Bricksticks: A heritage tour stop during Labour Weekend in Whanganui
Bricksticks & Twin Kilns Gallery on Bastia Hill is one of Whanganui's quirkiest historic attractions and it is on the Heritage Month calendar this year.
The former brickworks is home, workshop and showroom to furniture maker Greg Betts who creates his bespoke pieces from recycled native timbers.
For the past few years, Betts has opened the former kiln areas in the downstairs part of the building as galleries for other artists to show their work and there will be a chance for visitors to view local artists' work during Labour weekend.
The featured artist is 19-year-old Whanganui printmaker Mikayla Baldwin who is currently in the second year of a bachelor of design course at Massey University in Wellington.
Baldwin has exhibited in the Twin Kilns Gallery for Artists Open Studios during the past two years and was disappointed that Covid-19 restrictions curtailed the event this year.
"It was disappointing, so I'm really glad to be able to exhibit here for Heritage Month," she said.
"It's such a great space with the bare bricks and the ferns growing in the gaps."
Baldwin developed her trademark dry point etchings while still a student at Whanganui High School and was the inaugural winner of the youth scholarship offered by Fine Arts Whanganui in 2017.
Drypoint is still her favoured medium, she says, although she has recently been experimenting with woodcuts.
"The works I have completed for this Whanganui exhibition are quirky and fun," says Baldwin.
"I've been doing some very serious and intense work at uni so I wanted to break out and have some fun."
Each of her works is limited to eight prints which are mostly black and white.
"I like to add just a small amount of colour to each one so it draws the eye to one detail first.
"Art is a great way to bring the impossible to life, I love creating surrealistic work by letting the viewers interpret each piece their own way.
"I will have extra prints available for sale during the weekend."
Visitors will also have the opportunity to purchase works by other Whanganui artists at Bricksticks and Betts' bespoke furniture pieces will also be for sale.
Chairs are a speciality and there are also tables, barstools, and footstools on show.
Betts said he was "quite chuffed" to be awarded the Saved and Preserved prize at the recent Whanganui Regional Heritage Awards.
"When I first came here 35 years ago I was looking for wood and it had a good concrete floor for a workshop.
"I never expected that I would end up buying the place but I'd had to leave my Wellington workshop so it worked out well," he said.
"I'm happy that I have preserved something that now has heritage value."
Bricksticks and Twin Kilns Gallery, 18a Georgetti Rd, Bastia Hill, will be open from 10am to 4.30pm from Saturday, October 24 to Monday October 26.
Liz Wylie
Whanganui Chronicle 12/10/20
