An exhibition in Alexandra involving Clyde-based artist Maxine Williams' paintings marks another stage in a late flowering.
Williams (45) says she has wanted to be an artist since early childhood. She just left it a little later than most to fulfil the dream.
"Life just sort of got in the way a bit for me and it wasn't until I was in my early 30s that I decided to push on with the art school dream," she says.
The road to her future started with a visit to Dunstan High School and talking to art teacher Kerry Finch. He encouraged her to enrol to do year 13 art there.
"It was great and Kerry was a wonderful help and was full of encouragement for me to succeed in the fine arts," Williams said.
Having made a start, Williams did not go straight to art school, instead studying graphic design and working as a graphic designer for some time.
Then, as part of two years spent at night-school life drawing classes at Cromwell, with tutor Megan Huffadine, she travelled to Dunedin for a tour of the Otago Polytechnic School of Art.
"That was when I had an overwhelming feeling that I had to go to art school," she says.
While she regrets not going to art school sooner, her recent three years of study, which culminated in her graduation from the School of Art at the end of last year, were well worth it, she says.
Communication is the underlying theme of Williams' paintings.
While some of her earlier paintings featured physical signs of communication, such as power lines and pylons, the imagery is now more likely to involve branches and trees, other lines seen in nature.
Williams' early influences were the art she saw around her, such as the works of Alexandra artist Elizabeth Stevens.
"To me she was our very own Picasso. Of course Colin McCahon also affected me, along with others."
As an art student she was given a list of artists from the Renaissance to look at, but it was surrealists such as Salvador Dali, or the abstract work of Jackson Pollock and pop artist Andy Warhol who impressed her initially.
"It was years before I came to understand the importance of the early masters."
Williams also worked a lot with film and video at art school. That led to a keen interest in the world of closed circuit TV, video surveillance, which she sees as another aspect of connectivity and communication.
In a case of life imitating art, Williams built a website, maxinewilliams.com, which resulted in a woman from Finland emailing her to ask if she could come and work and learn from her for a few weeks.
Meri Hietala from Helsinki was studying in Australia and decided to see if Williams would accept her as an understudy.
The partnership is working out well. Ms Hietala is doing a degree in art and design and is busy working on producing 100 CD covers.
Williams' art studio is set up in the former honeymoon suite at Olivers, in Clyde, where she prefers to work on the floor creating her art.
"I often end up with my footprints embedded in the work, and that makes it mine," she says.
She holds an after-school art school for primary school pupils once a week. The pupils are working on a video production, which is almost completed, she says.
