Fresh talent joins Open Studios tour.
By Julie Dann.
Three new artists have joined the growing group of creatives in Coromandel, boosting the town’s pool of talent for Open Studios in October.
Photographer Jeremy Scott, and potters Callum Trudgeon and Yvonne Szabo, will all be showing their work for the arts tour over two weekends – October 7-8 and 14-15.
Jeremy Scott discovered his passion for photography when he cycled 52,000km from New Zealand to London from 2011 to 2014.
He was born with hole in his heart and had vital surgery as a child. As a result, Jeremy wanted to repay those who saved him by raising money for heart charities.
Along the way he began his lifelong love of landscape photography. Then he wrote a book about his travels called The Long Road from a Broken Heart.
His stunning photos of Whangapoua, Wyuna Bay, Castle Rock and Oamaru Bay, as well as beautiful prints of tui and kereru, will be on show.
All his photographs are printed in New Zealand on canvases or cotton rag fine-art paper. The large panoramic canvases, 1,400mm x 500mm, are $400. A3 matted prints of tui or local views on Hahnemuhle cotton rag paper are $180.
“I like to give the printing to a local firm,” he says. “I am making less money but it’s important and they do a good job.”
Jeremy, who has been in town four years, works in environmental weed control, ridding Coromandel of such nasties as moth plant. He is also a trained architectural draughtsman, so hopes to return to that and open his studio on Tiki Road in future.
Potter Callum Trudgeon, meanwhile, hails from St Ives in Cornwall, England, and is on a three-year work visa working for Driving Creek Railway (DCR). His mission is to create a line of pottery to sell, combining his style with that of DCR founder Barry Brickell.
Callum honed his craft over eight years at Leach Pottery in Cornwall. He was recruited in December by DCR to create a production stream of functional pots to sell in the shop.
He’s creating samples of 18 pieces, 50 of each shape, and from that will start to refine the range. Bowls are about $65 but pricing is yet to be confirmed. On Open Studios’ first weekend, there will be a wood firing. On the following weekend, there will be a kiln opening.
As well as working on special editions with other potters, such as Sarah Harrison, Callum is offering pot-throwing classes over five days from 10-4pm for $1,100 and wood-firing courses in October.
Callum is hoping his designs will stand the test of time. “If people buy high quality, chances are they can pass them onto their children unlike an Ikea mug they may not have an emotional attachment to.”
Yvonne Szabo, Former midwife and current teacher’s aid, broke a 15-year hiatus in her art when she went on a Play With Clay Day in Coromandel. “That’s how I got started again. I then went on a weekend workshop with Kay Ogilvie, who is now a good friend.”
Yvonne is now creating sleek and organic objects, almost Hundertwasser-like, which are tactile and inspired by nature. “They remind me of beautiful river stones.”
Not content with busy lives, Yvonne and husband Steve have just finished building their new home in Te Kouma. The couple and two teenage children moved here from Cambridge in 2021. During the build they lived in a caravan, which is now destined to be her temporary art studio.
Yvonne, who completed three years at The Learning Connexion in Wellington studying sculpture and ceramics, will share studio space with Kay Ogilvie on Wyuna Bay Road and has a Facebook page, 360 Ceramics.
As well as these new artists, others are returning after a break. They include Cindy Alger, Bob Drummond, Sally Tennent-Brown, Daniel Kirsch, Uli Christofferson, Richard Chrisp and Genevieve Morley, boosting the numbers to 34 artists taking part this year.
This is reprinted from August Edition of Coromandel Chronicle with permission. The
Coromandel Open Studios is very popular on across the Coromandel Peninsula.