Botanical Drawing With
Christine Hellyar

As part of her exhibition, Looking, Seeing, Thinking, join renowned artist Christine Hellyar for a botanical drawing workshop. Develop methods to enhance your drawing techniques considering line, tone, composition, space and gestural mark making. Be inspired by the diversity of plants in the Waitakere Ranges, both native and exotic. This is a unique opportunity to work alongside an accomplished artist and educator. Please bring a plant specimen from home to draw from, either native or exotic (some extras will also be provided).

We will also be viewing Christine’s exhibition, Looking, Seeing Thinking, which includes silk drawings and printed textiles that mix Pacific scenes with 18th century toile cloth, to reference the history of the 18th century enlightenment era in Aotearoa. Hellyar is particularly interested in what Europeans brought into the Pacific at that time, and also what they took, including the development of museum collections. Botanical art, still in use in museums today, was popular in the 18th century for scientific use and amongst textile makers, enthusiasts, amateur botanists and gardeners.

Christine Hellyar was born and raised in New Plymouth and still takes inspiration from the wild landscapes she grew up with, as well as those around Auckland where she currently lives and works. Her earliest work plays a significant role in a period of art-making that moved out of the gallery and into remote sites, where temporary installations and events took place. Always interested in the landscape, she brings a distinctly domestic and gendered view to her work, notably with one of her best-known works, Country Clothesline (1972), which is in the collection of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. For much of the 1970s, she lived and travelled in Europe, Egypt and the USA.

Image: Christine Hellyar, Looking XIII, 2017

21 October, 10am-3pm