A well established group for artists within the community.

An artist group in whanganui,
new zealand

all are welcome

Join us on Thursdays at
243 Wicksteed Street

Come and paint with other River City Artists in one of the best facilities in town.
Learners, novices, hobbyists or professionals – All are welcome.

Membership – $30 per year.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact us

About River City Artists

River City Artists is a non-affiliated group of artists who meet each Thursday to paint, enjoy each other’s company and learn from each other.

The group was started in 2016 by Val Donkervoort and now has over 20 like-minded members. As well as painting on a Thursday, we organise two or three workshops during the year, working on different styles and media. We also have some social outings –such as a restaurant meal or a trip to Palmerston North to visit art supply shops.

The aim of the group is for artists to have a space where they can work on a regular basis in a relaxed environment with other like-minded people. We have people at all levels in the group from beginners to very experienced. Everyone is welcome to come along and be part of the group.

Dennis Clark is our Patron. Dennis is a local professional artist who, along with his artist son, Nolan, runs on-line art classes. The link to their websites are: Paint Basket Art Classes and Online painting and drawing classes & lessons — Online Art Lessons. Dennis has been painting since he was 11 years old. He has been a registered art teacher since 1987 and he became a full-time professional artist when he retired from engineering in 1994. We got to know Dennis not long after the group started when we were looking for judges for a competition. Dennis and Nolan judged the competition and then gave everyone comments on what they liked about the entries. Dennis took an interest in the group and donated a large number of books for our library and we were delighted that this lovely man agreed to become our patron.

What some of our members say

“Everyone is so helpful and if I get stuck on some aspect of my painting, there is always someone with some good ideas. There was one time when I was painting an estuary with boats and I was not sure where to place the boats, so I cut out the shapes, blue-tacked them onto the painting and everyone had a go at moving them around until we got the best placement.”

“I love the group because it’s fun and relaxed. People are really kind and helpful. I’m a relatively new member of the group but right from the start I felt accepted and that made me feel very comfortable in the group.”

“It is good to have a regular time that is set aside for painting without any other distractions. The camaraderie is great.”

“The best thing about this group is the people and the sense of community. Setting aside Thursday for art means I actually get to sit down and paint.”

“I like coming to see what everyone is doing and to gain inspiration. The company is good.”

Keep up to date with upcoming events.

October Artists Challenge – Thursday 31 October

This month the theme for our bi-monthly challenge is “LUNCH”

It will be very interesting to see what the members of the group come up with to illustrate this theme.

Christmas Lunch – Tuesday 19 November 2024

Each year we have a Christmas lunch where we have a lot of laughter and fun. Everyone brings a small, wrapped Secret Santa gift (value of $10) which is put into a basket. We take turns to select a gift.

This year our lunch will be held at The Burrow and we will have a set Christmas menu. The cost is $35per person.

Vintage Weekend Exhibition – 17-21 January 2025

Once again we will be holding an exhibition in the Community Art Gallery over Vintage Weekend. This has been a very successful exhibition in the past and members will be putting forward their best work for sale.

We will have a Gourmet Hamper raffle as part of the exhibition.

Christmas Holiday Break

The last group day for 2024 will be Thursday 19 December 2024 and we will start back again on Thursday 9 January 2025.

recent happenings

Abstract Workshop with Angela Dickson – 26 September 2024

Angela Dickson, one of our members led an Abstract Painting Workshop using oil paints and cold wax.

This was a new technique for all those who took part and it was an excellent learning experience. Angela encouraged us to start with a blank mind and begin to feel what we wanted to do – from choosing the colour palette through to making the marks on the paper. We started off with 3 A4 pieces of paper and experimented with colours and techniques, then we graduated to A3 paper and produced an artwork.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and produced quite different but beautiful works of art.

June Artists Challenge

The topic for our bi-monthly challenge in June was “Bottles.”

The members of the group created some interesting bottle designs as can be seen below.

Portrait Workshop Using Skin Tones: Thursday 30 May.

Another successful workshop run by Sue Cleeve. Everyone enjoyed the chance to try out painting a portrait of Marilyn Munro and learning how to get the skin tones correct.

A big THANK YOU to Sue for her willingness to share her skills with the rest of the group.

Photos of some of our completed portraits are below.

April Artists Challenge – Cubism

We had some interesting cubism artworks on display at the club on Thursday 25 April. Because it was Anzac Day some of the group were not able to attend. We therefore asked members who had not been there to bring their artworks along the next week.

The photo shows the artworks that were displayed on 2 May.

Thursday 4 April – Monochrome Portrait Workshop with Sue Cleeve

Sue conducted a very successful workshop. Most of the group participated and produced some excellent portraits. Some didn’t end up looking like Twiggy, but everyone learned new skills and techniques, everyone enjoyed the day. Quite a number of the group brought the paintings back the next week to continue working on them – this shows how good this workshop was.

Vintage Weekend Exhibition – 19-22 January 2024

The club had a very successful exhibition at Vintage Weekend. A lot of people came through the doors and altogether we sold 19 paintings.

Having the exhibition as part of Vintage Weekend means that there are people from all over the country coming to Whanganui and many of these came to the exhibition. We had many comments on the quality of our artwork.

Thanks to the organising committee for the work they put into making sure the paintings were displayed to their best advantage.

Artist of the month

Geoff Brock

MEMBER OF RIVER CITY ARTISTS

All the paintings pictured below are for sale. If you are interested in buying one, please fill in the contact us form on this website.
We will then put you in touch with the artist so you can discuss the sale.

Geoff has always had an interest in painting, and has a attended a few courses in
the past, but it is only in the last 18 months that he has been able to push other
distractions aside and allocate one day a week to painting with River City Artists.

His preference is for oils and he uses the Artisan brand of water-based oils mostly on
canvas or board. There is a predominance of landscapes in his work and he
attributes this to not having painted regularly for long enough to explore other
subjects, or indeed, other mediums. He expects that to change following the recent
work the Group has done on portraits and is embarking on a pencil/charcoal/ink
drawing phase.

Get in Touch

Please feel free to fill out the form below and we will get back to you as soon as possible!