Jacqueline Elley: Pools of Light

KINA Gallery is delighted to present new work by Jacqueline Elley. Elley’s artwork explores water and light in varied ways through realist paintings and abstract light boxes.

Elley is an established artist who has exhibited alongside the likes of ex-Taranaki legendary artists, Michael Smither and Tom Mutch. In fact, Elley describes Mutch as her mentor, saying that he “took her under his wing” and let her know how hard it can be to become an artist. It was through Mutch that Elley became involved in the Birds Nest Studio exhibitions in Kuaotunu. As an invited guest artist in 2003, 2005 and 2010, Elley had near sell-out shows.

Elley graduated from the Otago Polytechnic School of Art in 1999 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours and was awarded the painting prize for that year for her minimalist fibre works. Always drawn to the coast, she has lived in Hahei, Raglan, the Far North, the Kapiti Coast and now Taranaki. She says living around different coastal areas has allowed her to explore seascapes and draw in ideas from the environment.

This is the first time Elley has had an opportunity to exhibit both her paintings and light boxes together. She sees this exhibition at KINA as a way of developing some ideas she has had since art school. Robert Eagle, Gallery Manager of Fisher Brown Gallery recently commented to Elley that her lightboxes “were quite watery”. Although she hadn’t related her paintings and light boxes together in a conscious way, Elley believes that the idea of fluidity runs between the two: “realist and abstract art forms are linked and each discipline is enriched by its juxtaposition to the other.”

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