Vision quest: Waitohi Picton Open Art Studios tour
Tucked between the bays and bush of Picton, a cluster of artists open their studio doors for a rare glimpse into their creative worlds. From ceramic treasures to expressive canvases, the Waitohi Picton Open Art Studios tour celebrates the region’s talent, passion, and artistic freedom.
Words & Photos: Evan Tuchinsky
Valerie Maynard’s ceramic art is like a buried treasure: hard to find without a map.
Getting to her studio entails a winding journey along Queen Charlotte Drive; spotting the Valerie’s Gallery sign; ascending the narrower Tepuia Heights roadway; and, finally, following the correct turns to the home she and her husband built nearly two decades ago.
She does not use social media. She does not have a website. Yet each year, when winter gives way to warmth, hundreds of visitors seek her out. Her downstairs gallery, adjacent to her workspace, offers them – and her – a breathtaking view of the Mahakipawa Arm estuary. In those environs, Valerie follows her muse.
“I just make what I love,” she tells a guest over morning tea. “What freedom!”
Some 40km east, Emma Munro expressed the same sentiment. She’s a prolific oil painter and a ceramic sculptor. A short path away from her home looking out on Whatamango Bay, Emma’s studio features both easels and a ceramics kiln that she fires up periodically. She does use social media. She does have a website. She does a lot to promote her art, which she turned into a full-time profession five years ago.
Emma, like Valerie and Picton artists nestled between them, creates what she likes, rather than cater to the tastes of others.
“I’ve tried to make things that I thought people would buy, and that’s the worst thing you could do, because honestly it will sit there for years,” Emma says. “When you use your heart and soul, and you just make something because you love it, those things go. People pick up the energy in things like that. It’s way cool.”
Emma, Valerie and 11 other local creatives will put their passion on display from 15-16 November for Waitohi Picton Open Art Studios, a tour marking its fifth year. From 10am to 4pm that Saturday and Sunday, visitors can explore their workspaces and view a wide array of art.
Val Griffith-Jones nurtured the event from a seed planted years earlier when touring England with her husband. Cycling around, she recalls, “In two different counties they had a distinctive flag so you knew you could wander in and say ‘hello’ to artists there.”
Participants here display similar signs with the Open Studios logo. “It’s nice because it feels like it gives you permission to go in and have a chat and not feel obliged to buy something,” Val explains. “For a host, you’re making yourself available for people to come and understand artists aren’t crazy people, exclusive people or whatever (stereotype someone may harbor).”
The group has been fortunate to receive funding from Marlborough District Council each year, which supports the event, with additional contributions coming from the artists themselves. While they also collaborate on other events, such as exhibitions in Blenheim, Open Studios holds a special place for this collective community, where lasting friendships continue to form.
Val is using the occasion to debut her new in-home gallery called The Box Room, while Emma is holding a special reception the day before, on 14 November, and expanding into a second part of the studio building her partner constructed.
Off a cul-de-sac in Waikawa, northeast of Picton, Carli Lewis is preparing her studio for the event. A mother of two, she paints in a bedroom of the home she and her husband purchased two and a half years ago after moving from Napier. For her first Open Studios, Carli displayed her work in a blue caravan on the driveway. This year, she will present pieces elsewhere on the property, reflecting her love of nature, play, and holistic positivity.
“I love working with the artists on Open Studios,” she says. “They help me feel free and encourage me to enjoy it. Seeing each other’s work is really inspiring.” Carli studied painting in Auckland before pursuing nursing, then returned to art after having children. Now, she balances painting with parenting, gardening, and related pursuits, while her husband commutes by bike to his “dream job” at Port Marlborough.
In a historic home about 2km down Waikawa Road, Carli’s friend and mentor Lynn Saul expresses herself in different ways. Lynn is a multimedia artist: She primarily uses paint, pencil and ink, but also plays with fabric and weaving.
Her style has developed over time and is “still evolving.” One of her early watercolours, from when she lived on a boat, unambiguously shows a bird on a branch. It sits on a windowsill in her studio, a converted sunroom upstairs, alongside more recent abstract pieces. The ground-floor drawing room features related sets of paintings and screen-printed seats prompted by her husband’s pottery collection.
This Open Studios will be Lynn’s third; she also has joined the artists exhibiting in Blenheim. “I think what’s really interesting is how everybody loves something different,” Lynn says. “Primarily, I produce it for myself, what I enjoy myself, but it’s really interesting seeing other people’s reactions. Sometimes things you like, no one else likes – and vice versa.”
Kevin and Martina Black, meanwhile, create behind their retirement home in Picton. Kevin distinguishes between his past as a “production potter,” mass-producing ceramics for cruise-ship visitors, and his current life as a “studio potter,” free to follow his own creative instincts.
“It’s a hobby for which my costs are paid,” he says, while Martina echoes the sentiment.
Open Studios is about sharing creativity, not pressure. Kevin hopes the tour helps demystify the artistic process. “We’re no different than anyone else,” he adds. “There’s no magic in what we do; we all spent time learning it.”
The Open Studios artists represent a spectrum of paths. Valerie’s career spanned floral arranging, dental assisting, and art education across the UK and New Zealand. Carli and Lynn shifted from health professions to art. Kevin and Martina balance retirement with creative output. Emma has long had an artistic avocation. While some rely on sales for income, most create primarily for personal fulfilment.
Across media, styles, and experience, a common thread emerges: a dedication to doing what they love and sharing it with the community.
Waitohi Picton Open Art Studios takes place 15–16 November, 10am–4pm.
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