Handpicked as ‘emerging artists’, two EIT students will be showcasing their talent in the Greenmeadows Rotary Club’s National Art Exhibition and Sale which opens in Napier on June 10.

The club selected Jamie Morrell and Angela Taylor, both in the second year of the Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design degree, after touring student studios at EIT.  As a result, the pair have submitted three paintings apiece for the annual charity fundraiser.

Jamie and Angela have disparate styles and employ different materials and techniques in realising their creative vision.

Angela’s works are based on “decalcomania”, a decorative technique associated with the inter-war paintings of surrealist Oscar Dominguez and also the ever-inventive German artist Max Ernst. 

 Angela applies a thin spread of gouache onto plastic wrap and presses it onto canvas or paper.  She likes to use a combination of artistic techniques and sometimes includes collage elements in her pressings too. 

“It’s what you then make of the result,” she says of the whimsical creations that emerge from these simple beginnings.  “It’s all about chance – aspects of chance.”

Gouache, with its high ratio of pigment and chalk in the paint, provides strong colour and decals well.

Formerly from the Manawatu, Angela moved to Hawke’s Bay four years ago and, with her four children now “quite grown up”, decided the time was right for doing something individual; something for herself.

“I have loved every minute of study at EIT,” she says.

Jamie’s paintings start with photographs he takes of landscapes, often on farmland in Central Hawke’s Bay.  He then meticulously paints the images onto canvas using only oil, which he considers a more traditional and better quality medium than acrylic.

While he did use acrylic when he studied art at St John’s College in Hastings, he says oil “seems more permanent”.

 “Both have their advantages.  With acrylic, you can’t get the same range of colours, but painting with oil does take longer and sometimes you want a medium that dries quickly.” 

After leaving school, Jamie studied architecture last year but lost interest and decided to move to art.

“I think I made the right decision,” he says. “It should work out.”

Once he has completed his studies at EIT, he intends teaching for a few years before heading overseas to paint landscapes in Europe.  He admires the European masters and aspires to be a great painter himself but wants to move onto something that changes his landscapes – to introduce something new.

“I want to develop it into something original,” he says of his art.

The exhibition continues in Napier Municipal Theatre’s Pan Pac Foyer until June 26 and entry is free.