Talented young artist making her mark
Gabrielle Loffley’s artistic talent has been immortalised on a giant canvas.
The 11-year-old Weymouth Primary School pupil was chosen as the winner of an art competition open to all of the school’s students.
Principal Saane FaaofoOldehaver says they were asked to create an artwork that visually depicts the school’s five teams, Moana, Te Awa, Papa, Maunga and Rangi.
‘‘The concept of our teams is [the pupils] going from the sea and rivers to the land, the mountains, and to the sky by the time they reach the senior school,’’ Faaofo-Oldehaver says.
Gabrielle’s creation is the centrepiece of a large mural painted onto an exterior wall of the school’s hall by well known Manurewa artists Charles and Janine Williams.
The humble year 6 pupil was on hand when the couple put the finishing touches on the colourful work and publicly unveiled it to other students and school staff.
‘‘I feel like I didn’t deserve for it to be there,’’ Gabrielle says.
Charles says the mural tells the story of Manurewa and depicts a pair of large tui birds below two floating kites.
‘‘There are tuis in trees at the school.
‘‘The tuis [in the mural] represent the two half-brothers of Manurewa, which means drifting kite [in te reo].’’
The mural took him and his wife a little less than two weeks to complete, Charles says.
‘‘We wanted to take the idea from the school and turn it into a masterpiece.
‘‘It was a bit of a challenge to turn it into one cohesive piece of art.
‘‘The hardest thing was trying to come up with something the school would be happy with.
‘‘The idea is to get a landscaper in and share some ideas, apply for funding and begin a journey where we want our community to be involved and also to ‘own’ the area.
‘‘There’s lots of work to be done but it’s the start of an exciting journey.’’