Tag: art

  • Update on the studios

    The studios in Māwhera Greymouth are fully operational now. Above the Regent Theatre in town the textile collection is now hung up on rails in the storeroom and I have a friend sharing the space in the main room with me. Claire is a textile artist and dressmaker and I have offered some of the…

  • This week’s Spotify playlist

    Each week the blog has an accompanying playlist on Spotify. The list includes music and sound that references the articles on the blog and you can listen on the link above. If you have a paid subscription you will hear all the music, if you have a free subscription the list will be interspersed with…

  • Beadwork from South Africa

    The beadwork from Africa is probably best-known from South Africa where geometric patterns and bright colours have come to symbolise the country. In this article, from Google Arts and Culture, pieces from Iziko Museums of South Africa are shown along with texts about the various people who make and wear the beadwork. Another article from…

  • Samoa meets Scotland in Los Angeles

    Last year the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) acquired five pieces of historic importance from the Pacific. One of those brings together two nations: Samoa and Scotland. The Scottish author, Robert Louis Stevenson, lived, worked and died in Samoa as he attempted to recover from ill health. (You can read about his journey…

  • The world of beads

    The world of beads

    More than few years ago I was lucky enough to be invited to go on a trip to Tasiilaq, Greenland by an artist friend and colleagues from Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Scotland, Denmark and Greenland itself. The week-long trip was in the Spring of the year and we were gathered together to explore how we…

  • Carpeting nature

    Debbie Lawson is a Scottish-born artist who plays with the idea of domesticity through her three-dimensional sculptures. In the latest series of pieces the artist uses Persian carpets as coverings, not just for floors or walls but also for animal figures. The result is a startling (and somewhat sinister) clash between the familiar and unknown.…

  • This week’s Spotify playlist

    The Spotify playlist this week begins with a choral piece, There will come soft rains, by Ēriks Ešenvalds, a Latvian composer. The short work seems an apt place to begin this week’s music. Each Sunday I compile and curate a playlist of music and sounds to go along with the blog. It is a way…

  • This week’s activities

    This week is going to be busy in Greymouth Māwhera! On Monday there is a workshop with Aquabella, the Berlin ensemble of women who perform world music acapella. This is followed by a concert on Tuesday evening by the group. On Tuesday there is also a concert of Baroque arias in St Patrick’s Church with…

  • Poor Things

    The wildly entertaining, thought-provoking, rollicking, surreal, dark and funny film, Poor Things, has the most wonderful costumes created by Holly Waddington and comes with an amazing soundtrack by Jerskin Fendrix. In this film, the majority of which is not shot on location, the exploration of growing up and experiencing life through the eyes of its…

  • Shelburne Museum

    Shelburne Museum

    Having grown up in New York with her parents, Henry and Louisine Havemeyer, and their collection of important Asian and European art, at the age of 19 Electra Havemeyer Webb decided to follow their example and begin her own collection of American art. Much of the Henry and Louisine Havemeyer collection is now in the…