Philippa Bentley is an Auckland artist whose work isusuallyinspired by nature, often with a twist.

Philippa exhibits regularly and has work held in both NewZealandand international collections. She produces limited editionfine artprints and paintings, and has received awards inpainting,printmaking and design.
Most recently, Philippa was a finalist in the 2015 NZ PaintingandPrintmaking Awards.

A fascination with insects, that’s lasted from playing inhersprawling childhood garden and in the creek down at the bottomofthe bush, inspired Philippa’s 'Insects and Memories' serieswhichrepresents her main body of work.
This is a series of insect collections presented asmuseumboxes.
“Just as a butterfly is caught and preserved in a specimen box,sodo we capture our experiences and archive them as our memories.Weare all collectors of memories, experiences, sensations,fragmentsof days that layer us up and make us who we are.”

Philippa’s original insect images are individually screenprintedand hand painted on to weatherboards or paper. The use ofagedweatherboard started as a play on the 1950’s trend of abutterfly ona weatherboard house and is an integral part of thework.
“I’m happy if people simply enjoy them visually, but there arelayeron layer of subtleties, personal memories, iconicreferences,heritage brands and humour are layered in to eachartwork. Oneperson called them “memory boxes” and they reflect onmemory andidentity.”
For example, Philippa’s Cicada has a subtle AM-FM tuner paintedonits abdomen, as she remembers cupping cicadas in her hands asachild and pretending they were radios.

The Huhu Beetle is adorned with the cover of AWB Powell’s‘NativeAnimals of New Zealand’- a reference book familiar to manyfrom theschool nature study table or a dusty shelf on thebachbookcase.
The Alpine Weta is patterned with the Speights logo. Thisamazinginsect is one of the few creatures that can actually freezeinWinter, thaw out without the cells disintegrating and thencrawlaway in the Spring. A truly hardy, Southern type!
The vibrant orange of her Monarch Butterfly comes from theEdmondsbaking powder heritage branding- “as iconic as monarchs onswanplants in Summer”.

This ‘Insects and Memories’ series has been very wellreceivedand was reviewed by TJ MacNamara in the NZ Herald as"highlyunusual and utterly delightful.”

Philippa is beginning to add new technologies in to herinsectcollections. In this exhibition an AR (Augmented Reality) appcanbe easily downloaded which brings her Monarch Butterfly to life-itwalks and then flies, on a smart device, in the room in frontofyou, in real space and time.
Sir David Attenborough said, “Butterflies lift the heart. Theybringsuch joy.” Indeed every time I watch this Monarch stretch itswingsand flit in the room in front of me, I find myself smilingand Ihave watched this delight in others interacting withit.
How wonderful if we could bring to life specimens in naturalhistorycollections held in our museums, especially endangered orextinctspecies. I would like to explore this further in myartpractice.

Philippa is also extending her body of work byincludingbotanicals in this exhibition. The natural historycollections arenow fauna and flora together.
“I am developing my own ‘herbarium’ of native NZ plants, takenfrommy ageing father’s garden, photographed to be‘scientifically’documented, and painted to be infused with chinapatterns –Spodetattoo- from my female ancestors.”
This series reflects on family, generations and the processofcolonisation, resulting in highly original and beautifulpaintingsand mixed media works.

Enjoy. X.
Philippa.