‘Waterfall’ Helen Campbell
Finding a waterfall in our native bush has to be amongst the loveliest of experience, one that takes me back to childhood, to tramping the Milford track, to Arthurs Pass, to the baby seals out of Kaikoura, so many beautiful places I have had the privilege to visit, be in, in our wonderful country. For a long time I have wanted to mosaic the experience and now I have. 20/30 cm on MDF, using slate, glass, mirror and beads
‘Pencarrow’ Achilles Botes
Anyone familiar with Wellington should recognise this one! It’s the view from the eastern suburbs looking across the harbour to Pencarrow Head and beyond to Baring Head. It’s a view I see every day driving to work over Mt Victoria.
‘Night Waves’ Achilles Botes
This piece was motivated by my need to improve my glass cutting and shaping skills for a bigger project. It’s a different skill set to working with ceramic tiles. 300 mm x 110 mm Glass, ceramic tile, wax on wood
‘Pohutukawas on a rocky NZ coast’ Andrea Green
Years ago, when us kids were young, we explored the East Coast bays, our little 10 foot caravan was home for many days….. Tekaha was my favourite, with its craggy rocky shore, a coastal NZ holiday, who would ask for more….. We’d find beach glass, china and driftwood in rocky pools of blue, such excitement to find each treasure and how the time it flew….. Mostly loved the Pohutukawas, their flowery fluffy red, they were all along the coastline stretching for many miles ahead…. At night I'd snuggle in the awning, read poems by a kerosene light, parked right next to my favourite tree with its flowers so red and bright. ….. One poem was about a wise man who built his house upon the rocks, and when the rain came down and the sea came up he still had very dry socks….. He secretly knew about climate change way before his time, and I used that as an analogy for this Mosaic story of mine.
‘Butterfly’ Anne Bowden
I have china painted and fired the butterfly and mosaiced the surround within a frame. I am enjoying working with monotone and playing with the flow of the tesserae, which are set into thinset with no grouting. The textures and shades of white become an important part of the piece. Working in monotone becomes a challenge to find enough variety of tess to keep the work interesting. I have used, china cut in various ways, millefiori, aquarium stones, glass beads, bugle beads, ceramic shapes and more. Substrate - Aquamox
‘Spring Orbs’ Claire Fairweather
This three part sculpture is inspired by Spring, the season of growth, which is conveyed by the three graded sizes of sphere. The use of black tile grout makes the colours of the flowers ‘pop’, like they are bursting with life, all that is missing is the scent. Designed as decorative table or shelf ornaments, these Spring Orbs provide floral interest without the need for watering and will live on forever. A permanent reminder of the beautiful flowering blooms of Spring.. Medium: polymer clay mosaic with tile grout. Substrate: hollow stainless-steel spheres Dimensions: 10 cm, 7.5 cm, and 5 cm spheres
‘Spring Orbs’ Claire Fairweather
'Colour Burst’ Elwyn Scott
A few firsts for me with this mosaic. Wooden Popsicles frame and outline the mosaic. I flicked 3 layers of paint starting with orange, yellow then red. Centre piece I bought in Spain. Tiles were cut across to get the wavy pattern and glued on their edge, buttons and,beads included. The yellow around mosaic is made up with decorative white sand with added yellow paint and wellbond and pressed down. This will be a gift for my grandson who is my ray of sunshine and has been watching it evolve.
'A Well-Rounded Garden with a hint of Klimt’ Jennie Cooper
The shape of the circle can symbolise the ongoing energy found in nature and the way the universe includes everything. The circle can represent Mother Earth, cycles, being inclusive, whole and united. It denotes being complete, being centred and it is a symbol of forever This orderly wee garden is simple and fresh. Made from glass, ceramic, gold shimmer and my favourite tesserae vintage china; with its beautiful patterns telling their own story within a new surrounding. Suitable for indoors only on a base of MDF and box frame.
'A Well-Rounded Garden with a hint of Klimt’ Jennie Cooper
‘Quasi Christmas Robin’ Jo Luker
This is a would-be Christmas Robin, but he’s not fussy and equally happy to hang around all year. I also seem to have chanced to find two pieces of sea smoothed pottery that fit together perfectly from the same piece of crockery. He feels like a little advent Christmas Card – each little shard brings a lost history of its own - reunited back together again. A piece of natural slate (found in the shape of a bird) and completed using sea pottery. Measures approx. 240 mm (H) x 200 mm (W) hangs on fishing twine. Merry Christmas 2020 – and best wishes for the New Year!
‘Quasi Christmas Robin’ Jo Luker
‘Brothers’ Lynette Ingram
This piece was inspired by brother love as I had five younger brothers. Our local beach is only a small beach, three small bays separated by rocky out crops that run out into the sea. Each one slips away into deep water all the way out to Kapiti Island. Growing up it was always an extension of our backyard. At an early age my brothers discovered that in one of those little bays you could actually catch a fish and a wave and so a lifelong relationship began. Over time five brothers have become four and many friends have also been lost along the way. But the magic of this place remains, one brother built a seat, a place to sit and remember, to celebrate the good times, always with a song as long as a brother or two had a guitar on hand. Beach glass, found items, paua, mirror and stained glass. On custom board 300 x 300 mm
‘Brothers’ Lynette Ingram
‘Bee in the Republic of Stirling (RoS)’ Lynx
A colourful local character in my small beachside community calls her property ‘Republic of Stirling’ or ‘RoS’. She is also an avid beekeeper with a stunning garden full of flowers, fruits and vegetables. Her quirkiness, her passion for her bees and for growing things inspired me! I am still very much a beginner to this artform and largely self-taught, so I find all parts of the process challenging – but immensely satisfying. Medium: Vitreous tiles, iridescent stained glass, ceramics, paua, stainless steel chain. Substrate: Plywood
‘Bee in the Republic of Stirling (RoS)’ Lynx
'Christmas Wreath’ Raewyn Beaver
Someone said the word Christmas and it stuck. The romance of a white Christmas is always something that captures my heart. However the chances of that happening in NZ are remote so I will satisfy myself with this snowy looking wreath put together with stained glass, rosette shaped cones that I found in the grass from a tree down the road and wee glass beads nestled on a base of MDF. The cones have had a PVA wash to help preserve them. 300 mm x 300 mm
'Christmas Wreath’ Raewyn Beaver
‘Middle Earth’ Sandy Miller
My inspiration for this piece was a drive through the beautiful scenery in South Canterbury. mdf base with glass, assorted jewellery including leather brooches shells and beads
‘Middle Earth’ Sandy Miller
‘Pukaki Waters’ Sandy Miller
My inspiration was the amazing colours of the lake and surrounding waterways viewed on my drive through South Canterbury. We live in a truly beautiful country.
‘Pukaki Waters’ Sandy Miller
‘Marilyn’ Sharon Pine
The substrate is a bunny I found in Hobart at the 2017 MAANZ symposium; the china was gifted to me by a friend. I haven’t done one of my signature small-and-very-fiddly 3D pieces for ages so thought this competition was a good opportunity to combine the two (I’m now cured of that inclination for the foreseeable future!). Marilyn is 17cm x 10cm, vintage china, stained glass, seed and bugle beads. She has a 60’s vibe and is a fun-loving kind of girl, hence the name as Marilyn was a 60’s bunny.
‘Marilyn’ Sharon Pine
Thank you all for your enthusiastic support. As you can see many of the contributing artists are well known in our New Zealand mosaic community but in this competition we have been delighted to welcome some of our newest members.
Choosing was very hard apparently. There was much mulling over and so much variety in style, materials and story to confound the decision viewers eventually had to make. There was something to appeal to everyone. As one viewer expressed it, “I had a top 3, and was torn between them for ages … In the end I went with the mosaic I’d most like to own, using the tesserae I like to use best too.”
Although there was no theme set for this competition, our Kiwi environment was clearly influential in many of the mosaics submitted. The artists’ stories told us of memories of camping as kids, tramping the Milford Track and visiting other beautiful places in New Zealand, enjoying the company of brothers on a Kapiti beach, remembering a local beekeeper and her beautiful garden and being inspired on a drive through the beautiful South Canterbury scenery. One viewer liked the sensitivity shown to the artist’s living space in Wellington; a view of Pencarrow. “A real NZ image very well done.” In fact, ‘Pencarrow’ attracted enough member votes to put it in second place. Well done Achilles.
Others enjoyed the creative use of materials, amazing pops of colour, a cheeky bunny and the warmth of feeling a composition generated.
Our winner is Helen Campbell for ‘Waterfall’
“There is so much movement in this piece I can almost feel the water.” ”The mossy green and blue colour has been used in a subtle yet powerful way. The waterfall itself has been captured beautifully – you can just about hear it roar. A gentle yet bold piece.”
The prize is $100
A few works are for sale. Information will be posted on the New Zealand Facebook page shortly.