{"id":403230,"date":"2026-04-17T10:29:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T10:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/403230\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T10:29:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T10:29:12","slug":"east-coast-artist-pru-davis-showcases-ocean-inspired-works-at-matawhero-art-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/403230\/","title":{"rendered":"East Coast artist Pru Davis showcases ocean-inspired works at Matawhero Art Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI clearly remember my mum always outside painting somewhere with her easel and palette and, of course, paintings were everywhere.\u201c<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">After graduating from Elam Art School and doing an OE, Davis discovered and fell in love with the East Cape landscape and its people. <\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">She lives in Wharekahika\/Hicks Bay close to her two daughters and 11 mokopuna. <\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">At 63, Davis retired from teaching art to secondary school students on the East Coast. Since then she has been able to concentrate on her own art practice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cMy oil paintings are all about energy, light and movement. I am especially obsessed with depicting water. <\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI love that the sea is never static and never predictable. This seems to me to symbolise life itself, which also presents us with challenges and the unexpected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"The ocean is central to Pru Davis's new exhibition titled Going with the Flow. \u201cI love that the sea is never static and never predictable.&quot; Photo \/ Kim Parkinson\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>The ocean is central to Pru Davis&#8217;s new exhibition titled Going with the Flow. \u201cI love that the sea is never static and never predictable.&#8221; Photo \/ Kim Parkinson<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">Her art has evolved over the years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI think I\u2019ve got better at painting water, but it\u2019s taken years of practice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">Art has always provided her with a living. In France, when she was on her OE, she used to set up her easel on the pavement and draw people\u2019s portraits. <\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI also used to do little paintings of scenery and sell them to tourists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">In 2023, she had an exhibition at Tair\u0101whiti Museum called Landscapes, but she prefers the relaxed atmosphere and intimate setting of the Matawhero Art Gallery. <\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">Davis paints from photographs and will sometimes do a rough sketch before beginning a painting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI usually paint furiously on a new canvas for a couple of hours and then go back and layer it up. I often have several paintings on the go to allow time for the paint to dry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">The exhibition, titled Going with the Flow, is running at Matawhero Art Gallery at the cellar door of Matawhero Winery until May 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI clearly remember my mum always outside painting somewhere with her easel and palette and, of course, paintings&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[2273,1484,307,304,305,306,26444,55982,99776,308,2281,93,21942,4746,2537,61,9954,60,36326,177679,167780,90969,14733,177678,177677,126825,64084],"class_list":{"0":"post-403230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-art","9":"tag-artist","10":"tag-arts","11":"tag-arts-and-design","12":"tag-artsanddesign","13":"tag-artsdesign","14":"tag-at","15":"tag-coast","16":"tag-davis","17":"tag-design","18":"tag-east","19":"tag-entertainment","20":"tag-exhibition","21":"tag-explore","22":"tag-gallery","23":"tag-ie","24":"tag-inspired","25":"tag-ireland","26":"tag-landscape","27":"tag-likes","28":"tag-lives","29":"tag-matawhero","30":"tag-ocean","31":"tag-oceaninspired","32":"tag-pru","33":"tag-showcases","34":"tag-works"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}