An Art Chat with Jo Dalgety

1. What is your preferred medium and why?
   Watercolour, charcoal and oil – they seem real to me. I seem to be able to play with them in a way that I can’t with acrylic.
    
2. How would you describe your workk?
   Abstract landscapes, although the paintings are less about the land and more about the people who occupy or occupied it.
    
3. When inspiration hits how do you channel that into your work, what’s the process?
   I write down ideas and notes and then I revisit and photograph the actual place or area. Alternatively, I may visit the place and take photographs, keeping them for later work. I reference the notes and the photographs, but the results are abstracted.
    
4. What inspires you generally?
5. Memories of people and time spent in a place.
    
6. Where did you get the inspiration from for this particular piece?
   ‘There is yellow gold red and mauve in the sky’ – a watercolour and charcoal on paper. Inspired by sunsets and memories from the family farm at Hikuai. The title comes from a poem by James K Baxter.
    
7. Can you remember one of the first things you created? What makes it memorable?
   Copying a picture of a penguin when I was very young - I doubt if it was memorable!
    
8. What, in your opinion, is the hardest step in creating a masterpiece?
   Coping with the ups and downs of making work.
    
9. Tell me a little bit about your relationship with art and being creative?
   I couldn’t do without art or being creative. A must for me.
    
10. Which artists do you admire, past and present? Why?  What draws you to their work?
    Hard to pick in particular. Gretchen Albrecht and Helen Frankenthaler – for their use of colour and their expressiveness with paint.
     
11. What are you working on at the moment?
    A series of smaller watercolour and charcoal works on paper about ‘leaving’.
     
12. How do you know when a work is finished?
    When is ‘sings’ to me! Most of them don’t do that. I love working small and on paper – it gives you a freedom to throw those that don’t sing away.
     
13. Do you have any claims to fame?  Awards?  Related to a celebrity?
    This year I was a finalist in the 2014 Molly Morpeth Canaday Art Award, and two of my works were selected for the NorthArt Members' Mid-year Exhibition, the selector was Tim Melville from Tim Melville Gallery.
     
14. Tell us a fun fact about yourself?
    Mmmmmmm……
     
15. Other than creating art you seem to be involved in the art world generally – tell me a bit about what other artistic endeavors you’re involved in (e.g. blog etc).
    I am currently studying for a BA in Art History at Auckland University, and I also blog about my art and travel experiences. I am part of a shared studio space with eight other artists in Three Kings Auckland.
     
16. Tell me something you like about The Little Gallery in Tairua and why you chose to display your work there.
    It’s in my home territory of the Coromandel and I love that there is a good gallery there, plus the gorgeous Sarah Holden!

 

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