Estuarine: Tāmaki Makaurau
Penny Otto and Marion Gordon-Flower
08 December - 18 December 2021
Online 3D virtual exhibition can be accessed here.
‘Estuarine: Tāmaki Makaurau’ is a new art exhibition by Auckland East Arts members Penny Otto and Marion Gordon-Flower who both have special connections to Tāmaki. The exhibition started with post-Covid optimism in the 2021 New Year and the need to reconnect with shared favourite nature environments, particularly the wonderous views from the Glendowie cliffs and sanctuary of Tāhuna Tōrea Nature Reserve. Sketching together in warm weather led to independent studio responses, arriving at two very distinctive new bodies of art. Although contrasting in style, both artists work with notions of liberty and constraint, and the underlying message from each is the need to tune in with the delicate balance that nature holds and to honour Papatūānuku.
Penny Otto is a graduate if Ilam School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury and has exhibited throughout New Zealand and also in Zug, Switzerland. She is well known for her colourful, well-crafted Expressionistic drawings and paintings, and her selected works play in a space of disparity between natural and man-made environments.
Marion Gordon-Flower graduated with a Bachelor of Media Arts from Waikato Polytechnic (1998) where she majored in painting, and holds a Master of Arts in Art Therapy from Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design (2008). Marion has worked as a secondary school art teacher and now works with therapeutic arts. The events of Covid have brought about a strong shift in her established mixed-media processes, arriving at an unexpected form of Abstract Expressionism.
Penny Otto
Tectonic, 2020
Acrylic on canvas
1000 x 1000mm
$1000
...observing the inevitable and rapid building activity in Glen Innes.
Penny Otto
Tidal, 2018
600 x 1090mm
Acrylic on canvas
$800
The Tāmaki River is undeniably an historic estuary.
Penny Otto
Vulcan Square, 2020
1000 x 1000mm
Acrylic on canvas
$1000
A made-up name – in this estuarine community there is a dichotomy of proximity with the volcano to the supermarkets!
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Penny Otto
The Beach Party, 2020
1090 x 700mm
Acrylic on canvas
$900
Here two perspectives (a cubist device) have been used to show swimmers submerging in the water.
Penny Otto
Sylvan Sanctuary, 2020
950 x 750mm
Acrylic on canvas
$1000
The nature reserve of Tāhuna Tōrea.
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Marion Gordon-Flower
Micro & Macro Cosmic, 2020
Mixed media on canvas
1220 x 1220mm
$1200
Tāhuna Tōrea Nature Reserve has inspired the notion that each small thriving estuarine environment contributes to global wellbeing. If we each care for our small area of shoreline there will be a global impact.
Marion Gordon-Flower
Lines in the Sand, 2020
Mixed media on canvas
1220 x 850mm
$800
A celebration of beauty of sunlit watermarks left by the receded tide, never the same twice. Also, a metaphor for the call to environmental action and the need to ‘draw lines in the sand’ for conservation.
Marion Gordon-Flower
Drawing on the Landscape, 2020
Mixed media on canvas
500mm diameter
Sold
Beyond the secluded coastal niche of Tāhuna Tōrea Nature Reserve are the 50 sleeping volcanoes maunga of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and the movement of city life made fragile through Covid. The reserve is both a place connected and a place apart.
Marion Gordon-Flower
Shoreline, 2021
Mixed media on canvas
1220 x 920mm
$800
A response to the sense of emersion to be found within natural environments, becoming at one with the colours, textures, fluidity, scale, rhythm, and form.
Marion Gordon-Flower
Environmental, 2021
Mixed media on canvas
500 x 400mm
$400
Beyond the rocks and shell-covered sand, and the buzzing abundance of nature illuminated by sun colours, there is something greater holding the delicate balance.
Marion Gordon-Flower
Clear Lines, 2020
Mixed media on canvas
600 x 450mm
$400
The pleasure to be found in the purity of clean, clear water, which both covers and reveals the estuarine.
Marion Gordon-Flower
Golden Tide, 2020
Mixed media on canvas
500mm diameter
$450
Another day dawns on the wild beauty of Tāhuna Tōrea Nature Reserve, ever changing with the tides.
Marion Gordon-Flower & Rod Flower
Chalice, 2020
Mixed media installation
2000 x 1200 x 600mm
$4000
From the notion of universal truths, ‘Chalice’ holds symbols of the astrological, Egyptology and cave drawings of early times. Music and musical instruments have been there to serenade the soul through-out time. The astrology symbols incorporated relate to the artists and their own whakapapa family lines. Chalice was first exhibited at Symbolica Exhibition at Toi Tū Stuido One in Ponsonby in March 2020, which went into lockdown.