Art puts women in frame
It’s the early 90s and Annie Hill is teaching a class at Pompallier Catholic College when she tells them to stop and watch fellow student Penny Howard paint.
“It was like a dance,” Hill said.
It was one of the many moments Hill, who still lives in Whanga¯rei, knew Howard was going to be “a winner”.
Fast forward about 27 years and Howard is now showcasing her latest work in an exhibition at Auckland’s Whitespace Contemporary Art. Called Mana Muse, the exhibition comprises portraits of women who are leaders in their fields including singer Anika Moa, poet and painter
Sia Figiel, Green Party coleader Marama Davidson, and poet and scholar Dr Selina Tusitala Marsh.
The 44-year-old, who now lives in Auckland, said Hill was her “most massive influence” in art.
“I’d written in a book at Maunu Primary that I either wanted to be in the circus or an artist. I was always the creative one at school but when Annie came to art school, I think I was in 6th
form, then I really knew, and she was sort of the one who really made me feel like ‘you can do this’.”
Hill, who is a “big Penny fan” and is now good friends with her, said Howard’s mum initially drew her attention to how Howard was “deeply sensitive” to art.
“Some people will sit at their desk and scratch away but Penny would stand and when she was really involved in her painting it was like a dance.
“So it was quite beautiful to watch her paint. I remember telling the kids to stop and watch her paint. That was one of the moments where I thought ‘you’ve really got it’,” Hill said.
Howard studied a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Auckland Society of Arts, graduating in 1995.
She says her work today is realistic and tells stories.
A red thread runs through all her art which is I nga¯ wa¯ o mua — the Ma¯ori world view that we take the past with us into the future for guidance.
Howard, who is of Nga¯puhi descent, said she built it into her art work after learning more about her whakapapa.
“Within all my work that’s the ethos, that there’s story telling and I’m leaving markers for future generations and I’m trying to encourage other people to do that in whatever they do — making sure you’re asking for stories and make sure that you’re telling them.”
Mana Muse focuses on strong Ma¯ori and Pacific woman.
Howard initially approached Anika Moa about painting her for the New Zealand Portrait Awards. But when she didn’t get in to the awards, she decided to expand and do a series of portraits on women who inspired her.
“I had a meeting with all of the women and I said I wanted to tip the whole idea of the muse on its head, the old traditional idea of males painting women and posing them how they’d want them — it just didn’t feel right. I wanted to put that back to them — here I am a female painting a female and I’m saying how do you want to be portrayed?”
Howard photographed all of the women and then printed the images out life size so she could include all the little details.
■ Mana Muse is at Whitespace Contemporary Art until October 26.