Boswell and Summer Ruissen-Hohaia add finishing touches to their paintings that will feature in the Lockdown exhibition.
Photo / Bevan Conley
Bowen Boswell and Summer Ruissen-Hohaia add finishing touches to their paintings that will feature in the Lockdown exhibition.
Photo / Bevan Conley
UCOL Whanganui visual arts students have managed to complete assignments despite having their studies interrupted by a pandemic.
Lecturer Lorraine Webb has made some slight modifications to the requirements for her first-year Bachelor of Design and Arts students.
"These large works would normally have four painted panels but these studentshave been asked to complete three," she said.
"They have done extremely well to complete them."
The Lockdown exhibition, which opens at the Whanganui Community Arts Centre front gallery today , showcases six large paintings which have mostly been completed during the past three weeks.
"We came back at the end of the level 3 stage and were able to safe-distance," student Jacob Gay said.
His work, which features on the poster for the exhibition, directly addresses the pandemic threat, depicting humanoid figures set against a bleak grey sky and stormy sea.
Gay and fellow student Cassidy Martell live in Palmerston North and did as much preparatory work as they could during the Covid-19 level 4 stage.
"Because of mail delays, we didn't get our papers until the day before we came back," Martell said.
Her work depicts an April landscape captured during the lockdown with her autumnal-coloured cat Lily in the foreground.
Tashie Hoffman's small children feature in her three panels against seaside backgrounds that depict her native Hawke's Bay.
"I did some work at home during lockdown but my children were very interested in the oil paints and wanted to get involved so things were a bit stressful."
Despite the pressures of the time, the images depict happy faces and bright, floating balloons.
UCOL visual arts students Tashie Hoffman (left), Cassidy Martell and Jacob Gay with their work for the Lockdown exhibiton. Photo / Bevan Conley
As an essential worker, Bowen Boswell put in extra hours at a rest home kitchen due to staff shortages during lockdown.
Finding time for artwork hasn't been easy but he has painted a portrait of late American jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius, set against a brightly-coloured background.
"I really admire his work and the colours are about how I feel when I listen to him," Boswell said.
