At Home In a Foreign Land

At Home in a Foreign Land, is an exhibition of 24 paintings by local artist Miki Clarke of Ashhurst. Painting from the heart, Miki describes a world she has adopted as her own but never feels totally part of. As an outsider looking in she has a perspective that allows her the privilege of enjoying the pictorial values of so much of everyday New Zealand life, from landscape to the quintessentially ‘Kiwi’ garage sale or sausage sizzle. Miki works in oils on canvas, designing each picture carefully from photographs that she has taken or collected. Views of Wharite, the Tararuas and the Ruahine Range form a backdrop to her landscapes in the same way that they form a backdrop to her home in the Pohangina Valley. At Home in a Foreign Land opens on Friday evening 2nd October with a reception to honour the artist. The exhibition continues through 24th October.

“My paintings come from a passion for the everyday scenes that make New Zealand unique and identifiable.” Explains Miki Clarke – artist, mother and part time lecturer – when discussing the motivation behind her most recent series of paintings. “Even after living here for 15 years I still find myself looking at my surroundings as though for the first time, taking delight in everyday NZ life – the beautiful countryside full of light and space, hard working people taking pleasure from a job well done, mums’ looking for a bargain among the bric-a-brac.”

Miki was born in Japan and moved to Palmerston North with two young children in 1994 when her English born husband was recruited to teach at International Pacific College. Miki believes that her attitude to personal creativity derives primarily from her childhood in Japan. She was raised at a time when Japan was a very different world. “My family were traditionally farmers and they worked hard and lived a modest life. As a result I had few toys and would spend many hours drawing or making the things from remnants of fabric. From a young age I also had to learn traditional dance and calligraphy. That helped to instil an understanding of the aesthetics of fine art and an appreciation for doing things precisely and without compromise.”

Miki’s first exhibition in 2006 at the Feilding and Districts Art Centre was entitled “My Japan” and was a series of autobiographical moments from her life in Japan. Her second exhibition, “At Home in a Foreign Land” presents a very different body of work, turning her eye from herself to her surroundings. Miki works in oil on canvas, utilising the brilliance of colour and slow drying features of oil paints. Her painting style is simplistic and naïve; having never had formal instruction there is an honesty to her work that is refreshing and appealing.

There are three groups of work on display. “Working People” are painted in monochrome and the emphasis for each image is the hands of the worker that fill the frame. “I love the qualities of skilful hands, they tell so much of a person and their background. I admire the dexterity of these people and understand those skills as essential to the essence of being human.” The second group of images explore the local landscape. Painted in bright colour they capture the green carpet that is the Manawatu, yet each work also uses man-made features to give the work a solidity and sense of scale. “I like the old sheds and farm buildings; they have character and a sense of time passing. It saddens me so to see these old buildings get demolished to make way for new rural subdivisions.” The third series is about the everyday life of Kiwis. These paintings are slices of Kiwi life that stylistically resemble documentary photographs but are intensely colourful and loaded with essentially New Zealand icons. Miki considers herself privileged to be able to live in New Zealand and her paintings are a testament to her love of a country that is a home away from home.

Event listed by Stuart Schwartz

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