Norman Franke – 24 February, 2026

In September 2024, Amanda Watson worked on a series of large-format abstract paintings at St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church in Edgefield, East Anglia, incorporating the site’s contours, lighting, and material traces into the creative process. The charming flint stone church in North Norfolk was rebuilt in its current location in 1884 by an ancestor of the artist after the original church had fallen into disrepair.

Watson, who lives in New Zealand, contacted the church’s current rector and was able to spend several weeks in East Anglia, immersing herself in the atmosphere and exploring the artistic possibilities of this historic site. The resulting works—large canvases and smaller framed sketches—are currently on display in an exciting exhibition at the Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts in Hamilton.

As in her previous site-responsive works, produced in various natural landscapes, Vital Union also exhibits a direct, tactile relationship to the artistically explored environment. For example, the large canvas ‘Emanation Among Illuminated Walls’ (2000 x 3000 mm) incorporates the forms of the church’s stone walls, weathered by the English climate. The works Where the Shadows Fall andPathways Through a Filigree-laden Resting Place, installed on church pews and windows, still convey the mana of the place from which they were created, even 14,000 kilometres away. For the smaller formats of her painted drawings, Watson used the left-over inks from the larger canvases after a day’s work, creating intricate studies of local colour and texture. She arranged the drawings in a sequence titled Painting with Edgefield.

Drawn from Edgefield, Watson’s inspiration is both deeply rooted in the physicality of the place and in its fleeting illuminated moments. Now it is present in, and transformed by, the Waikato exhibition site. As the curator of the exhibition, Cerys Dallaway Davidson submits with respect to Watson’s canvases:

Her layered markings and patterns echo the spirit and textures of the spaces they emerged from, offering a visual record of place, presence, and connection.

The Hamilton exhibition of Watson’s works is exquisitely presented and curated, using the lighting and the space of the Gallagher Gallery to maximum effect. A video installation with footage about the works’ creation and the environs of the country church help contextualise the artistic intentions and process. They also highlight, and bridge, the gap between the sacred historical spaces in which the works originated and the profane and modern surroundings of the Hamilton gallery. The exhibition comes with a beautifully illustrated brochure and an expertly written comment by the curator. One of the brochure’s photographs shows the artist at work installing her fabric sculptures, the light and contemplative mood being reminiscent of a Vermeer painting. The free information material for this show is amongst the best the University’s curators have produced.

The entire exhibition bears witness to a subtle dialogue between the artist and her English ancestry but also to forms of artistic genealogy in European and Māori traditions, as Watson reconnected with her European ancestors. Some of Watson’s forebears were rectors of St Peter and St Paul’s and an important part of the artistic process included a meditative connection with the time(s) and places of their earthly wanderings and travails. As Watson says on her website:

Each morning before beginning work I would be still and sing and pray in the space, these were wonderful times where I sensed a welcoming to begin work for the day. The work was installed in-situ in the church at the end of this time for public viewing.

The spontaneous and loose style of Watson’s sculptural paintings also reveals a distinct aesthetic difference from the spirituality of late Victorian England with its restrained neo-Gothic design and missionary visual theology. Watson’s modern forms, by contrast, are instantaneous, more individual, exploratory, and searching. Yet they engage in a dialogue with ecclesiastical and profane history, creating new and unexpected connections. There is a sense of homecoming and belonging in each work, a spiritual dimension, that originates in space and time, but transcends them into sublime art of wonder and longing. Highly recommended!

Norman Franke

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