With over forty years’ experience as a sculptor, Lauren Kitts’ work is well known in international and national circles. Originally from Colorado, she has worked mostly in New Zealand and many of her pieces can be found in public spaces and private collections from one end of the country to the other.
Five years ago she and her husband, Ray, left the frustrations of living and working in Auckland and moved to a site in Nelson that is the perfect combination of home, gallery and gardens where her sculptures can be displayed in a setting enhanced by the rolling hills of the Moutere with Tasman Bay in the background.
Lauren’s illustrious career began at college when she tried sculpting for the first time. “I was completely mesmerised with what could be created from a block of stone,” she says. A degree in Fine Arts at the University of California cemented her love of the craft, setting her on a lifetime journey exploring the possibilities that the earth’s abundant raw materials provide. “I have worked with many other resources over the years but seem to have a real affinity with stone,” she says.
Lauren has found Nelson a wonderful place to be a stone sculptor. “We are surrounded by all manner of material here,” she says. “There is marble from Takaka and Riwaka, river stones from the Motueka River and granite from the Abel Tasman.”
“I love the process of carving away the stone to create something new,” she continues. “I don’t follow a particular style or theme but make things that are pertinent to my current state of mind, whatever I am learning or reading about, or topical events.” Her “Melting Icebergs”, for example, is a statement about climate change while “The Cloud” celebrates the land and sky she is surrounded by.
Creating the sculpture park has been a labour of love. Situated only a few minutes from Mapua at the end of Williams Road in Tasman, ‘Hawk’s Valley Sculpture Gallery’ is named after the magnificent birds that sweep overhead. “They represent guardianship in Māori culture,” says Lauren. “As soon as we saw them we knew it was the right name for this place.”
The sculpture garden is open most days and people are welcome to wander around and experience the many different works. As well as pieces made from local stone there are also those in materials from abroad such as Egyptian and Indian marble and Chinese granite. Now is an excellent time to visit as Lauren is preparing for a joint exhibition at the Suter in May with painter Jill Seeney and the garden is full of a great diversity of stunning pieces.
Hawks Valley Sculpture Gallery
190 Williams Road, Upper Moutere, Tasman
laurenkitts.co.nz
