Raised in Titahi Bay, 30 minutes north of Wellington on New Zealand's North Island,Rita Schrieken now lives on the Kapiti Coast with her family where she has her studio and gallery open to the public most days of the week. Here one can see her large range of indoor and outdoor works for sale and those in progress.
Self-described as a multi-media artist, Rita's work has a distinctive contemporary, 'Pacifica' feel which is strongly supported by clean, linear design elements.
Rita fuses painting and sculpture in a unique signature style, by using combinations of pumice, glass, wood and copper wire with painted and carved ply board and other wood. Driftwood is one of Rita's favorite media, as she enjoys the natural beauty of its inherent forms and colours, and then she enhances that with additional elements.
She also creates free standing figurine sculptures in papier mache which cleverly take on the appearance of cast bronze. The outdoor works range from driftwood "Garden Sleepers": carved, peaceful faces which are hung; to totem poles in Macrocarpa and free-standing stone sculptures.
Rita has always been "making things", and started doing it for a living in 2004 when she opened Renown Studio. In 2002 she studied sculpture at Whitireia Polytechnic in Kapiti and has done numerous other art and design short-courses in her life.
Many exhibitions of Rita's work have been held locally. She has taken part in every Art's Trail since 2004 and has had solo exhibitions at Lembas in Raumati South and Finn's in Paekakariki as well as having her own permanent exhibition at Renown Studio.
