Collection: Michelle Walton

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 nine years she has been involved teaching in schools for the annual children's 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 5 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.