Bathurst’s Tori Stowe will be exhibiting an interactive installation at Carinus Art Centre, 84 Beaufort Street, titled Possible. She is also offering six hands-on workshops for which you don’t need previous experience. Picture: SUPPLIED
POSSIBLE: Remembering birds – ink on paper. Drawing by Tori Stowe.
A galaxy of artists from the Sunshine Coast is set to shine at the National Arts Festival from 26 June to 6 July 2025. And for a group of young musicians from Nemato, it will be their first experience on this national stage.
Masterpieces, music, and magic
Making their mark at the start of the National Arts Festival in ‘Play among the stars’ at 4pm on Thursday June 26 at 16 Bartholomew Street, are staff and students of Inkwenkwezi School of Artistry. They will showcase their choir and recorder ensembles, art by 26 learners of Inkwenkwezi and Artship, and sculptures by Artship teacher Helen Averbuch.
Averbuch will also be hosting art workshops on Friday June 27 through Monday June 30 – the first weekend of the National Arts Festival – at 16 Bartholomew Street.
Verandah vibes
Bathurst upcycling artist Clare Rothwell has some new versions of some of her popular upcycled animal-themed lamps, pineapple-themed coffee tables, and lamps based on South Africa’s only officially recognised dog breed.
She will be exhibiting as part of the Eastern Cape Art Exhibition centred around fellow members of the Bushmans River Mouth Artists on the Verandah collective, Adri Moller, Chanelle Staude, Paul Marx, Juli Norton, Brian Hammond, Gill Bowman, Edmund Hall and Marilise van Zyl. ‘Verandah’ regular Robyn Coetzee will be there with her popular range of decorative art.
Joining them in the exhibition will be renowned ceramic artist and teacher Meshack Masuku, whose studio is at RIverRoost near Kenton, and wildlife artist Gabrielle Matlock.
Deanne Turnbull and Maxine Smit complete the lineup.
This year’s exhibition embraces the theme: The Art of Seeing – Observation, Imagination, and Expression in Visual Creativity. The opening function at the exhibition venue, the Cornish Visual Arts Centre (St Andrew’s College) will be on Friday, 27 June at 2pm. For more details, contact Adri Moller at 082 888 3206.
Around the Corner
Bathurst’s Tori Stowe will be exhibiting an interactive installation at Carinus Art Centre, 84 Beaufort Street titled: Possible. The venue will be morphed into an ecosystem which will be concurrently destroyed and recreated by visiting humans. The hope is to highlight that environmental change is Possible, within the reach of all of us.
Stowe is also offering six hands-on workshops for which you don’t need previous experience. In ThINK, “learn to use ink and watercolour to create art quickly and spontaneously”; in Mediative Patterning, “learn to see the patterns in everyday things and create artwork that is just as satisfying in process as it is in the end result”; Collage uses “a dialogue of mediums (paper, ink, charcoal, paint) to help you express what you didn’t even know you wanted to say”. More details at stoweandso.com/products
Also at Carinus
Long-time Bathurstian Sandra Thomas says, “@marissthequilter has kindly invited me to exhibit with her Upstairs at the Carinus Art Centre… This is a unique exhibition featuring my etchings (intaglio printmaking technique) and hand-coloured etchings, and is a fabulous two-in-one experience with Mariss’ Fabrications IV Exhibition. She is also holding slow-stitch workshops, so check the details on her profile.”
If you haven’t yet absorbed the exquisite yet unsentimental landscapes that Bushmans River Village resident Dorothy du Plessis creates in her Alexandria studio, do see them at Carinus. Also exhibiting there are Kenton-on-Sea artist Elsa Barnard, Sonwabiso Ngai, Anton Brink, Diane Erasmus, Janet Kingwill, Peter Midlane and Jane James. The upcoming artists exhibition at Carinus features Juanito Featherstone, Nicole Anne Bouwer, and Daniel Retief.
-
This article was first published in Talk of the Town, June 19, 2025. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays.