The canvas that came back to life

29 Jul 2025

Back in October 2016, the streets of Auckland’s CBD came alive with colour during Auckland Art Week. Among the installations scattered throughout the city’s nooks and carparks was a collaborative artwork by two University of Auckland architecture students, Edward and Rachel. The duo set up a giant 10-metre roll of canvas on a steel A-frame and invited the public to pitch in and get painting with Resene testpots.

For Edward, the creation of the canvas was more about the process than the final product. “In our fourth year, there was an open call for students to create installations for the Late Night part of Auckland Art Week,” he says. “Our installation was a giant roll of canvas that passers-by were invited to paint on, and as the canvas unrolled throughout the day it created a continuous, collaborative painting.

 “Fantastically, we had a surprising number and variety of people take a few minutes out of their day to be spontaneously artistic and add something to the painting.”

Many Resene testpots colours were used to create this community canvas, including Resene Tequila, Resene Blackberry, Resene Poppy, Resene Breathless, Resene Polo Blue and Resene Dingley.

At the time, there was no real plan for what would happen to the canvas afterwards. “The process was much more interesting to us than the finished painting,” Edward says. “We were optimistic we could find a use for the finished canvas.”

And fast forward nearly a decade, that same canvas has found a second life in the form of a handmade jacket and bag.

Stella, Edward’s mum, is the mastermind behind this transformation. The painted canvas had been sitting quietly in her garage ever since the event. “The fabric had been in my garage for years,” she says. “I pulled it out when trying to clear out the garage and thought it would be mouldy. But it wasn’t. The fabric is a thin canvas so only suitable to make into certain items.”

Not wanting the effort of so many hands to go to waste, Stella decided to turn the canvas into something new, and wearable.

Stella’s wonderful wearable art shows all the colours of the original day, including Resene Tequila, Resene Blackberry, Resene Chetwode Blue, Resene Ballerina and Resene Dingley.

“I bought a pattern for a simple shaped jacket, as the pattern and thickness of fabric wouldn’t suit a detailed design,” she says. “I spread the whole piece of fabric out and placed pattern pieces to get the best bits of painted area, especially paying attention to front. I finished all the seams inside with bias binding that I already had so it’s lots of different colours.”

Stella now has a one-of-a-kind jacket and matching bag, each with layers of story and brushstrokes from complete strangers. And the reaction from friends and passers-by has been overwhelmingly positive. “Everyone loves the origin story,” she says.

So far Stella’s canvas upcycling has resulted in just the two items, but she’s not done yet, and with eight metres left there’s still room for more stories stitched and sewn from this community creation.

An exquisite display of what art can become, and what Resene testpots can achieve.

Today, Edward works at Klein, an architecture practice in Tāmaki Makaurau that specialises in healthcare. “We’ve been working on a mental health hospital for several years and it’s on site now and close to completion, which is very exciting,” he says.

While the Art Week project might feel like a distant memory, the canvas continues to surprise. It's a lasting memento of a day when strangers stopped to make art together. And a reminder that creativity doesn't end once the paint dries.

Published: 29 Jul 2025