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A young Tauranga artist with the passion for story telling is fast gaining a reputation in the art scene full of established and emerging artists.
Florence Thorburn, 21, graduated from the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic with a Diploma in Art Programme and has been making a name for herself in the Bay and the rest of the country.
Self portrait of Florence Thorburn. (Supplied)
Florence recently exhibited her work in Wellington as part of the Narrative Playground exhibition.
She says she keen to continue to explore her art practice further.
“At the moment I’m working with a group of local artists who also enjoy narrative art.”
“We’re in the planning process of putting together an exhibition of pieces for display in both the Waikato and Bay of Plenty.”
Florence divides her time between being a practicing artist and working part-time as a librarian to pay the bills.
“It’s reality.”
“I’m also lucky enough to be able to devote as much time as I do to my art. I used to be a bit haphazard and that was one area the Polytechnic really helped me.”
She says the programme she took taught her to be more objective and methodical about developing her art practice and how to create a more intelligent approach to the methodology I guess.
Bay of Plenty Polytechnic art programme coordinator, Laurie Steer says Florence had graduated top of her class.
“She was such a super-focused student with a terrifically high work ethic and a real focus on improvement – which is why she was invited back to be artist-in-residence.”
