Inverlochy Art School

Last but certainly not least of our Next Generation Artist spotlight is the very talented Emma Phillips!

Emma is a Ngā Puhi artist living in Wellington and currently studying at Wellington Girls East. Working primarily in the mediums of painting or drawing, her work regularly reflects to moments in time, drawing from animal studies and the world around her.

We love the rhythms in Emma’s work and the way that she layers her paintings up on textures and found imagery. For this exhibition we are very lucky to be showing Emma’s entire 2025 portfolio - giving us an insight into to her working process!

Come and celebrate Emma and our other Next Generation artists tomorrow - Sunday 23 Aug from 10 am - 12 pm. Details in the link in our bio 🐟

Final day to catch this year’s Next Generation Artist’s Showcase ahead of our open day celebration on Sunday morning (see link for this in bio!).

Pictured here are tantalizing images of some of Wellington High student, Maia Fletcher-Walker’s contributions to our show!

This is Maia’s second year in the showcase. Last year she showed hypnotic, mandala-like pen and ink drawings and this year has surprised us with completely new works: layered photograms, ink prints and an epic paper sculpture that would make Michel Gondry proud!

Maia’s playful and experimental approach to making art is something that we aim to support in all of the artists that come through our doors. Her work is such an awesome example of what can be achieved when you follow your interests and take chances with new ways of making.

Thanks for providing the inspiration Maia!

Wellington High School Arts & Culture

✨✨Details from Saskia Day’s incredible paintings that we are very proud to be showing in our Next Generation Artists Showcase.✨

Saskia Tose Parekarangi Day (Ngāti Tūwharetoa) is an emerging artist studying at Tawa College. She enjoys developing thematic bodies of work while exploring overarching ideas of memory, storytelling, colour and symbolism.

Saskia’s artworks selected for this exhibition draw from two different projects - one drawing from the theme of incarceration and the other from childhood and play. We’re totally in awe of how Saskia manages to assert her own style across two such strikingly different topics. The skill, detail and absolute care that defines these works is inspirational!

Hear from Saskia and the other Next Gen artists this Sunday 23 August at our open day starting 10 am!

Tawa College

Behold this absolute beauty of a vase by Helena Jennings!

Helena is one of our advanced ceramics students and has been regularly attending classes here for years. It’s always exciting to see her work come out of the kiln and today was a particularly satisfying reveal!

Helena painted her vase with coloured slip and shared that when making this, she challenged herself to work loosely to allow the material to shine - such a good call! The rough, textured treatment of the clay paired with the gentle colours plus loose composition + application go together soooooo well!

Thanks for sharing and providing inspiration Helena!

helena violetta ✨✨

These beauties by Inverlochy painting tutor Melissa Nolan McDougall greet visitors across the foyer as they walk through the front door✨

1. Expressoholic, oil on wood
2. The white dress, oil on wood

Thank you for sharing them with us Melissa Nolan McDougall !

Organic forms in our ‘Next Generation Artists’ exhibition are looking particularly excellent on this still, beautiful day.

The community gallery is open until 5 pm tonight so make the most of that extra bit of time to pop by!

1 + 2. Yuko Thorpe
3. Maia Fletcher-Walker
4. Saskia Day
5. Emma Phillips

🍄📸🎨🫠

A sneak peak into what our drawing tutor, Denise Durkin, gets up to when she’s not teaching!

For those of you keen to learn from this legend - you’re in luck! This terms were offering a short, 5-week life drawing course at $285 (including materials and model fees) and starting from 20 August. Head to our website where you’ll find all the details and the link to book.

Denise Margaret Durkin ✨🎨

Woah! Hard to believe it’s only class two for these hard working students in Cecilia Denen’s ‘Oil Painting’ class!

Enjoy!

Come down to the Community Gallery to check out this year’s Next Generation Artist Showcase featuring four talented young Wellington artists in years 11-13 of high school.

This year we are very proud to present the work of (in order of image):

Saskia Rose Parekarangi Day (Ngāti Tūwharetoa) from Tawa College

Maia Fletcher-Walker from Wellington High School

Emma Phillips (Ngā Puhi) from Wellington East Girls College

Yukon “Yuko” Thorpe from Wellington East Girls College

Open until August 23 and replete with detail, skill and vision. We HIGHLY recommend coming in to take in the work of these exciting emerging artists in person! Open weekdays 10am - 2 pm.

Thank you to our wonderful friends at Gordon Harris Wellington for sponsoring this event for another year Gordon Harris Art Supplies 🎨 🩷🎨

Tawa College
Wellington High School
Wellington High School Arts & Culture