Exhibition Wed July 9th - Sat July 26th
VIEW WORKS
Maria Owens
Maria Owens Along the winding road acrylic & pencil on canvas 610 x 460mm
This new body of work explores memory - 'Forgetfulness has become a quiet companion in my life lately', Maria Owens. By anchoring herself in the past and revisiting the associated memories, Maria has been able to hold onto the points in her life that have defined her. A trip to Denmark last year sparked the beginning of this journey inward. Maria was drawn back in time to her teenage years, and from here she created a series of works on paper based on small, vivid memories from that time and place.
For Maria, several questions underpin this new work: What are my earliest memories? What do these flickers of the past say about me? Am I still defined by my past, and how have these experiences coloured my life?
'Shortly after I was born we moved to Spain and I was named Maria. We lived there until I was six, and though the memories are scattered and fragmented, they feel foundational to who I am. What I remember most are not full stories, but colors, sounds, fleeting moments—a flash of sunlight, a texture, a feeling. Some of these may have been shaped by stories told to me, others seem to exist only in my mind, but they remain vivid and true to me.
Maria Owens After the Siesta acrylic & pencil on canvas 940 x 640mm
Each painting in this series is connected to a feeling, a memory, or a fleeting impression that shaped me. For example, Going My Own Way comes from a moment in Fuengirola. After eating tapas in a dimly lit restaurant, filled with Spanish tunes, we went for a stroll in the busy streets. I refused to hold hands, and wanted to go a different way, they called for me to come, but suddenly I was gone, walking confidently in my blue dress among the crowds in a different direction.
This moment has stayed with me—it tells me something about who I was and still am: independent, stubborn, curious. I take risks, I play, I explore, I enjoy my own company. The layers in my paintings reflect that. They tell stories of risk and failure, but also of persistence. Even when something doesn’t work, it becomes another layer in the story—a necessary step in the journey.' - Maria Owens
Tina Frantzen
Tina began this body of work at a wonderful artist retreat, 'Earthskin' in Warkworth. She was able to spread out in the generous studio space and enjoy the lush landscape and birdsong just beyond the studio windows. This was the perfect setting for Tina to take time to respond intuitively to the painting process.
In the process of creating my figurative paintings of people, the first step involves an intuitive random background of colour which is then totally covered by a dark layer. Rubbing away then reveals figures and images that are unplanned and unknown to me.
In this exhibition, Through the Portal references that first layer that becomes in itself an ephemeral moment that could be prescient or transcendent or both. It is the beginning of all those figures that might have appeared.
Tina Frantzen Through the portal Acrylic on canvas 200 x 200mm
We've all experienced that half-awake state, when out of the corner of your eye, you thought you caught a fleeting glimpse of someone so familiar but barely there. That random moment which invites you into the luminous state between worlds… the space where anything is possible.
Tina Frantzen
