Artist Exchange |Art Trail Manawatū and Taranaki Arts Trail

Square Edge Community Arts in association with Taranaki Arts Trail are delighted to welcome two exciting guest artists to Art Trail Manawatū 2022. This pilot scheme is supported by Palmerston North City Council, with the aim of building relationships between regional art trails.  Two Manawatū artists will also head over to Taranaki in November to participate in the Taranaki Arts Trail. In 2021 Art Trail Manawatū ran the exchange programme in association with the Whanganui Open Studios. 

Works by Mark Bellringer and Anthea Stayt will be showcased in the Square Edge Arts Centre over the month of October 2022, and the artists will be on site over the Art Trail Manawatū weekend event October 15th and 16th between 10am and 4pm both days. Come on down to Square Edge, pick up your free trail guide and view stunning works by these two guest artists and over 100 local Manawatū artists who feature in this years trail! 

Mark Bellringer http://www.markbellringer.co.nz

Documenting the landscape makes up a large part of my personal work. I like to find interesting points of view in the “ordinary everyday that surrounds us”. I am enjoying painting again after stopping at 32 and not taking it up again until 60.

“In a past life” I spent 15 years teaching in the Art Department at Western Institute of Technology, …after a couple of years teaching the desire to keep painting really left me… and its taken a while to come back 😉

My painting is  based mostly from my travels around the back roads of Taranaki on my Royal Enfield. Most are painted in my studio in The old managers office of the old BNZ Bank in Eltham from various references and memories. They are painted “Alla Prima” - wet-on-wet” and “direct painting,” a method of painting in which the artist applies paint to the canvas essentially in one sitting. The source material is endless and I am continuing to document the landscape around me, and have also produced a number of commissions over the last couple of years.

Anthea Stayt www.artbyanthea.co.nz

I love the meditative solitude of working with clay, the energy of colour and
the feel of a brush in my hand.
Anthea Stayt is a contemporary ceramic artist living in New
Plymouth.
She creates unique sculptural works of art that are original in
both form and finish. These are hand built using stoneware
clay and then painted in an abstract manner.
After a high bisque firing, the clay form becomes her canvas.
By brushing on layers of vibrantly coloured oils, Anthea is
able to produce the decorative and intriguing finish that has
become her signature style.
Anthea has participated in numerous solo and shared
exhibitions including the NZ Art Show and NZ Sculpture
Onshore. She has been a selected finalist several times in
both the Waiclay National Ceramic and the NZ Portage
Awards. Her work has been recognised with Premier and
Supreme prizes in regional exhibitions.
Anthea is a participant in the Taranaki Arts Trail and opens
her studio annually as part of this event.