When in Oamaru, do as the Oamaruvians do.
Tongan sculptor Silivenusi Funaki, who moved to Oamaru from Auckland about two months ago, is taking that advice at his first Oamaru Stone Symposium.
Until two weeks ago, the artist, whose primary medium has been greenstone, had not tried his hand at the region's limestone.
Mr Funaki had been looking to acquire greenstone when he arrived.
He could not find any, but was advised to begin working with the locally sourced stone.
Now, at the public sculpture demonstration at Friendly Bay, from what was a rectangular one-tonne block, a white humpback whale is taking shape.
Mr Funaki used a chainsaw, hatchet, grinder, chisels and files to reveal the whale in the stone.
The size of the Oamaru stone blocks had allowed him to think bigger about his piece, he said.
''I like doing big pieces - I love working with big pieces.''
Also at his first Oamaru Stone Symposium, Christchurch sculptor Paul Deans has taken an approach more in line with the symposium's suggested theme.
Artists at the stone symposium were asked to complement this year's Victorian Heritage Celebrations theme - a celebration of the sesquicentennial of Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
The sculptures will be on display when the Victorian Heritage Celebrations begin on November 11.
Mr Deans' relief of an over-sized Alice, perhaps peering through the window of a house that has become too small, took shape yesterday afternoon.
Mr Deans said he had enjoyed the process and the atmosphere at Friendly Bay, where a collection of artists looked at a uniform rectangular piece of stone and began to imagine what was inside.
''There's creating by building up and there's creating by taking away,'' Mr Deans said.
''Even though we're each doing different things, it's a `taking away' to find what's in the stone.''
The Oamaru Stone Symposium began on Saturday.
Up to 12 sculptors will be in the park at Friendly Bay working until November 7.
The work will be exhibited from November 8-15.
