Celeste Sterling
Shared Lines: Pūtahitanga exhibiting artist
Midwinter (2019)
Celeste Sterling is an artist currently based in Tāmaki Makarau, Auckland who spent her early years in New Zealand and in the Dandenong Ranges near Melbourne, Australia. The ecological themes in her artwork and nature printed paintings had their genesis in early experiences of the New Zealand and Australian bush. Celeste graduated from the University of Auckland with a Masters Degree in Art History, First Class Honours in 1998.
A trip into the rainforests of Costa Rica in 2003 was a pivotal turning point in her artistic development and the start of a journey to explore biodiversity and environmental themes in greater depth. The desire to incorporate ecological concerns in her work in a more direct way led to the development of the leaf paintings. These use a nature printing technique whereby foliage is painted and printed by hand onto surfaces. The artworks created by this process reflect a lifelong passion for the natural environment, botany and ecology.
Shared Lines: Pūtahitanga 2020
My artwork for the Shared Lines: Pūtahitanga exhibition is inspired by the arrival of spring and the Japanese tradition of Hanami - flower viewing. The fleeting beauty of spring blooms are a reminder of transience and change. This artwork was made by nature printing, using direct prints from plants and flowers to build an image. I like to think of nature printing as a conversation with nature where the plants are doing most of the talking. In this artwork I nature printed flowers and plants from my garden and neighbourhood including blossoms, erlicheer, jasmine, wild strawberry, lavender, geraniums, viburnum and corokia. During a time of difficulty and uncertainty this artwork is intended to be a gentle celebration of the return of spring.