Coromandel Life Magazine Spring 2017

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Cover Artist
Coromandel’s Barbara von Seida has a unique,
expressionistic, broad-stroke painting style,
evolved over decades. Her dynamic acrylic
landscapes and florals project a strong,
invigorating imagery. Subject-wise, her ongoing
inspiration is the ever-changing scenery as
seen from her cliff top home overlooking
Coromandel’s Long Bay and the Hauraki Gulf.
Barbara spent 5 years studying ceramic and
textile design at University of Applied Sciences
in Krefeld, Germany. She then worked as
a freelance fabric designer, painting, in
watercolour – her preferred medium – the initial
patterns that informed the final prints. She
found employment with United Silk Companies.
In 1984, she moved to West Cork, Ireland
where she opened her Country House
Gallery to showcase her ceramic sculptures
and watercolours. In 1990 she moved to
Coromandel and established her Kowhai
Watercolour Studio, named after the NZ tree.
A look at Barbara’s website reveals not just
watercolours, but gutsy, dynamic, broad-stroke
acrylic paintings. Landscapes, seascapes, and
florals as well, all brought onto the surface
with splashy-but-precise brushwork. She
added acrylics to her palette in 1997 to take
advantage of the bold, stable colours it gives,
rather than the flowing hues of watercolours.
BARBARA COLOURS HER LIFE
Barbara’s work caught the eye of TV’s Graeme
Stevenson, host of the Colour in Your Life
show. He motorbiked over to Barbara’s
charming airy gallery and conducted an
interview with her as she worked in her
basement studio. She chose to paint a
landscape of one of her favourite places,
‘Stony Bay’. (See painting above right.)
The main outlines were already sketched
in charcoal, but then she danced the broad
strokes and twists of paint onto the surface.
“With acrylics, I paint for the pure dashes of
colour!” she tells him, revealing she does most
of her colour mixing right on the board. And
with the thick acrylics, she can scrape off paint
as well, which is not an option in watercolours.
“With acrylics, I do not have to be as careful.”
Cover Artist
Below: Image of “Stony Bay” that Barbara
painted on the TV programme
Barbara von Seida
We have been longtime admirers of Barbara’s work and are thrilled to
have the vibrant ‘Dreaming of Spring’ as our Late Spring/Holiday cover
At left: In October, Barbara’s painting
“Charged” was judged ‘Best Landscape’ at
the 2017 Waitakere Trusts Art Awards, by well
known judge and art commentator, Lynda
Tyler (Director of Art Studies at the Auckland
University).
EXHIBITS AND AWARDS
Barbara is a regular participant in October’s
Coromandel Open Studios Arts Tour and is
looking forward to a solo exhibition at the
Gallery Art Matakana, north of Auckland, 2-24
February 2018.
Barbara also has two entries in the Waikato
Society of Arts members exhibition being held
at ArtPost, Hamilton from 13 October to 20
November, and has entered two paintings
into the Hibiscus and Bays Art Awards at the
Mairangi Art Centre at Mairangi Bay, from 9
November to 10 December.
Barbara is one of NZ’s most awarded artists. In
2013 and again in 2015, Barbara was won the
Supreme Award at the ARTWaikino exhibitions.
Barbara’s work has been featured in numerous
art publications, and her paintings form part of
many private and public collections.
The actual cover painting, “Dreaming of
Spring”, is available at Barbara’s home gallery.
Additionally, you can view her paintings at the
Thames Society of Arts Gallery in Tararu and at
the Weta Studio in Coromandel Town.
Barbara’s Kowhai Watercolour Studio is
located at 600 Wyuna Bay Road, just 3.5kms
outside Coromandel Town.
View recent works, including new watercolorrs,
at
Enjoy the TV programme “Fine Art Show with
Barbara von Seida: Come Inside her World of
Acrylics” at
Charlotte Giblin is the life-filled Brit
immigrant who chronicled her discovery
of the Coromandel in a delightful drawing
style which we used to illustrate our many
“Road Trip” sections. She collected these
paintings in her art book, Wandering
under Big Skies. Charlotte also teaches
art workshops, and has developed an
art-inspired coaching business– quite the
multi-talented lady!
Charlotte has developed two new painting
styles, portraits and bright fanciful
landscapes, both seen recently at her
retrospective show at Whitianga’s Bread &
Butter Gallery. She is now painting portraits
for a February show.
Then, suddenly, Charlotte was posting
photos of packing boxes! She and partner
Pete were moving to New Plymouth.
Charlotte wasted no time setting up her
studio in their new home. Already missing
her, she assures us she will return regularly.
“I’ll be staying in touch with the drawing
group – having Skype classes and other
kinds of distance learning – plus I’ll be
back every 3 months to do workshops
and exhibitions, so I’m not cutting my
connections, but obviously I will be a lot
further away!!”
See FB or visit
Charlotte’s new studio and gallery workshop space
at her new home in Westown, New Plymouth.
6 COROMANDEL LIFE 2017 SPRING / HOLIDAY