The Thames Art Gallery is set to host two featured artists for the month of November, with exhibitions by painter Peter Augustin and potter and ceramicist Ria Erasmus-Kruger.
For Peter, who lives in Whitianga, it will be his second time showing his work at the Thames Art Gallery, a place and town he said he loved.
“What I try to give the people is a little bit of connection to art, to find themselves in the painting, in the colour maybe,” the painter said.
His belief was that everybody had their own colour, everybody had their own view of art and people.
The artist, who was born in Slovenia and lived in Switzerland for most of his life, shifted to New Zealand in 2004 and made it his home.
He carried his passion for art with him.
“I paint from my feelings, from my heart. And I think that is what I try to give to people, just the feelings, love, art. Like in Europe, they call me ambassador of love. I was painting lots of paintings [that were] a little bit romantic.”
While most of Peter’s paintings were of faces or bodies, he said he also made collages, print works and landscapes.
“I just hope that people down in Thames and also the visitors, the tourists, [that] they stop and see something in the gallery.”
Meanwhile, in the northern end of the gallery will be the works of Ria Erasmus.
Her aim with her art was to “make people happy”, she said.
The artist was around 50 years old when she said she first put her hands on clay.
“The first time that I really saw pottery clay and put my hands on it was in 2009. And I immediately fell in love with it, it was like instant,” the potter told The Profile.
“The moment I could carve into it, it was just magical, I was obsessed and I’m still obsessed with it.”
The now 67-year-old artist said she “never looked back”.
Ria said she was also a water colour and oil painting artist, who did quilting and embroidery and used to teach the subjects in South Africa.
She hoped people would find something affordable at the exhibition that “they really love” to take home, she said.
DETAILS: Peter Augustin and Ria Erasmus Kruger’s art will be on display at the Thames Art Gallery, 604 Tararu Rd, Thames, daily from 10am to 4pm.
By DAVIDDA HIKATANGATA
