The black of industry, maritime red and the white of sea foam make up the palette that colours Julie Connolly’s exhibition of hand-built ceramics, Speaking With Intent.

The Gisborne artist’s first solo show, Intent continues her unpicking of an upbringing in a commercial fishing family, living on the hills overlooking the busy port of Nelson.

The clanking of chains, the rumble of rock-forms and dark, angular landscapes form the visual language of her trawl through a 1970s childhood steeped in fishing lore.

It was a history touched on in pieces she last year exhibited as part of a group exhibition.

And now it is revisited in an even more considered manner, hence the name of her new solo show, Speaking With Intent.

“As a Pakeha kid growing up in the 1970s, I wasn’t really conscious of a deliberate sense of culture or place,” she says.

“It has taken until adulthood for me to realise that fishing is a big part of my culture and, even all these years later, Nelson still holds a big place in my heart.”