DATE: All weekend
LOCATION: The Offering cafe (65 Main St, Greytown)
AGES: All
Stop by The Offering cafe for a coffee or a meal over the Art Town weekend, and see several artists’ work on display, including:
GARY TRICKER 1936-2021
Gary was born into a railway family, and his first years were spent in the small railway hamlet of Hihitahi, north of Taihape. At an early age, he discovered a passion for art as a way of expressing himself. Gary had a hearing disability and found it hard to listen, especially in crowds, and as an introspective child, art gave him his visual voice, which continued throughout his life.
The themes of railways traversing the hills of New Zealand are recurring ones. Landscapes, railways, cats, and cups of tea appear dreamlike in his work as they travel around the country. Gary’s constant companions were black cats, which he referred to as his muses.
These surreal conjunctions of the world around him appeared in his prints, and although throughout his life he experimented with different mediums and styles, producing large semi-abstract landscape oils and watercolours, it is for his intaglio prints that he is most associated with.
Gary was a self-taught artist who won the QEll art award twice. In the early 1980’s he moved to Greytown, where he had a purpose-built studio. He lived and worked there until he died in 2021.
DEBORAH ILLINGWORTH
I was born in Wellington and went to Haitaitai School and Queen Margaret College.
At 17, I moved to Auckland, completing a B.A. in Prehistoric Anthropology and Ancient History and then a Certificate of Graphic Design at ATI. I worked as a graphic artist until I started painting in 1998.
From 2008-2017, I was a member of the Pollok Arts Co-operative and also heavily involved in staging the annual Franklin Art Festival.
In 2019, I moved down to rural Nireaha to be closer to family in the Wairarapa.
I have been called a Colourist, a Symbolist and a Regionalist; Art aficionados Fiona Jack and Peter Webb have likened my work to the New Zealand artists, Bill Sutton and Rita Angus.
My landscapes have a pathos, a quiet sadness, reminiscent of the ‘theatre of unease’, while my portraits are often tense with underlying narrative.
MAJOR AWARDS:
2001 Overall North Shore Art Awards
2004 Supreme Award at Franklin Arts Festival
2007 Runner-up North Shore Art Awards
2014 Best Contemporary Piece at Franklin Arts Festival
2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2014 and 2020 selected as a finalist in Adam’s Portraiture Award
2023 Emerging Artist at Aratoi’s Wairarapa Review
2025 Selected as a finalist for Academy of Fine Arts Visual Prize 2025
www.greytownarttown.com
You may also like the following events from Greytown Art Town:
Also check out other
Arts events in Clareville,
Festivals in Clareville,
Fine Arts events in Clareville.
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