Scans from Art News New Zealand, Summer 2014

‘Watercolorists Travel Light’ - Marita Hewitt.

I encountered Marita’s paintings and ceramics at Corban Estate last year and was infatuated: here is my blog post from that visit. She recycles old works into handmade paper (exactly what I was doing for my studio project at the time) and her relatively large-scale works in watercolour are tight, pristine, and meticulous. She writes that this makes them 'vulnerable’ which I can understand fully. These are the very qualities which are my default when painting, but which aren’t necessarily encouraged in an art school context, where the advice a painter generally receives is to 'loosen up’. I suppose I find them kind of vindicating for that reason.

Interesting to read about her recent success with this residency after struggling for 'nine years post art school’ - a scary prospect. Other contemporary artists I’ve encountered whose work references similar concepts - sustainability, e-waste, recycling - rarely do so in such an 'aesthetic’ way. (Is it rude to say 'pretty’?) Her work is so clean and tidy and clinical, and in a way it’s satisfying, but it also feels very artworld + distanced from the issue. A hard balance to strike.