Mixed media artists converge
A mixed-media artist says her work is made with ‘‘blood, sweat and tears and a little bit of wine’’.
Tanith Norton specialises in hand stitching jewellery to velvet in her home city of Christchurch. She ventures south this week to be guest artist at the 10-day Riversdale Arts’ Mixed Media Exhibition, starting tonight. ‘‘Each piece has a lot of time and effort [spent on it] . . . I have attachment to my pieces,’’ Norton said.
‘‘Hand stitching means by the time you get to the end of them, you know every piece intimately.’’
Norton has collected jewellery since she was a 3-year-old and always liked art.
She began hand stitching jewellery to velvet two years ago and was an exhibitor for the first time when attending the Dunedin Art Show in November 2021.
She was thrilled to be nominated for a fine art award at the Dunedin event. It was there that she was asked by officials of the Riversdale Arts to be guest artist at its annual mixed media exhibition.
‘‘I’m bringing down my brandnew series that no-one’s seen yet,’’ Norton said. ‘‘I’m going to launch the series when I do my speech on opening night.’’
Norton won the celebrity’s pick at the Christchurch Art Show last weekend. Her work was also on display at the Auckland Art Show in May. ‘‘My art went to Auckland with my husband, I couldn’t go because I caught Covid.’’
Among the Southland exhibitors at the Riversdale event is Andrea Sexton who has been an artist for most of her life. She owns an art gallery at Orepuki.
Sexton specialises in 2-D and 3-D mediums, painting, textile, mixed media and soft sculpture.
Four of her pieces will be on display at the Riversdale Arts’ Mixed Media Exhibition. Also, she is holding a creative picture-making workshop at the event on Sunday.
‘‘It’s important to involve myself with other artists and showcase the quality work that happens in Southland, especially in a small town like Riversdale,’’ Sexton said.
‘‘There are some really great artists coming to present and do workshops.’’
Riversdale Art’s exhibition administrator Jann Robertson said 404 exhibits from 80 exhibitors would be on show.