Recently I cornered Belinda Griffiths and
got her talking about how she got started as an artist, her 2014 Art Residency
in Winnipeg, Canada and what she is working on now. Belinda is one of our
newest Left-field members, who is currently using our cabin as her
studio.…………………………
Belinda studied a Bachelor of Design at
AUT, going on to work as a designer and stylist for about 6 years, while
painting on the side. She became particularly interested in painting the human
figure and in capturing emotion and mood. She made the decision to start
painting full time in 2004. She credits a year-long professional practice
course with artist and tutor Matthew Browne as helping her to focus her
practice and work out where she wanted it to go. Belinda has now been working
full time painting and printmaking for about 13 years.
A notable achievement in Belinda’s career
was in 2010 when she won the Molly Morpeth Canaday Award which she said was a
welcome affirmation in the decision to make art her career. Belinda also won the
NZ Art Show's Wine Label Award in 2011, (which saw her work printed on numerous
bottles of award winning wine) and the Uxbridge Estuary Art Award in 2013.
In 2014 Belinda took part in a short term
Art Residency in Winnipeg, Canada hosted by MAWA [Mentoring Artists for Women’s
Art] where she, her husband, 3 year old daughter and 6 year old son stayed in
the residency’s studio and accommodation. Here she spent time talking with,
recording and videoing local women artists. She then chose still shots from the
videos, which were used as reference for a series of prints that were exhibited
at the end of the residency. The way in which the material was gathered allowed
Belinda to gather honest, open captures of the women as they spoke about issues
that really meant something to them - their art practice and how they balanced
that with family.
The mark making that is evident in
Belinda’s work plays an important role in conveying the emotion of her subject.
Belinda's resistance to using traditional processes and methods around the
figurative genre allows her work to stand on its own two feet.
Belinda said she learnt a lot from the art
residency experience and found she was still processing it all, long after she
was back home in NZ. At the end of the residency Belinda made the most of
travelling around Canada visiting galleries and museums in Toronto and Montreal
and Vancouver. She was asked to write a dispatch piece about her residency
experience in New Zealand's ArtNews Magazine the following year.
The MAWA residency came at a time when
Belinda was actively seeking a change of environment and new influences for her
work. Being an artist as well as a mother to young children, Belinda relished
the opportunity to step out of her home-studio environment and experience a
change of scenery. MAWA is an artist organisation run specifically to support
women artists in Winnipeg and it gave Belinda the chance to have conversations
with artists which were useful and relevant to both aspects of her life.
MAWA also helped Belinda realise the
importance of community and to appreciate the support structure that an artist
group can offer. Luckily for Left-field, this realisation brought Belinda to
us. She believes feedback from other artists is important because they will be
more likely to understand the need for you to push boundaries in your own work,
and encourage you to take those necessary leaps rather than playing it safe.
Belinda is currently working on a series of
prints which will form part of a group show which she is also curating at New
Zealand Steel Gallery. The exhibition which celebrates ‘monotype as a medium’,
includes four other notable printmakers and runs from the 22nd April - 27th
May.
Technically, the print series will draw
inspiration from work she has done over the last few years, including the
pieces she did while in Winnipeg, but they will be on a much larger scale. She
sees this show as an exciting opportunity to explore a change in scale for her
printmaking work.
Belinda loves the monotype process and is
more comfortable using acrylics rather than printing inks due to her painting
background. She has developed a process that works for her through trial and
error and enjoys discovering what the medium can and can't do. She also enjoys
the element of surrender when working in the medium of printmaking. The marks
that happen without intention; the ones she’s not expecting to get, are what
she feels makes the process, as well as the result, so interesting.
Belinda also has a group show coming up
with five women artists at Railway St Studio in Newmarket working around the
theme of perspective. So …………..watch this space!
mawa.ca/events/view/artist-in-residence-showcase-belinda-griffiths
By Sarah Walker-Holt and Belinda Griffiths Jan 2017
Images: Sarah Walker-Holt
