Sophie Watkins with two of her paintings exhibited at Art-x.
Exhibiting her work at Art-x takes “emerging artist” Sophie Watkins a step closer to a dream career as a full-time painter.
A second-year Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design student at EIT’s ideaschool, Sophie was invited to take part in the exhibition and sale by the Rotary Club of Greenmeadows, which organises and runs the annual event.
A group of Rotarians visited ideaschool and selected Sophie as this year’s “emerging artist” based on a small painting done for her Studio portfolio. The 19-year-old then created three artworks, entitled Lugubrious, Wretched and Abominable, which are based on her original painting,
While Sophie says “it’s really contemporary for paintings not to have a meaning”, her brightly coloured abstracts do have recognisable random forms.
Head girl at William Colenso College in 2011, Sophie painted “from kindy through to high school”. After 7th form, she moved to EIT on a Year 13 Degree Study Grant, and she further supports her studies by working part-time as a clown and playing a “scary cat” at a corn maze.
Sophie is one of 78 artists exhibiting at Art-x, which is open daily to the public, free of charge, in the Pan Pac Foyer of Napier’s Municipal Theatre until 7 July.
All the proceeds from the event, now in its 32nd year, are directed to the local community.
Visual Arts and Design programme coordinator Nigel Roberts says EIT is proud of the relationship forged between ideaschool and the Rotary club organisers of the Art-x exhibition.
“It’s a great way for some of our top students to shine, while supporting a wonderful cause.”