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WWW.PAKUVIEWS.CO.NZ
Joanne Mahoney
Watercolour & mixed media artist
Mercury Bay
Art Escape
Participant
2013
“Paua and Pohutukawa”
07 865 7355 •
“Ginger Jar”
The nervous groom-to-be got up early and placed the
shell upside down on the beach, hoping no one else
would find it! When the two set off for their morning
walk, she did pick up the paua, and when she turned it
over to look at the beautiful colours inside, she saw
those very special words.
Mythic Paua Helps Cancer Patients
A health worker, who uses the paua image to help those
suffering from cancer treatments, told Joanne that so
often the people she worked with felt unhappy with their
appearance. “She wanted a way to counsel them that
would encourage looking inside to see their true inner
beauty”.
And just like with Joanne, the paua spoke to this wom-
an. “She had been walking along a beach and saw an
upside down paua and thought, ‘how ugly’, but then,
when she picked it up and looked inside was taken with
how beautiful it really was. The paua would provide the
inspiration to communicate and help her clients”.
See page 6 to read the Maori legend of how the paua
got its beautiful shell.
Joanne’s artwork can be seen at her home studio
in Whangamata. The Little Gallery of Fine Arts in
Tairua and online at
nz/ or
Contact her on 07 865 7355, 02102264471
or email
“When I started painting, one of the
first things I wanted to paint was
the paua”, shares Joanne Mahoney,
a master of capturing the iridescent
vibrance and dramatic colours of
our paua shell.
Born and raised in the Wairarapa region, Joanne re-
calls, “My childhood holidays were spent at Ngawai, on
the southern Wairarapa Coast. We found paua by just
turning over rocks in knee deep water. They are much
harder to find now”.
Joanne married in 1969. “My husband was a very keen
surfer”, she shares, “and I was taken to many amazing
and isolated surf spots”. While he was on the water for
hours, Joanne combed the beach, looking for shells or
whatever else might have washed ashore. “The more
beaches we visited—South Africa, Asia, the Pacific
Islands—the more my shell collection grew”.
Joanne has been painting paua and other coastal life
since 1983. These landscapes have inspired a passion
for colours and patterns that Joanne now immortalises
in paint. Although she works in mixed media, her pre-
ferred medium is watercolour, which allows her to bring
out the very delicate nature of her seaside subjects.
Early encouragement to follow her interest in painting
came from gallery hops with her aunt and later, learn-
ing Chinese brush painting techniques while living in
Singapore. “This encouraged me to experiment with my
talents and a journey in painting began,” she says. (You
can still find the Asian influence surfacing in such works
as
Ginger Jar
and
Walking My Line
.)
Joanne now shares some of her images on greeting
cards and prints. “These have been very successful all
over New Zealand and in the UK”
Paua Proposal
“A few years ago a young couple contacted me to buy
cards with the paua image to use for invitations to their
wedding in the UK”. When they came to pick up the
cards, the Kiwi and his British fiancée shared the story
of his proposal.
The young man had the inside of a paua shell carved
with Maori motifs by a Maori carver and then engraved
”Will you marry me?” on the inside.
Our Cover Artist
Joanne Mahoney
Paua Shell
Tairua
078647464
Thames
078689063