Thames Art Gallery’s January featured artist, Jewel Lynam, has had a very interesting journey as an artist.
She was always creative but it was never in her thoughts to become an artist, let alone a professional one.
At the age of 46, with limited funds, she put on a backpack and headed for Europe, based on an urge that she “had to go”.
Five months later, in Monaco, she bought a canvas and a few tubes of paints, headed for the beach and started to paint. Her journey to becoming a professional artist had begun.
A top gallery in Aix-en-Provence, South of France, offered her a solo exhibition, unbeknown that she had never had any art training. From here she had many solo exhibitions, including in Paris and has exhibited with many prestigious artists from around the world. After living in the United States for 23 years where she made a living from her art, Jewel returned to New Zealand in 2010 to continue with her work.
As Jewel has had no formal training as an artist, she began painting with no preconceived idea or colour in mind. She likes acrylic paint and occasionally moves to mixed media but each piece conveys a freedom of expression. Jewel feels an energy flow through her when painting and often paints to music, which she says are both a universal language. Light plays an important part in her work and she loves colour and to see what comes from the energetic application and movement of paint. She says many of her paintings have a healing vibration, which will be passed on to the viewer whether they are aware of it or not, therefore she hopes that her work evokes a response to the senses and not the eye alone. Jewel Lynam lives in Thames and is currently in the process of writing a book about her unique journey as an artist, as well as continuing to produce her works of art.
Thames Coast potter Denise Judd’s work will also feature at the gallery during January.
Her work varies in style from the quirky Cat with the Rat, to more functional pieces. She is known for producing uniquely different totem poles which she gets a lot of satisfaction from making, from sculpturing the first piece for the bottom to the very last piece on the top. Her most fun totem was titled Kiwiana.
he recently received a merit award for a sculptural piece titled Out There, which shows her work is very heartfelt to her and others.
She enjoys trying different techniques like Kerikomi and Origami, which can be seen at her exhibition. She will also be displaying raku and pit-fired pieces.
Denise makes her own glazes with recipes she has acquired over the years and uses her own gas kiln to fire her art. Her works are ideal for brightening an area of the garden or for displaying in the home.
DETAILS: Thames Art Gallery, 604 Tararu Rd, for the month of January. Open weekdays: 10am-2pm, weekends: 10am-4pm.
– Supplied by Thames Art Gallery
