Copy of 'Return to Paradise' Pacific Art Workshop

Dive into the 'Return to Paradise' Pacific Art Workshop, where artist Ana Teofilo shares the vibrant spirit of her Samoan culture and heritage. Explore the richness of traditional motifs through carving and blended with modern techniques to create your own stunning, one of a kind artwork to take home.  

Ana Teofilo is a New Zealand-born Samoan artist who merges her Samoan heritage with western influence to create dynamic and contemporary Pasifika artworks. Teofilo’s distinctive Polynesian motifs are rendered by the artist carving directly into shaped boards, working to small, mid, and large-scale in circular, square, and frangipani-like forms. She then adorns her carved surfaces with opaque glue dots that offer a reflective quality, echoing the surrounding colours, and emphasising a sense of interplay between sculptural form and intricate detail.

Teofilo was the recipient of the Con Hutton Scholarship in 2015, contributing to the completion of her Masters in Visual Arts from the Dunedin School of Art at Otago Polytechnic. She showed at the Auckland Art Fair 2018, and was the 2022 winner of the Edinburgh Premier Art Award. Teofilo’s works are held in private collections, internationally and within New Zealand.

Ana is running two workshop at Māruawai Centre in Gore on Thursday, 16th October 2025. The am workshop is at approximately 11:30 am and the afternoon workshop is approximately 1:30 pm