Keith Grinter

Keith runs the Grinter Glass studio in Whangarei, with the help of assistant Shirah Andrews and Glass Master Brendon Sole. His focus is on developing his glass blowing skills and sharing these skills through glass blowing workshops. His current work includes painted and blown vessels, shard vases and bowls and a range of vases, bowls and tumblers using coloured glass frits, often inspired by modernist painters.

He has worked in a variety of media including painted and blown glass, painting and sculpture. His paintings on canvas and glass are currently based on blind contour drawings made while walking. The concept of drawing while walking was developed for his master's degree, as a means to investigate the everyday. Keith exhibits in throughout New Zealand including The Auckland War Memorial Museum, Auckland Art Gallery, Pataka and Sarjeant galleries as well as a number of commercial galleries. He was the winner of the 2015 Creative Northland Excellence in Arts Business Award.

Two of his painted and blown works are in the collection at Te Papa and two were purchased by Sir James Wallace for the Wallace collection. Keith won The Doyle and The Ann Robinson glass prizes when he was at art school in Whanganui and was a finalist in the Australasian Ranamok glass prize. In 2011 he received a Merit Award for his painting Procession at the Carey Smith Awards at the Whanganui Arts Review. He has received a number of awards and prizes at the Auckland A&P show and recently won the Roco Art Award at the Ashburton Art Society exhibition.

He taught at the Quay School of Arts, UCOL, Whanganui for 3 years, where he completed a BFA in 2007. He was awarded a Master of Art and Design (First Class) from AUT University in 2010. He mentored distance students in Art and Creativity at The Learning Connexion from 2011 to 2017.

The Underside: This piece is based on blind contour drawings I made while walking (kinesthetic drawings). The combination of forms suggested an underground world.