Campe’s space is a purpose-built studio constructed 20 years ago as an add-on to a carport at Hāwea Flat.
Carruthers’ space is a renovated old garage at Fork Farm, in the nearby Maungawera Valley.
In former days, it was filled with "artefacts" (a nice name for rubbish) and had a big hole in the end wall where people had failed to stop.
The two artists are now collaborating to produce Campe’s solo exhibition, "Omniscient Creatures", hosted by Carruthers in her Old Garage Gallery.
Carruthers said opening her space to Campe was a way to "pay it forward".
"Because we are isolated from the centre of town, we need to help each other.
"I like to support up and coming artists and it is a great exhibition space," Carruthers said.
Campe said her own workspace was too small for the scale of art she wanted to share with the public.
Carruthers’ suggestion she use the Old Garage Gallery had given her the kick-start she needed to go solo, she said.
Throughout the year, Campe marches to the beat of many drums — she is a mother, a mountain ski guide, works outdoors winter and summer, and creates art.
But her art practice was not an addendum to everything else, she said.
"It is not there to keep me busy. It is who I am."
"If you prioritise it, you have to make space for it, literally and figuratively," she said.
"Omniscient Creatures" is informed by her own, lived experiences of the ocean.
Last year, she spent time skiing in Alaska, and while walking in a forest, observed a colony of bald eagles nesting in trees.
She also spent time living on a boat on the ocean near Tonga where, for the first time in her life, she got an opportunity to swim with a pod of humpback migratory whales.
She discovered she was hanging out with a nursery of mothers and calves.
"They were not scared and I was not scared. It was an experience that touched me deeply," she said.
"I am an ocean person, misplaced in the mountains. I spend a lot of time skiing but actually I want to be surfing and catching the waves," she said.
She felt instinctively the eagles and whales were "cousins of some sort ... in as far as they are lofty and wise".
"Omniscient Creatures" rose out of the respect and awe she felt when she saw the creatures nurturing their young.
Experiencing the eagle and whale nurseries had made last year’s travels the most worthwhile of anything she had ever done, she said.
"This is my way of saying, let’s adore these creatures ... I didn’t even need to decide [what to paint]. It just came out of me," she said.
Art exhibition
- WHAT: Omniscient Creatures
- WHERE: Old Garage Gallery, Fork Farm, 100 Maungawera Valley Rd, Wānaka
- WHEN: September 15, 4pm - 6pm opening night. Viewing thereafter by appointment until October 6 (ring Laetitia 021-131-5606).
