When she’s painting, Waikanae artist Morag Stokes looks for subject matter in what is in her hands. In her Toi MAHARA award-winning work, the outcome is an observation on the nature of truth.
Fractured Reality has been judged the Open Award winner – one of five awards made in the 2025 Arotake Toi | Mahara Arts Review.
“I’m not looking outside of myself for inspiration to landscapes, trees or the human form,” she says. “Rather, I’m looking at what’s in my hands – what can I do with my materials and what they offer me.
“My painting titles tend to come during or after a work and are often based on the process. In Fractured Reality, I worked with opaque and transparent colours, sitting them in relation to each other.”
“It was only as I was working that the notion of truth came to me and how it presents itself in various guises these days. It represents the dilemma of separating fact from fiction; truth from misinformation; genuine from scam.”
“Sometimes it’s clear, and other times, hard to see. Truth, as well as fake news, misinformation, scams and the deception of AI can all be symbolised by the transparency and opacity of my paint.”
Discouraged at school from becoming an artist, Morag Stokes returned to her favourite subject in later life and found the science path her careers adviser encouraged to follow had given her the tools for the artwork she describes as “somewhat offbeat.”
“I have always been interested in art,” she says. “However, a school careers guidance officer laughed at me when I told her I’d like to be an artist.”
“She told me if I wanted a life of poverty that was the way to go! She was very influential in sending me down the science line instead.”
The result was a Bachelor of Science degree with honours in psychology which led to careers in social work and management training. A job appointment for her husband brought the family from Scotland to New Zealand and for Stokes, provided the opportunity to return to her favourite subject.
“We were all up for an adventure. I had already stopped working to be a fulltime mum and I took up art studies in what time that left me. It was time to pursue art as a career.”
As well as securing the Toi MAHARA Open Award, Morag Stokes has been a six-time finalist for the Parkin Drawing Prize, winning a Highly Commended prize last year, and a finalist for the Wallace Art Awards.
Fractured Reality was chosen from 64 selected works submitted by artists in the Kāpiti-Horowhenua area. Judges, Jaenine Parkinson (Head of Art at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa) and Deb Donnelly (Kāpiti textile artist, curator and educator) said they were impressed by the artist’s technique, composition and the sheer virtuosity of her delivery.
“I find that when I’m painting it’s as though I’m conducting a scientific experiment,” Morag Stokes says. “I set the parameters and manipulate the variables.”
“I’m interested in the transparency and opacity of paint, pigment behaviour and density, the surface tension of water, the absorbency, abrasiveness and slickness of a surface and so forth,” she says. “Temperature and humidity are even factored into some of my painting processes.”
Morag Stokes says she was delighted to win the award. She describes it as a lovely acknowledgement that her art has its place and is appreciated.
The judges named five artists for awards. In addition to the Open Award, Lizzi Yates received the Highly Commended Award while Kirsty Glasgow, Jasmina Vuckovic and Anne Brunt received Merit Awards.
The Arotake Toi | Mahara Arts Review was created more than a decade ago to give Kāpiti and Horowhenua artists the opportunity to showcase the diversity and quality of art being produced across the district.
The 64 works will be exhibited at Toi MAHARA until 1 February.