Wading Godwit - Te Matuku Estuary by Kelley Diener in her new exhibition Incoming Tide at Kennedy Point Vineyard.

“I follow the same process each year. I pick something to study that I know little or nothing about.  I begin by doing in depth research online and in the library. I take notes and create a visual diary to organize my reference material.  I go on daily photo shoots around the island to gather images.

“After the visual diary is full of reference material and written information I start visualizing compositions that incorporate the research with the images. As the paintings evolve I take a picture each day and add them to the diary.  I love watching them come to life,” Kelley says.  “The process is as important as the end product.”

Past subject matter includes; bird nests, fishing and the estuary ecosystem. “When I began to study fishing I got hooked on the Saturday afternoon fishing shows on television,” she laughs, “For the better part of a year, I live what I am doing my art about. That exhibition was titled, Fish, Eat, Sleep and that is pretty much what I did.”

This year Kelley is studying and painting tides. "After so much doom and gloom concerning the economics of the past year, filling a canvas with an incoming tide seems like a hopeful scenario", says Kelley. "The tides are consistent and can be counted on. A full tide surrounds and envelopes the land. The colours of the water and the shadows cast by the bush lend themselves beautifully to mixed media layering.”

Kelley’s Incoming Tide exhibition will be held at Kennedy Pt. Vineyard, from February 5 to 8. Exhibition hours are 11am–4pm daily. A portion of the proceeds from this exhibition goes towards a scholarship for a 2010 graduating art student from Waiheke High School.  The Incoming Tides series can be previewed at www.yessy.com/kelleydiener. Kelley also has an open studio and encourages people to come out to Orapiu and take look at her visual diaries.  She is located at 11 Anzac Rd. and is on the left when you drive towards the wharf.

Massey Fergusson TE 20 Tractor by Matthew Muir features in his new exhibition titled Nice at the Red Shed Gallery from this Saturday.

However, also included are iconic imagery rendered in a lurid, almost ironic manner; a Massey-Fergusson tractor, P class dinghy and a Morrison lawnmower are a few of the New Zealand classics he has portrayed.

Muir is probably the only local (and perhaps only New Zealand) artist who could cheerfully paint scootering mermaids alongside commercial aircraft of the 1950s or obsess over flowing hard-edged landscapes dominated by trig stations. Underlying the show is, as always, a certain surreal logic – the images tend to hark back to pop culture and experiences of the late 1960s and '70s, much of which the artist experienced first hand, since Muir has had a long-term fascination with historical aircraft.

The Red Shed is at 76 Palm Road, Palm Beach next to the Palm Beach Hall.

Lyndal Jefferies