INTERVIEW

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Amber wins PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD FOR SECOND TIME

Art with a message is at the core of the annual Estuary Art and Ecology Awards, hosted by Uxbridge Arts & Culture and the winner of this year’s People’s Choice category has clearly conveyed her environmental message to exhibition visitors. Amber Adams talked to JESMA MAGIIL about her thought-provoking art work.

The people have voted: Amber Adams’ painting, Birdlife of the Tamaki Estuary: Changing Tides was judged the most popular entry in the 2020 Estuary Art and Ecology Prize and it’s easy to see why.

Birdlife is not only visually appealing, evoking local iconic imagery, it also packs a strong emotional punch with its environmental message, one which is fundamental to the exhibition’s purpose as the only art competition in New Zealand with ecology as its prime focus.

Birdlife: Changing Tides shows the estuary’s typography, overlaid with imagery that resonates with Kiwis’ love for the environment.

The over-scaled and prominent stars of the work however, are sadly, the endangered native sea birds that live on and around the estuary.

For as long as she can remember the Tamaki Estuary has been important to Amber: “I grew up on the estuary, we played there and I’ve always been inspired by its form. It’s devastating to see the state that it’s in now.” Birdlife: Changing Tides is executed in acrylic, oils, metallic leaf and polyurethane. The leaf symbolises the pollution of the soil and polyurethane represents tributyltin, or TBE, which is found in anti-fouling paint.

“I wanted to depict the estuary in a way where the landform itself hasn’t altered over some 7000 years, but that the way we treat it has changed significantly. The estuary has become a busy thoroughfare for boats and the surrounding banks and land are now built-up with industrial sites and housing.

“The birdlife is an integral part of the natural balance of the estuary but over time this has greatly diminished due to high levels of pollution. Chemicals and plastics now threaten this beautiful body of water and its tributaries.”

Asked to submit a piece for the awards, Amber appreciated the nudge especially given her passion for the environment. She completed her entry during the country’s first Covid-19 lockdown.

The people have voted: Amber Adams’ painting, Birdlife of the Tamaki Estuary: Changing Tides was judged the most popular entry in the 2020 Estuary Art and Ecology Prize and it’s easy to see why.

Amber Adams

Partnership and Amber, delighted with her win, was also thrilled to collect her $1000 prize, making this her second People’s Choice accolade in the same competition.

Amber also believes Birdlife is quite possibly one of her best paintings yet. Her award is also great news for Amber Brooks Design, her art-to-order company, with enquiries picking up nicely since her win was announced.

Art features prominently in Amber’s DNA. Melody Brooks,another popular local

Photo Wayne Martin

artist, is her mother, and Amber’s childhood home positively buzzed with creativity. She remembers entering every colouring in competition she could find and in a sign of things to come, won just about all of them.

She says her artistic style has changed and evolved over time; last year she was more “abstract”, “modern and contemporary.”

This year she’s a little less abstract, definitely more contemporary and there’s a touch of realism coming through, too. Currently working at Uxbridge, Amber teaches art to adults and children and says she’s almost as passionate about passing on first artistic principles to her students as she is in creating artworks herself. She also teaches adult students from her home studio.

For those parents keen to encourage their child’s creativity Amber says the best thing they can do is draw or paint along with them as long as the children have a willingness for it.

“And, I don’t like to see children take up digital art too early; it’s best they learn the rudiments of art and drawing first.”

NOTE: First prize in the 2020 Estuary Art and Ecology competition went to Kate van der Drift, with her diptych, First Quarter Moon to Full Moon, May 2020.

YEAH NAH: HOWICK TO MARAETAI

(09) 535 6467 exhibitions@uxbridge.org.nz malcolmsmithgallery.org.nz Please join us for the artist talk and book launch: Saturday 10 Oct at 11AM

at UXBRIDGE Arts and Culture

Exhibition:Thursday 1 Oct - Monday 16 Nov Siobhan Rosenthal

35 Uxbridge Road, Howick, Auckland 2014 Mon - Sat 10AM - 4PM, Thurs until 8PM

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