In The Hills by Camille Paloma Walton & Michelle Walton

Second Joint Exhibition at Public Record 

Artist from Kapiti, Wellington. 

Camille Paloma Walton

Artist Statement: 
Many days are spent in the hills of Manakau, playing with clay in my mum’s studio.
This collection of jewellery and ceramics is about the moments in between the making, the walks
through the native bush and along the stream that surrounds the property, countless coffee
breaks sitting by the fish pond and being amongst the garden. The critters, textures and colours
feed directly into the work. Earthy and a little bit magical.
A shared experience that naturally became the direction for this joint exhibition.

Bio:

Camille Paloma Walton is a jeweller based on the Kāpiti Coast, Aotearoa. Raised in Ōtaki by a sculptor and a painter, she grew up surrounded by art and making, a foundation that continues to shape her approach to materials and form. After completing a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Jewellery Design at Whitireia Polytechnic, Camille developed a practice that crosses disciplines, drawing influence from painting, drawing and sculpture. These influences appear in her use of texture, colour and scale, and in the way she treats each piece as a small, expressive artwork. Working from her Kāpiti Coast–based studio, Camille creates jewellery that combines traditional techniques with an intuitive, hands-on process. Her pieces are tactile, considered and distinctly her own, contemporary objects that celebrate both craftsmanship and play.

“I make jewellery with a focus on form, material and process. My work often starts with a simple idea that evolves through making, carving, shaping and refining until it feels resolved. I like working by hand and keeping the process visible. Marks, texture and small irregularities are part of what gives each piece its character. My aim is to create jewellery that feels solid, expressive and wearable, pieces that hold a sense of their making without feeling too precious or overworked.”

Michelle Walton

Artist Statement: 
In this collection of work I have continued to explore the sculptural and expressive potential of tessellated paper. The work starts out being precisely geometric but morphs into organic structures hinting at an underlying mathematical presence in nature. While my work reflects textures and colours found in the garden and bush around my home and studio I'm essentially interested in sculptural concerns like form, tension, structural integrity and testing the limits of the materials.

Bio:
Michelle Walton graduated from Ilam Art school, Canterbury University in 1984 with a Diploma in Fine Arts. While raising her four children on the Kapiti Coast she continued to work in the arts making jewellery, ceramics, sculpture and running art classes. For the past twelve years she has been involved teaching in schools for the annual children art and environment exhibition established by Mahara Gallery, The Phillips Family Trust and Ngā Manu Reserve.

Michelle has been exhibiting her sculptural works since 2002 in Galleries, Sculpture Conventions and in her own home based gallery (Backwal Gallery). In 2018 Michelle built a studio in the countryside and began to focus on her sculpture full time. Michelle's work is an exploration of the potential sculptural possibilities of materials. For the past eight years she has been interested in the potential of paper tessellations and folding techniques to create form, volume and structure into new and evocative wall reliefs. Her work starts out with a grid which remains the underlying structure but with the process of folding, bending, tearing and cutting they become organic, evoking memories of natural forms and landscapes.

If you wish to receive their catalogues, please click the link to request it.

enquiries@publicrecord.shop 

Available at Public Record 

82 Ponsonby Rd, Auckland, NZ