Join us at DEPOT 3 Vic Road, Te Hau Kapua, Devonport

For artist Janet Mazenier, the journey to Ireland remains marked first by the air - salted by the Atlantic, thick with story. Among ancient ruins and moss-covered stones, she found not just remnants of history but atmospheres that carried memory. Her paintings from this time do not depict what she saw, but what lingered: the hush between walls, the shifting of rain through light, the sense of time breathing through the land. In Iceland, the encounter was just as elemental and visceral. The earth itself seemed alive - cracking, steaming, dissolving, reforming. Glaciers groaned, skies erupted with colour, and silence carried its own weight. For Janet, these were not conventional travels but thresholds. Ireland and Iceland were not simply places visited, but presences that impressed themselves into her process. She came to understand painting as a way of listening: listening to atmospheres, to silences, to the material voices of earth and weather.

Celia Walker's residency in Australia was a fully immersive environmental experience, at BigCi Artist Residency on the fringes of the Wollemi National Park (an hour and a half from Sydney). The BigCi Residency has a purpose-built studio, an enormous light-filled space housing up to four artists at one time. Artists are given total freedom and space to immerse themselves in their work and also in the surrounding environment. While the Wollemi National Park is largely wilderness without tracks, the visiting artists are invited to join in challenging off-trail exploratory walks within the park. The combination of the drama and challenges of the landscape (including resident snakes), along with the time and space to create meant this was a very productive residency for Celia. She ended her Australian experience with time in the Baldessin Print Studio near Melbourne and so was able to turn some of her drawings and work from the residency into finished collagraph prints.

Entry is FREE!

Refreshments provided by our partners Toi Toi Wines, Man O' War and Swiftsure Vineyards.
Koha will be accepted

About Janet Mazenier

Janet Mazenier is a fulltime professional artist who completed a Bachelor of Fine Art in 2015, followed by a Master of Fine Art (1st class Hons) in 2021 at Elam School of Fine Art. She is currently a PhD candidate (Creative Practice, painting) due to complete in April 2026. Situated between Aotearoa New Zealand and Ireland - her ancestral homeland - her research explores how places are experienced, remembered and reimagined through artistic practice. Her engagement with Te Hau Kapua Devonport - her home in Aotearoa New Zealand - and three residencies in Ireland has enabled a deep connection to layered territories, folktales, myths and histories, informing a body of work that draws on both accurate and constructed memories of place.

About Celia Walker

Celia Walker is a local Devonport printmaker and is one of the resident artists in the 3 Victoria Road studios. Celia has a background in environmental restoration, and her ecology-driven practice sees her using locally sourced materials and non-toxic processes. Celia holds a PhD in Art History, with a thesis about landscape and travel in the 19th century, and historical perspectives also inform her work. She has been a finalist in several national awards and selected exhibitions, and has participated in a range of juried international print portfolios.

Contact the host of Artists' Talk: Janet Mazenier and Celia Walker - Art Residency Insights

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