Raumati artist Tania Dally’s latest series of 12 abstract paintings, on display during the upcoming Kapiti Arts Trail, is inspired by the scenes she encounters throughout the year from her Boatshed Studio, situated on Raumati Beach near the mouth of the Wharemauku Stream.
Tania says the project has been more than a year in the making. “I started by taking a 360• video most days at the mouth of the stream, at different times of the day regardless of the weather, for an entire year,” she explains.
“As any local can tell you, there is an amazing range of colours and scenes as the beach’s ever-changing moods play out over the course of the year and it is this diversity that I have sought to capture,” says Tania.
There are 12 large abstracts in the series; one for each month. The paintings incorporate a short poem penned by Tania’s partner, Richard Calkin, with the script featured as part of the artwork. “We started by reviewing the videos from each month to distil the main features and colours of that time of year,” says Tania. “Richard then used these themes to write the poems, and it is these ideas that I have sought to express on canvas.”
“An overriding theme of the paintings and poems relates to the power of the natural world – exemplified in this case by the raw beauty of Raumati Beach – to centre us and help us transcend the chaos of daily life,” says Tania.
The collaboration with family and friends didn’t stop with Richard’s poems. The Arts Trail will include an audio visual presentation created by Tania and Richard’s good friend Phill Simmonds, featuring the original video footage of each month, together with the painting and spoken word poem, as well as a musical soundtrack written and produced by Tim Calkin of local band, the Seaside Sloths, who also happens to be Tania and Richard’s son.
Tania says the collaborative and family element has added another dimension to the work, while still retaining the unique artistic style that she has become known for. “As with all my work, the paintings are not aiming for pictorial representation,” says Tania. “Instead the paintings are my intuitive response to the beach’s constantly unfolding dynamic; visual representations of the colours and energy flowing from within creation itself.”
The originals of each painting are available for sale, as well as more affordable “embellished prints” which are actual size replicas, printed on high quality, fine art paper, before being individualised and hand-embellished with paint by the artist to give the piece a unique and original look and feel.
In addition, Tania has had the 12 images compiled into an A4 2023 art calendar. While the calendar will sell for $30, the first 50 visitors on each of the four days of the Arts Trail to Tania’s Boatshed Studio, across the footbridge from the Marine Gardens car park on Raumati Beach, can pick one up for free.
Raumati: One Beach, Infinite Hues series
By Tania Dally
Kapiti Arts Trail: Sat 4/Sun 5 Nov and Sat 112/Sun 12 Nov 10am - 5pm.
Where: Tania Dally Art Boatshed Studio, across the Wharemauku Stream footbridge, Marine Gardens/Waterfront car park, Raumati Beach.
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