'Art with Heart' attracts widespread interest

A collection of Kiwi art set to go under the hammer in Queenstown to help raise money for the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal has garnered widespread attention offshore and in New Zealand.

In the past two weeks some of the country’s most prolific and well-loved artists have joined those already donating precious artworks to the unique ‘Art with Heart’ auction, to be held at Queenstown’s exclusive Millbrook Resort this Friday (March 25).

They include pieces from Melvin (known as Pat) Day (via Murray and Clare Doyle), Todd Couper (via Toi o Tahuna), Kelvin Mann, Mark Hill and Annie Boyd.

These join work already donated from Garrick Tremain, Jane Pestell-Litton, Peter Beadle, Russell McLean, Max Gimblett, Gretchen Albrecht, Dick Frizzell (via Toi o Tahuna), Shane Woolridge, Gilbert and George (via Lee Fletcher), Ernie Maluschnig, Rachael Errington, Jackie Ranken and Mike Langford, Christine Hill, Alan Waters, and Dan Kelly.

‘Art with Heart’ organiser and Arrowtown artist Ed Cruikshank said some “real gems” and very special pieces were among the collection that experts estimated to be well in excess of their initial estimate.

“Interest has been huge from both artists and buyers. Both Shane Woolridge and myself have custom-built our pieces for the cause and those pieces refer specifically to the earthquake,” he said.

“Pat Day’s piece is a very significant piece that hails from 1988.

“The response has been quite staggering. The auction is a great example of how people can carry on with their normal lives and continue giving to the people of Christchurch.”

Pieces are expected to sell from as little as $500 up to $30,000, with organisers hoping to raise a grand total of $100,000.

Anyone is welcome to attend the event and to place phone bids. More information on individual pieces is available.

‘Art with Heart’ will be held at the Millhouse Conference Centre on Friday March 25th. Viewing will be from 5.30pm, canapés and bubbles will be served from 6pm, and the auction will follow at 6.30pm.

The auctioneer will be David Murray of Bayleys Queenstown. He was born and raised in Christchurch, still has family there and is deeply connected to the Christchurch community.

All proceeds will go to the Red Cross New Zealand 2011 Earthquake Appeal.

To view information on the artworks and artists go to www.millbrook.co.nz

CONFIRMED ARTISTS AND AUCTION PIECES



Artist - Ed Cruikshank. Auction item – ‘1821 Canterbury’. This is a revolving table in black walnut and gun-blued steel. Height 740mm x diameter 1821mm. This is a unique piece with an indented Braille inscription that reads: ‘Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope. Love can outlast anything. It stands still when all else has fallen.’

Born in Widnes England in 1965, Ed Cruikshank trained in fine cabinet making and industrial furniture design before working with Viscount Linley at the prestigious LINLEY Company in London from 1993 to 2001.

After moving to New Zealand in 2002, he founded CRUIKSHANK Furniture in Queenstown with a vision to create exceptional furniture that endures and increases in character with use and the passage of time. His meticulously considered and precisely constructed commissions range from unique objects to complete interiors and architectural concepts for a private individuals, corporate customers and public galleries around the world.
www.cruikshank.co.nz



Artist - Jane Pestell-Litton. Auction item – ‘Open for Business’. This is a 2010 framed limited edition print.

Contemporary Australian artist and Queenstown property owner Jane Pestell-Litten is represented in national and international private and corporate collections. She was a selected finalist in the Australian National Black Swan Portrait Prize (2009,2010), a finalist in the South Australian Limestone Art Prize(2009), an entrant in the Australian Archibald Prize (2010, 2011) and the Sulman figurative prize (2010). Specialising in figurative and portraiture, her work is oil on linen. Up and coming exhibitions are to be held in Traffic Jam Galleries in Neutral Bay in NSW (July 2011 and September 2012) and Gadfly Gallery Dalkeith Western Australia (2012). www.pestell-litten.com

Artist - Peter Beadle. He is working on a piece specifically for Art for Heart
Peter Beadle (ONZM) is one of New Zealand's leading landscape painters.
Peter lives in the Wakatipu Basin near Queenstown which is located in the heart of New Zealand's most magnificent scenery - the majestic Southern Alps, the rainforests of Fiordland, the parched ‘dry lands’ of Central Otago and the golden tussock country of the Mount Cook region. He has a spiritual affinity to these places which finds expression in the mystical light often seen in his paintings.
He travels the world working on commissions for clients. www.peterbeadle.com


Artist - Russell McLean. Auction item – Framed Artist’s Proof of limited Edition Print.

Arrowtown photographic artist Russell McLean has this to say about his works.

“The images I have crafted all depict a place in time as I saw it. Would others have seen it the same way at the same time? Probably not. But I saw it that way and in sharing my images I open the door to the unique (even though the subject matter is commonplace), for it will never be exactly the same ever again. I subscribe to the thought that neither the camera nor the digital darkroom ultimately determines the value and quality of an image – it is the visual perception of the photographer which generates interest and evokes response.”



Artist - Max Gimblett. Auction item to be confirmed (Donated by Nadine Milne Gallery)

Born in Auckland in 1935, Max Gimblett has made New York his home for the past thirty years. Gimblett has exhibited extensively since the mid-1970s with his work shown internationally in the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Korea, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland and Spain and held as a consequence in major collections, both public and private, throughout the world.

Max Gimblett’s work consists largely of object based paintings in a variety of shapes – the oval, rectangle, circle, square, and most well know, the quatrefoil. The surfaces combine the use of acrylic paints and resins with precious metals such as gold, silver, moon gold and copper as he explores the multiplicity of meanings attached to such revered materials and forms.

www.maxgimblett.com

Artist - Gretchen Albrecht. Auction item to be confirmed (Donated by Nadine Milne Gallery)

Gretchen Albrecht has exhibited in New Zealand and internationally for more than 35 years. Recent work has appeared in Valencia, Spain as part of the exhibition Ultramarte at the Casa Museo Benlliure, and throughout New Zealand in the group exhibition Diaspora: Pluralism and Singularity and the survey exhibition Returning, initiated by the Dunedin Public Art Gallery.

www.gretchenalbrecht.com

Artist - Dick Frizzell. Auction item to be confirmed (Donated by Toi o Tahuna)

Dick Frizzell worked as a commercial artist after graduating from the University of Canterbury in 1964. This introduced him to the notion of art making as a profession. It also placed him within the environment from which much of his imagery has evolved. Frizzell’s art is humorous yet touching, with a love for the advertisements, billboards and posters from the 1950s and 1960s, such as the Four-Square Man, that are familiar to many New Zealanders.

This was later followed with an exhibition based upon his appropriation of the Tiki in paintings that reinvented this symbol in Cubist and Art Deco style.. Frizzell has received considerable recognition from the art institutions in New Zealand and in 1997 was the subject of a major retrospective exhibition toured by the City Gallery Wellington.

Artist - Shane Woolridge. Auction item - He is working on a piece specifically for Art for Heart

Shane Woolridge is an Arrowtown-based artist who pushes the boundaries of local and acquired schist stone to create stunning sculptures. Drawing inspiration from the local environment, combined with a unique and intriguing perspective, and with incredible skill and balance, Shane creates awe-inspiring pieces of varying scale.

www.shanewoolridge.co.nz

Artist - Gilbert & George. Auction item - Framed Exhibition Poster signed by artists (Donated by Lee Fletcher)

Jack Freak Pictures is, to date, the largest series of work created by Gilbert & George. The Jack Freak Pictures are said to be among the most iconic, philosophically astute and visually violent works that Gilbert & George have ever created. The Union Jack and Gilbert & George are the two dominant pictorial images - appearing contorted, abstracted, and sometimes complete. The entire series is set in the East End of London indicated by flags, maps, street signs, graffiti and other less obvious motifs such as brickwork and foliage that can be found there.

Artist - Ernie Maluschnig. Auction item - Ground Relief (Oct 2010) Stainless Steel 660mm x 650mm x 200mm Influenced by the Canterbury earthquake September 2010

Ernie Maluschnig has had a lifelong relationship with metals. As a child he helped his father, an Austrian watchmaker and jeweller. He trained and worked as a fitter and welder, and in 1997 he established Metalworks Wanaka, a business known for creative fine design and craftsmanship.

He gains satisfaction from creating visually successful tactile forms from materials which are technically challenging and unforgiving.

Ernie has completed public and private commissions nationally and internationally and is invited to exhibit regularly. His current work includes responses to the Central Otago Landscape he lives in.


Artist - Rachael Errington. Auction item – Autumn Turning 2010. 1300mm x 1500mm
(Donated through Artbay Gallery)

Rachael Errington is a Queenstown-based artist and illustrator. She also studied graphic design, printmaking, photography and textiles. Rachael loves creative writing, and has been actively involved with varied projects. www.queenstown-artist.co.nz

Artist - Garrick Tremain. Auction item to be confirmed.
Garrick Tremain is highly regarded as both a painter and New Zealand's funniest and most perceptive political cartoonist. A New Zealander by birth, he was a city child who wished he'd been a country kid. Consequently he left school to work on farms and sheep stations. It was here, in the smoko rooms and shearing sheds that his drawing ability first raised eyebrows, and he returned to the city to test his suspected talent in commercial art studios. For ten years he climbed the advertising ladder before deciding he could best combine his love of art and the rural environment by becoming a landscape painter. Since 1972 he has been a full time professional painter and in 1988 decided to add the string of political cartooning to his bow. When time allows he takes respite from the easel at the piano or on the golf course. www.garricktremain.com


Artists - Jackie Ranken and Mike Langford. Auction item to be confirmed.

Mike Langford has 30 years’ experience as an international professional photographer and has lectured and given workshops to professional photographers for 20 years. He is a passionate and patient teacher to all levels of photography and through all the photographic disciplines including landscape, portraiture, architecture and commercial photography. He has published over 20 books, with more to come.

Multi award-winning landscape art photographer Jackie Ranken began her photography career at age 16. She is now an International judge and lecturer. Her honoraries are long; but what matters to her is that she is out there photographing and exploring who she is, increasing her skills base and expressing herself through her photography. She considers her ‘art’ to be classic black and white landscape photography, where the 'fine art print' is the most important end result of the photographic process. www.qccp.co.nz



Artist - Dan Kelly. He is working on a piece specifically for Art for Heart

Dan’s career platform as a highly regarded, multi-faceted designer and sculptor was forged when he won the very first Wearable Art Show in Nelson.

Self- taught, and based in Glenorchy, a short drive from Queenstown, Dan has worked to commissioned orders for 20 years. Initially, his style was described as a ‘sort of Doctor Zeus style’. Each piece commands the viewer to take notice, and as the sculpture is formed, so is the personality of the creature.
Recycled materials feature in many of Dan’s sculptures, with a variety of mediums such as sheet brass, copper and rusty steel. These mediums are shaped, welded, manipulated, aged, then finally vertigreed.
Big on imagination, correct proportion and honest construction, his inspiration for the use of these different mediums is a result of ongoing work on feature films.

www.artbay.co.nz/dan-kelly.html

Artist - Christine Hill. Auction item - Ferry Hill, Walter and Cecil Peak. Oil on Canvas Framed 860x700

Christine Hill spent her formative years in West Yorkshire, England

She studied Art and Design at Huddersfield School of Art and graduated with a Diploma of Fine Art and Art Teaching at Sheffield College of Art. She taught for three years in Britain before emigrating to New Zealand in1964 to take an art teaching position at Whangarei Girls High School.

Christine has always been inspired by the vibrant clear light of the antipodes; a huge contrast to the drab vistas of the industrial north of England in the early 60's The intense colours of her adopted homeland have been reflected in her art works ever since. She has lived in the Wakatipu since 1991,and has held exhibitions of her paintings in New Zealand and Australia .


Artist – Todd Couper. Auction item donated by Toi o Tahuna gallery. Hokioi 2009 in bronze 350mm x 375
Todd attended Te Aute College in Hawkes Bay in 1987 and quickly excelled in art. In 1995 he completed the Diploma of Art, Craft and Design Maori at Waiariki Polytechnic in
Rotorua. He majored in wood carving / sculpture and graduated with honors.

The successful exhibition "Reflections" in 1996 with Roi Toia became the birth of a business venture Mauri Concepts. The pair continue to operate from their workshop on the outskirts of Rotorua creating exclusive contemporary Maori artworks for the local and international markets.

"Maori art today takes many forms, but although the imagery has developed, the philosophies stay the same. With each piece I intend to acknowledge my ancestors and the ancient art of Whakairo by employing motifs and styles of old to express myself, my thoughts and my integrity through fine sculpture."
Todd continues to forge his own style and direction in carving, with commissioned work residing in private collections both in New Zealand and internationally.

Artist – Melvin Day. Auction item donated by Murray and Clare Doyle. Still life on canvas (1988) 1900mm x 1000mm

Melvin (known as Pat) Day was born in Hamilton, New Zealand, in 1923. He began part-time study at the leading Elam School of Fine Art in Auckland in 1934 aged only 11, then studied fulltime from 1939 until being called up to the RNZAF in World War II.

In his early career he explored cubism, fascinated by the work of Picasso and Braque. Travels in Western Europe initiated his interest in Spanish painters, and his work tended increasingly towards abstraction particularly in the 1970s and 1980s. He was part of a group of NZ artists at that time exploring new ideas, his peers including the likes of Don Peebles, John Drawbridge and Ralph Hotere, although Day’s work attracted particular attention from the critics.

He was the first New Zealander accepted to study at the Courtauld Institute in London – regarded as the most prestigious centre of art history studies in the world. After a period of studying, lecturing and exhibiting in London, he accepted the post of Director of the National Art Gallery in Wellington 1968. His contribution to New Zealand art continued as Government Art Historian from 1978 to 1984. In 2003, Day was awarded the CNZM for his services to the arts.

Even while exploring various other forms of modernism, Day has continued to paint modernist landscapes particularly of Wellington (where he has lived most of his life) along with periodic exploration of still life, and luminous yet textural abstracts.
Day has participated by invitation in many major exhibitions in the leading public art galleries around New Zealand, including three substantial solo survey and retrospective exhibitions, an impressive history for a contemporary artist. The most recent were a major retrospective, Continuum, at Wellington’s City Gallery; Tracing the Tasman for the opening of the Nelson Provincial Museum, and Stabat Mater.

Artist - Kelvin Mann. ‘Put your money where your hooves are...’ Edition of 35 - 380mm x 540mm
Kelvin Mann was born in New Zealand and educated at the Otago School of Fine Art, Dunedin. From 1994-1996 he was employed as an animation artist by Vidmark Television, NZ. In 1997 he moved to Dublin to become a member of the Graphic Studio Dublin. He now works at Stoney Road Press.

Artist - Mark Hill. Forged Steel Ribbon (2010) - signed by Artist
Born in Whangarei, Mark Hill initially worked as a graphic designer and photographer, after graduating from the Queensland College of Art in Australia. He’s now a full time sculpture artist based in Arrowtown, where he creates large scale welded steel sculpture.

After a solo exhibition in 2002, Mark has been working on commission pieces for many private collections in New Zealand and Australia, as well as public works in Katikati, Wanaka, Arrowtown and Queenstown.
Mark's works are based on insects, bones and more recently, semi abstract human forms. The sculptures are typically on a large scale, and constructed in hammered and welded stainless and corten steel. The welding is not just a means of holding the various components together, but is accentuated and worked to add a decorative finish resembling cast metal.

Artist - Annie Boyd. Nude Floating - Watercolour 580mm x 450mm
Annie Boyd is a local recreational artist who has always had a love of art and became interested in painting after a serious illness 10 years ago. She spent quite some time taking lessons in life drawing and painting in Auckland, and has had private lessons in watercolour with Brian Millard at his studio in Arrowtown. More recently she has enjoyed working in acrylics and landscapes.