Introducing Joe McMenamin

 

Have you noticed there’s a new shop in Feilding? Local artist, Joe McMenamin, has opened an Art Studio & Gallery on Kimbolton Road, just off Manchester Square.

 

You are invited to the Grand Opening on Thursday 5thMay at 5-7pm.

 

Joe was a high school Art teacher in Wellington, and over the last decade combined this with his art practice. At the beginning of 2017 he moved with his family to Feilding, for his wife, Sarah, to take up a position as a priest at the St John’s Anglican Church. Their three children are at Lytton St School, where Joe painted a mural last year with the students’ help.

 

Joe has been a full-time artist since moving to Feilding, having built up a successful business of painting murals, original paintings and prints. Joe will work in the studio, producing paintings for the gallery space. But he plans on supporting up and coming artists and established artists in the gallery, too, by having a guest artist/group of artists each month displaying their works.

 

Come on over to the Studio & Gallery and have a look and introduce yourself to Joe. He’ll be in the studio Tuesday – Friday, 10-4pm (unless he’s out painting a mural somewhere!).

To see more of his work visit www.joemcmenamin.com

 

Solo Exhibition

Join me at the Feilding art centre for the opening of my solo exhibition “Flight” The exhibition runs for three weeks, so even if you can’t make it to the opening feel free to pop in and check it out if you are in town.

Naenae Mural project

The Naenae bowling club has been redeveloped and a large fence has been built between the bowling club and the Naenae Olympic pool. The council were concerned about graffiti going up on the new fence and wanted to create a piece of art that reflected the local community as well as deterring tagging. The Off the Wall mural crew worked with me at the Naenae Festival to ask the public "What are a few words that describe Naenae for you?". We then put all of these ideas and words together and came up with the words we wanted to use f0r the mural. We also decided to use the Pataka called Nuku Tewhatewha as the central point in the wall, and have two Kotuku standing guard on each side. Then the words that we took from the community were reflected in Maori and English on each side of the central point.

The other design feature was the transition from the hills on the left (and birds that would be found in the hills) blending down to the river and eventually the sea on the right (with sea birds at this end). Then around the side of the mural that faces Vogel street, the mural shows large hands that are playing bowls and other ball sports. The hands show a range of ethnicities and ages to show the inclusiveness of the new bowling club.

The whole project took about 5 weeks to complete, and we were fortunate enough to have an empty shop in the Naenae centre to work in over that time. Special thanks goes to Sue Lytollis from the Hutt City Council who supported us to well over the whole project.