Artist in residence

2009 artists

The 2009 Artists in Residence are Johanna Pegler, a painter and Siobhan Harvey, a writer. These artists will be in residence at Awhitu Regional Park during October and November 2009 and will continue to create words and pictures into next year.

These artists were selected from over 50 applicants creating work in many different media.

The purpose of the residency programme is to share with park visitors an artists insight and view of the environment. Portions, extracts and copies of the work they produce while on site are later interpreted for the public, often in the park in which they worked.

Johanna Pegler

Is a painter of landscapes... with a ‘twist and a wink'. All is not as it seems in her carefully composed and technically sophisticated paintings.

Johanna immersed herself in the Awhitu landscape for four weeks generating material to use in her paintings. She was taken with the oddities in the landscapes, with borders, boundaries and zones where there was an uneasy merge of qualities, and unusual mixes. She spent time out walking, photographing, sketching and also took the chance to research her ancestral ties with the area. Awhitu ‘fuelled work' may be exhibited on site next year.

An Elam School of Fine Arts graduate, Johanna has work in significant public galleries and corporate collections. An exhibition of Johanna's recent work can be seen at the Anna Miles Gallery in Auckland from 11 November 2009.

Earthling by Johanna Pegler	Johanna Pegler - out walking at  Awhitu Regional Park

Siobhan Harvey

Siobhan is a versatile writer, writing and editing for a range of publications. Her strength is poetry, however she is also a critic, columnist, novelist and anthologist.

Her proposal includes working on a cycle of poems which carries the voice of the day; from morning chorus to nightfall.

Siobhan will also be in residence for four weeks and will share work generated at Awhitu by posting poems on the park noticeboard and later at a reading (possibly at Awhitu).

Siobhan's poetry has been published in literary magazines and anthologies in New Zealand and the UK. She has recently edited and launched a book; Our Own Kind, 100 New Zealand poems about animals published by Random House. She is a creative writing tutor, a literary journalist and reviewer, and holds a BA (Hons) and an MA in creative writing.

Siobhan Harvey reading one of her poems	Siobhan Havery and Cr Sandra Coney

Night at Awhitu - Siobhan Harvey

Hine-nui-te-Po sprinkled night
upon us, sooty as sand
upon Kauritutahi Beach.

As my son swam into sleep,
I thought of the still waters
of the Harbour, nearby,
the lighthouse standing above
with its glassy eye.

Watching over us,
the land breathed
deeply, slowly,
my son stirred
and I imagined

the plaintive cries of ruru,
matata tail-feathers fluttering

and the bleat of a lamb
pining for its mother.