2024 Gover St Gallery Exhibition

A collection of small landscape studies capturing iconic parts of Aotearoa/New Zealand that will be exhibited at The Gover St Gallery for the month of December.

Landscape study IV

Image 90mm sq

Framed 230 mm sq

Landscape study I

Image 90mm sq

Framed 230 mm sq

SOLD

Landscape study II

Landscape study III

Image 90 mm sq

Frame 230mm sq

Hidden Waterfall

Image 300 mm sq

Framed 330 mm sq

2023 Walker and Hall Art Awards

Taking Up the Challenge was selected by Lonnie Hutchinson as a finalist for the 2023 Walker and Hall Art Awards. I painted this work as a response to the challenges facing the people of Aotearoa/ New Zealand. The context is the wero, the token picked up is kawakawa.

In rongoā Māori, kawakawa is known for its healing properties in treating inflammation, abrasions and irritations. The challenges we face are due to actions that have created division, dissent, and alienation. Are we able to take up the challenge to heal?

Taking Up the Challenge

900/1000

Acrylic on Canvas

2023 Memories Within

With this new series of work, I am exploring the relationships between people and the memories held within each person.

Memories Within 11

Acrylic on Canavs

900/900 mm

Memories Within

Acrylic on canvas

1000/1000mm

Unavailable

Memories Within III

2023 KIng's College Art Exhibition 2023

In His Skin 11

1000/1000mm sq

Acrylic on canvas panel

Transition

Acrylic on canvas panel

750/750 mm sq

Private Collection

Aotearoa Chained 2023

Acrylic on canvas panel

760/760 mm sq

2023-21 Another Way of Seeing

I am fascinated by truth, whose truth and how do we deal with the many truths. Truth is proving a challenge for many in Aotearoa / New Zealand as we are faced with differing historical perspectives. It was a challenge to try and portray this in a visual form, and I ended up using reflections as a way forward. A , the reflection is real in itself and yet it is only a particular perspective of something else and changes as the viewer moves their position.

Mirrored

Acrylic on canvas- framed

Mirrored is the result of a wet train journey across the Southern Alps, reflections within reflections all mirrored in the windows.

Another way of Seeing

760/760

Private Collection

That which is, isnt

Acrylic on canvas

500/500 mm

At the Altar of Mis-information

600/600mm

Reflected Landscape

400 mm sq

Through The Eyes

760/760 mm sq

Private Collection

2023-22 Architects of our Future

This year I have been interested in perception, motivation and the changing accepted historical perspectives. Decisions made during the early years of European migration to what is now New Zealand, have had a long term effect on the community. The consequences of which we are still coming to terms with.

The paintings do not photograph well due to the number of layers of pigment which are used to create very deep, soft surfaces.

Wecome Haere Mai

600/1200mm

Acrylic on canvas

Taking up the Challenge: Wero

900/ 1000mm

The wero on a marae, is when a challenge is placed before the visitors. When picking up the challenge you are agreeing to act peacefully. I chose the kawakawa leaf to represent the object laid down and picked up. As this native plan has many health benefits.

In rongoā Māori, kawakawa is used in many ways, including as a topical balm to soothe eczema, boils, bites, stings and grazes, as well as to relieve toothache, gastrointestinal and genitourinary problems.

“The most abundant compound, of more than 60 that we found, was pellitorine, which has numbing effects on the body and could explain its use for pain-relief in rongoā Māori,” Dr Pook says.

Pellitorine also has a key role in chemical pathways in the body that reduce inflammation.

Another compound found in kawakawa, yangambin, has been shown in earlier human trials to have potent anti-inflammatory effects on the cardiovascular system.’

https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2023/01/20/scientists-confirm-kawakawa-s-healing-properties.html

Bearing Gifts

760 mm sq

Acrylic on canvas

Across the Seas

600/600 mm

Acrylic on canvas

Architects of our Future

300/300 mm

Private Collection

Measured

1500/300 mm

Private Collection

2022 Walker and Hall Art Awards

2022 Walker and Hall Art Awards finalist

Another way of Seeing

760/760 mm

Private Collection

2022 Kings College Art Exhibition

These three works are available through the Kings College Art Show on Friday 28 to Sunday 30 October.

Through the Eyes

Private Collection

Reflected Landscape

The Observer - framed

2021 Walker and Hall Art Awards

The Observer

The Watcher has been selected as a finalist in the Walker and Hall Art Awards

2021 Finalist in the Tamaki Estuary Art Awards

A Long Time Telling

The accumulation of heavy metals, and related contaminants, affects both sediment and light levels of the Tamaki estuary, with consequential repercussions on marine life. Copper is one of the major heavy metals associated with this contamination, sourced from both the industrial developments that have occurred around the estuary, and from use in domestic housing projects.

A Long Time Telling uses recycled copper from a domestic roof. A flounder pattern formed by a 1950s wooden carpenter’s ruler alludes to the abundant source of food the estuary was traditionally known for, the ruler, a symbol for human intervention. To replicate the breakdown of the heavy metals, the copper was chemically treated to create Verdigris, the iron with rust. Frayed panel edges refer to human intervention in the estuary’s natural boundaries, examples being sea walls and bridges.

The selection of a panel is reminiscent of both the shape of the estuary, and the length of time the degradation has occurred over, recorded as humans have recorded events with tapestries and tukutuku panels.

SOLD

reworked 2024

SOLD

2021

Tapuae 2

1200/1200 mm

Private Collection

Tapuae

1200/1200 mm

Acrylic on Canvas panel

Private Collection

In His Skin

910/910 mm

Private Collection

Mirrored

Acrylic on canvas

Mirrored is the result of a wet train journey across the Southern Alps, reflections within reflections all mirrored in the windows.

2020 Home Work Taranaki Art

Transforming the Known was selected for the Homework Taranaki Art 2020 exhibition by selectors Rueben Paterson, Ngahina Hohaia and Laura Campbell. The theme was Tuku Iho. In this work on recycled copper, I have used a surveyors chain from the 1860s to symbolise differing cultural views and an imperial ruler for showing generational change.

Detail of Transforming the Known

Transforming the Known

Rust, verdigris, acrylic paint on copper

2400/380mm

Private Collection

Essence of Being

From working on the events and challenges that have helped create our national identity, With Essence of Being, I moved to looking at the development of the individual. The works in Essence of Being focus on the times of retrospection, contemplation and the decision making process.

These art works will be shown at Access Radio Taranaki from Oct 1 till Oct 29.

Radio Interview starts at 5.38.

Essence of Being 4

1000/900 mm

Private Collection

Essence of Being 2

500/500 mm

Private Collection

The Return

300/300 mm

Private Collection

The Traveller

400/400 mm

Essence of Being 3

600/600 mm

The Wait

1000/1000 mm

Conversational Conundrums

I was listening to a conversation. It was obvious that within the group, people had their own unique memory of the event being discussed. At times it was like listening to two totally different conversations that were going in opposite directions. At other times, there was a depth of understanding between the speaker and the listener.

We learn language, memorise the words and sounds, can share same experiences and yet have totally different perception of what occurred.

Every man’s memory is his private literature.

Aldous Huxley

Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us.

Oscar Wilde

Conversation 1 - detail

Acrylic on copper

665 mm sq

Private Collection

Conversation V

Acrylic on copper plate

Private Collection

Floating through my mind

Acrylic on plywood

1200 mm sq

Private Collection

Drifting through my mind

Acrylic on plywood

1200 mm sq

Private Collection

Conversation 11 - detail

Acrylic on copper

665 mm sq

Private Collection

Submerging

Acrylic on canvas

750 mm sq

NOT AVAILABLE

Private Collection

Homage

'...lest we resemble sea-birds which perch upon a rock, when the tide flows, the rock is covered by the sea, and the birds take flight, for they have no resting place.’

The Homage paintings respond to these words written more than 150 years ago by Wiremu Kingi Te Rangitake and are still valid for all people throughout the world, who are separated from their tūrangawaewae today.

Tūrangawaewae are places where we feel especially empowered and connected. They are our foundation, our place in the world, our home.

https://teara.govt.nz/en/papatuanuku-the-land/page-5

Homage to Wiremu Kingi Te Rangitake

Acrylic and 24 carat gold leaf on canvas

1200/1200 mm

Private Collection

Shadows on the water

Acrylic and 24-carat gold leaf on canvas

1000/1000 mm

Private Collection

Resting Place

Acrylic and imitation gold leaf on canvas

750/750 mm

Private Collection

The rock on which we stand

Acrylic and imitation gold leaf

750/750 mm

Private Collection

Remnant

Acrylic and 24 carat gold leaf

400/400 mm

Not Available

Blue Lies

The concept for this exhibition was created from a discussion on the environmental impacts facing the world’s water and how the current political environment uses information to support a particular viewpoint in the face of these concerns. Blue Lies refers to ‘… a psychological term for falsehoods, told on behalf of a group to strengthen the bonds among the members of that group’. In other words: a lie that is represented as the truth to support the aspirations of a particular group. Such lies are frequently told in business, politics, sports, and many other areas of human life.

Blue Lies’ is the culmination of Hewlett and Carter working in their separate disciplines of painting and photography, using a series of six poems or statements selected on the theme of water. Hewlett and Carter have independently and without any artistic limitations created works that express a response to each piece of writing. The first time the artists saw each other’s work was with the hanging of Blue Lies.

Where ungovernable storms

Acrylic on canvas

600/600 mm

‘N.Z. begins with the sea and ends with the sea.

The thundering surf is our frontier’

Maurice Shadbolt

Private Collection

The rain that refreshes the parched ground

Acrylic on canvas

500/500 mm

Private Collection

'The rain that refreshes the parched ground is made up of single drops'

Kate Sheppard

Silent

Acrylic on canvas
500/500

‘There is a time bomb in the water

It’s ticking underground

It’s ticking in the aquifers so quietly

It doesn’t make a sound’

Sam Mahon

Black Void Vast

Acrylic on canvas

1000/1000 mm

‘Without water, our planet would be one of billions of lifeless rocks floating endlessly in the vastness of the inky-black void’

Fabien Cousteau

Requiem for Catacea 11

Acrylic on canvas

400/400 mm

Private Collection

‘We owe it to our children to be better stewards of the environment. The alternative is a world without whales. It is too terrible to imagine’

Pierce Brosnan

Opening of the Blue Lies exhibition

Chanelle Garrick from Puke Ariki speaking at the opening of the Blue Lies exhibition. Works by Amanda Hewlett and Cathy Carter.

Glimpse of Precious Thought 2019

‘The tracks made by their footsteps do not mark the ground parallel to,

but criss-cross and overlap with the footsteps made by those who came

before them’

Essay by Rebecca Rice

Making Tracks: Photography in the Nineteenth Century

p 91

Otago University Press 2011

Through the Eye

300/300 mm sq

Private Collection

I used an oil painting by Samual Stuart as the reference for the 1840s landscape in Auckland. The handle of the surveyors chain that was used to delineate the land for the Europen settlers frames the waka drawn up on the beach. A contrast between two cultures.

Beyond the Known

900/1000 mm

Private Collection

Recordings

Acrylic, ink on embossed paper, framed

1060/770 mm

Private Collection

Fragmented Dreams

Aotearoa Chained

750/750 mm sq

The surveyors chain is 22 yards long and was used to define the Queens Chain, a measurement from the high tide mark that was to remain in public ownership. Land was measured and divided.

Offering

Acrylic and 24 carat gold on canvas

300 mm sq

Kintsugi (金継ぎ, "golden joinery"), also known as Kintsukuroi (金繕い, "golden repair"), is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum.

As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.]

Shadows on the Water

Acrylic and 24 carat gold leaf on canvas

1000/1000 mm

Private Collection

Homage to Wiremu Kingi Te Rangitake

Acrylic and 24 carat gold leaf on canvas

1200/1200 mm

Works based the words of NZ poet, James K Baxter

Inspiration for this series of works came while sitting on the banks of the Whanganui River, reading poetry by James K Baxter, at a place called the Flying Fox.

About twilight we came to the whitewashed pub, On a knuckle of land above the bay

Acrylic on canvas

750/750 mm

Excerpt from: East Coast Journey

About twilight we came to the whitewashed pub

On a knuckle of land above the bay

Private Collection

Nothing Left Standing

Acrylic on copper

150/150 mm

Excerpt from:

The Holy Life and Death of Concrete Grady

And then a gale caught me

And threw me north.

There was nothing left standing

On the bare-arsed earth.

Private Collection

Till I came to a blind cliff That got no sun

Acrylic on canvas

750/750 mm

Excerpt from: The Holy Life and Death of Concrete Grady

Till I came to a blind cliff

That got no sun,

Deep as the cunning of Hell

And high as the trouble of man.

Private Collection

One clink black night in June

Acrylic on canvas
400/400 mm

from the poem

The Holy Life and Death of Concrete Grady

One clink black night in June

Concrete Grady sat

Between the knees of the pines

With Old Jack Flynn his mate.

Private Collection

Old house shaded with Macrocarpas

Acrylic on canvas

500/500 mm

Excerpt from: Pig Island Letters

From an old house shaded with macarocarpas
Rises my malady.

Private Collection

Concrete Grady and old Jack Flynn

Acrylic on copper plate

150/150 mm

Excerpt from: The Holy Life and Death of Concrete Grady

One clink black night in June

Concrete Grady sat

Between the knees of the pines

With Old Jack Flynn his mate.

Private collection

The whitewashed pub On a knuckle of land above the bay

Acrylic on canvas

900/900 mm

Excerpt from: East Coast Journey

About twilight we came to the whitewashed pub

On a knuckle of land above the bay

Private Collection

Angel above a clump of old man manuka

Acrylic on copper

Excerpt from: Pig Island Letters

‘Her son is moodier, has seen

An angel with a sword

Standing above the clump of old man manuka

Private Collection

An angel with a sword

Acrylic on canvas

400/400 mm

$1,500

Excerpt from:

Pig Island Letters

Her son is moodier, has seen

An angel with a sword

Standing above the clump of old man manuka

Just waiting for the word

Angel with a sword

Acrylic on copper

150 /150 mm

Excerpt from: Pig Island Letters

Her son is moodier, has seen

An angel with a sword

Standing above the clump of old man manuka

Just waiting for the word.

Private Collection

And we will walk on the shore

Acrylic on canvas

750/750 mm

Excerpt from: The Beach House

Will not be struck dead by any wind

And we will walk on the shore.

Private collection

Acrylic on copper

150/150 mm

Excerpt from:

The Holy Life and Death of Concrete Grady

And then a gale caught me

And threw me north.

There was nothing left standing

On the bare-arsed earth.

Private Collection

Till I came to a blind cliff, That got no sun

Acrylic on canvas

500/500 mm

Excerpt from: The Holy Life and Death of Concrete Grady

Till I came to a blind cliff

That got no sun,

Deep as the cunning of Hell

And high as the trouble of man.

Blind Cliff

Acrylic on canvas

500/500 mm

Excerpt from: The Holy Life and Death of Concrete Grady

‘Till I came to a blind cliff

That got no sun,

Deep as the cunning of Hell

And high as the trouble of man.

Private Collection

UNCOVERED

Art workscreated from objects and stories in the Mokau Museum collection and from the Taranaki region.

SHARDS 1: objects within the landscape

Acrylic on canvas

450/450/80

The Modified Land

Acrylic on canvas

1000/1510 mm

Private Collection

While driving across the Central Plateau we came across an area that had recently been felled of pine forest, revealing a landscape that had been hidden from sight for many years.

Travelling back that way sometime later, the area was being modified again, this time for the dairy industry.

It started me thinking about the number of changes that have occurred just within my lifetime.

This painting is not of any one particular region, it contains many smaller images of the iconic New Zealand landscape within its whole.

The line of pine trees at the top represents an army of humans who have marched across the landscape changing and adapting it for their use.

SHARDS 111: tools within the landscape

Acrylic on canvas

450/450/80

SHARDS 11: sites within the landscape

Acrylic on canvas

450/450/80

Taranaki Art Awards

Judges comments: Bill Millbank and Maree Mills

Category 6 Toi Tu Taranaki

Highly Commended-

Using the conventions of landscape, this work invites you in to study the sites, and wonder at their understated yet perfect miniature execution. The viewer becomes anthropologist or archaeologist discovering further sites on/over the edge. Imitating the high edge of occupation of the land both conceptually and visually

Amanda Hewlett Shard 11: Sites in the Landscape

The River Watchers

Acrylic on canvas

500/500 mm

Private Collection

Looking Back

Acrylic on canvas

750/600 mm

For those who have lived in houses with scrim on the walls and stencilled wallpaper, the look will be familiar. The painting within the painting is from an early black and white photograph taken from Mokau. Artistic license resulted in the two waka being added to balance the work.

When I put an image of this painting on line it bought back memories for some. Here are a couple of memories people sent me:

‘Remember as a kid the walls breathing spooked me and not helped by an older brother and sister telling me spooky stories!!! Hahaha’

‘My room was upstairs, the ceiling sloped under eaves, I used to fall asleep listening to the wall / ceiling only 2 feet from my head breathing’750/600 mm

Awakino Journey

Acrylic on canvas

450/540

Rivers were the natural pathways for people and were used as a means for exploring new territory, as part of a defence system, for transporting goods/people, a source of food and a place of leisure.

Awakino Journey looks at the barrier faced when journeying inland. Coastal hills, a small plain and then the barrier created by the hills around the Awakino Gorge. A small notched hill is visible on the right-hand side. This hill is heading inland just after the township of Awakino and is a place I associate with the area.

Stories, photographs, drawing and objects within the museum show the importance of both the Mokau and Awakino Rivers to the local community.

I am intrigued by the effect the rivers have had on people’s lives. I wondered about all the people who had stood watching the river, judging the water flow, waiting for people to arrive, saying farewell to those leaving. Always looking towards the river bend.

This resulted in the two paintings,

The River Watchers and Awakino Journey.