Wow - it has been a busy Warbirds Easter holiday. Town was buzzing and everyone seemed to be smiling. It was great to have the bright blue skies filled with a cornucopia of modern and historical planes. What a tribute to Sir Tim Wallis and his amazing vision.
Next weekend is another huge event when we welcome Aspiring Conversations (Festival of Colour), to town. Our shop has such a soft spot for the Irish writers who will be “zooming in” for conversations: Claire Keegan and Audrey McGee. Here is a “must listen” link to the RNZ interview with Claire Keegan.
Irish writers are featured in the shop this month: Sebastian Barry, Old God’s Time, Claire Keegan - we have five of her titles (Walk the Blue Fields, Antarctica, Foster, Small Things Like These, So Late in the Day), Audrey Mc Gee’s, The Colony and Claire-Louise Bennett, Checkout 19.
Our own local literary treasure - Ruth Shaw - author and bookseller from Two Wee Bookshops Manapouri, is in town for her appearance at Aspiring Conversations, Friday, 4th April, 8pm: (tickets here) Ruth will be visiting us at the shop earlier in the day for book signing at 3pm.
When you are next in the shop have a look at an exciting new initiative for The Next Chapter - Art and Artists. In mid March we had botanical watercolour artist, Deborah Law from Melbourne as Artist in Residence and now we are launching a mini-exhibition on the walls of the Next Chapter. This is a collaboration with Alison Bartley of Bartley & Company Art, Wellington. Ali has chosen two NZ artists who employ collage processes to explore visual perception.
Miranda Parkes “exploded book: French Painting”. These draw on a book on 17th-century French painting Parkes found when living in France during Covid. “Each of these paintings respond to its underlying historical work.” (Room Notes, Alison Bartley). Three of these works are in the collection of the Christchurch Art Gallery. Miranda is a fond friend of this part of the world as she was a Frances Hodgkins Fellow in 2017. We are thrilled to have five of her works on show with us. Individual works are priced at $1750.
Kate Woods is the second artist in the mini exhibition. Her work represents: “.. the crossing of boundaries between the painting and photography” (Room Notes, Alison Bartley). Some of the photographs Kate has taken herself and others are found photographs. These much larger works hang beautifully in the shop extension and illustrate: “.. alternative ways of reading and viewing images”. Kate also works internationally and in 2012 was the recipient of the Asia/NZ Foundation residency in Beijing. Her prices range from $1500 - $3200.
Continuing our Art Theme: we will be at the Wanaka Autumn Art School with a pop-up shop on Wednesday 17th April. This is part of the Sale Day at the Art School and is a very popular afternoon with the opportunity to buy artworks from the students and tutors and art and literary books from The Next Chapter.
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