Artist's hometown tribute

Renowned Matarawa artist Rhondda Grieg was thrilled to be asked to create a permanent artwork for her hometown, Carterton.

Ms Greig was approached by Carterton District Council to install a permanent piece in the town's new Events Centre.

She spent about a year working on Tohutohu, a title that means signpost, and liaising with building architects Opus.

Her perspex piece is about 7 metres by 4m and was installed in the centre last week.

Ms Grieg said she came up with several ideas for the artwork, which had been funded by WCM Legal.

The work contains the names of rivers, settlements and marae in the Carterton district, where Ms Grieg has spent all her professional life.

She has always had a strong interest in calligraphy and handwriting.

"Increasingly through the years, the gestures of calligraphy have progressively come into my painting in a much more considered way," she said.

"I decided to make it a naming work."

The names of the five main rivers in the region dominate the artwork: Ruamahanga, Mangaterere, Waiohine, Waingawa and Wanuioru.

"I allowed them to be the main structure, so that then a flow network of names of every settlement in the area of the Carterton district could be marked out," she said.

"It was a marvellous opportunity for me to draw on all that experience and create something to my home district," Ms Grieg said.