A bestselling contemporary artist delivers an explosion of colour exclusively in a Queenstown gallery from tomorrow, and collectors have been flying in from around New Zealand this week to preview the show.
Mixed-media expressionist artist Virginia Leonard, of Matakana, on Monday, in person, put the finishing touches to the 18 art works she created for her new exhibition in Artbay Gallery.
"Be My Valentine" opens tomorrow at 11am and follows Leonard's joint win last week of the 2012 Molly Morpeth Canaday Art Award and $10,000 in prize money, as well as her being named a finalist in the 2012 Waikato Painting and Printmaking Art Awards about six weeks ago.
Artbay Gallery owner Pauline Bianchi yesterday said Leonard's latest show represented an evolution in the artist's work, with her pouring of coloured lacquers and use of flowers as a motif.
The Auckland-born 45-year-old artist said in her statement the "gesture of the flower within the painting is an offering of beauty that glows and often hides behind my handmade layering of skin that I place on top of the painting, or hides behind poured layers of varnish; the flower is my Valentine.
"The pours and skins are myself, layers of memories and actions within."
The artist said her paintings were also based around the materials she used.
"The pigments are an old source of colour that I combine with new and modern materials. There are areas of opaque and transparent, of thick and thin.
"The contrast of materials sets up a scene of tension. It refers to My Valentine, the smooth with the rough."
Ms Bianchi, who represents Leonard exclusively in the South Island, said there was a waiting list for her work of collectors from Queenstown, Wellington, New Caledonia, Perth, Prague and New York.
Asked about the appeal of Leonard's art, Ms Bianchi said it was partly the unique finish, a combination of canvas and glass.
"The resin completely illuminates the colour and the work is really energetic. A lot of people comment they can feel the vibration of colour and they're really attracted to it."
"Be My Valentine" runs at Artbay Gallery in the Mountaineer Building from tomorrow until February 29.
