That was Yesterday

Ice Cold

Title: That was Yesterday x 2
Artist: Marita Hewitt
Medium: Watercolour on paper
Size: 400 x 510 mm
Price: $3,000
Purchased from: Page Blackie Gallery
Date of purchase: July 2013
Buying group: Mary H, Mary M, Kate B
Final owner: Mary M

About the work

These collage-style paintings are the result of Marita travelling to Detroit to live and study the abandonment and decay of the urban environment which is a consequence of the close down of the motor industry. She photographed decaying and derelict parts of the city and buildings, arranging selected images in a collage format which she then painted on her return to New Zealand. The titles ‘Dept’ and ‘Ice Cold’ refer to building signage.

Dept

Buying decision

Our search for a purchase took us far and wide, gave us a lot of time together and taught us a lot about what we like about art.

We began with an explore of current exhibitions in the local galleries in early June. We saw a few things of interest but it was still early days. We visited Masterton to see an exhibition of Stephen Allwood’s work which was lovely to see and appreciate but out of our price range.

Another few weeks passed, we independently explored online, emailing each other, and independently checked out potential works. We unfortunately missed out on a painting we all liked online but before we could see it in the flesh it sold. A big disappointment.

Another round of exhibitions had opened at the local galleries and we set out again in buying mode over the next 2 Saturdays. We arranged to see a range of works that were in our price range from the stock room at Peter McLeavy Gallery. Our gallery visits eventually ended up at Page Blackie where we met artist, Marita Hewitt, installing her new exhibition “That was Yesterday”. We were blown away by her skill and were interested in her subject matter and technique. The larger works were out of our price range and we selected 2 smaller works for purchase.