Full blown painting on display | Manawatu-Wanganui News | Local News in Manawatu-Wanganui

Keith Grinter's blown glass is an extension of his paintings and this year his work will be displayed in Trade Aid for the Wanganui Festival of Glass.

Grinter was a painter before becoming a glass artist, and fuses the two. He paints his blown glass in a lead-based paint, heats it then covers it in two layers of glass.

The process, which involves much lifting and heating, is about size and control of the materials he works with, and working in extreme heat of 800C-1000C.

The work was exhausting, but Grinter said it had also helped him improve the way he worked.

He works in a range of media including glass (painted and blown), sculpture from recycled materials and oil painting.

His recent sculptures have been installations of timber works based on blind contour drawings made while walking round Wanganui. The drawings are also the basis for his glass and painting.

Grinter said the concept of drawing while walking was developed for his master's degree.

He exhibits mostly in Wanganui and Wellington, including Te Papa, Pataka and the Sarjeant Art Gallery. He has won the Doyle and Anne Robinson Glass prizes and was a finalist in the Australasian Ranamok glass prize.

In 2011 he received a Merit Award for his painting Procession in the Whanganui Arts Review.

Grinter teaches at the Learning Connexion in Wellington and taught at the Whanganui UCOL Quay School of Arts for three years where he completed a BFA in 2007. He was awarded a Masters of Art and Design (First Class) from AUT University in 2010.