2019 Artists A to C
Jamie Adamson’s strong interest in working with wood began during his early years, when he remembers joining his grandfather in his workshop and tinkering away with tools to fix and create things. After leaving school, Jamie completed his apprenticeship in the boat building trade which gave him experience working with timber, steel and fibreglass materials. Through boat building Jamie learned patience and the ability to craft a concept into a product that looks aesthetically pleasing. Having recently sold his business, Jamie is now embracing his long-harboured interest in sculpting with wood. Using boat building techniques, he is experimenting and developing his own style of sculpture. For Jamie, wood is a natural pleasure to work with and the process comes from an instinctual space. He enjoys the physicality of the forms he creates, emulating natural shapes, flowing lines, and working with the organic nature of the material.
Sarah Albisser was born in Switzerland in 1976. She completed her studies as a contemporary dancer in 1996 in New York. Her career as an independent dancer and choreographer included founding the dance theatre company Waterproof in 2001 which performed internationally. Sarah won awards in 2002 and 2003 for this work.
She received a certificate in art from Farbmuehle in Lucerne, Switzerland in 2006 and also completed a one year painting course at the Art Station in Auckland, New Zealand. Over the last 12 years Sarah has been experimenting with black and white portraits, expressing her fascination with faces, expressions, body and gestures and inspired by strong female characters who are original and have a powerful presence.
Sarah has had exhibitions of her work in Switzerland, New Zealand and Los Angeles. Her artworks are now held in private collections around the world.
Ronald Andreassend’s creativity blurs the boundaries between visual arts, craft, design and fashion, resulting in an output which ranges from artwork, sculptures, jewellery, costume, homeware and residential fixtures, to organising artist collaborations and events.
Ronald’s ideas are drawn from family stories, his culture, interests, experimentation and objects that sometimes have no reason to exist other than to amuse and intrigue.
Over the last two years he has been exploring Pacifica Auckland in culture, art, society and politics. It has been an eye opener, delving into areas that few are privileged to see. He has participated on many projects, as a photographer, artist and designer as well as simply volunteering or enjoying the warmth of Pacific culture and people.
Nicolle Aston lives and creates in Matakana. Her work reflects the way she sees life – vibrant and delightful, yet delicate and layered.
Nicolle is deliberate with her subject matter and enjoys the simplicity of portraying her subject without abstraction or nuance, but doesn't attempt absolute realism. She likes to play with light, shadow and amplified contrast, intentionally avoiding the fine detail realism requires and placing more emphasis on shape, form and the bold use of colour. One of the most important elements she looks for is contrast: where there is contrast, there is drama. She weighs what she would like to add, alter or enhance carefully to bring her signature style to the subject.
Nicolle favours acrylics as they have less blending qualities than oils and are more impatient, which helps her to produce a look which combines stylism with realism.
Dominique Baker is a painter, carver and printmaker, born and raised on the North Shore of Auckland. She graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts at the Auckland University of Technology in 2008. Baker is of Japanese, Māori and European heritage, which has greatly influenced her practice. Her work is informed by street art and exploring a range of methods of making, resulting in visually intricate paintings. These works are the second of Baker’s on show at the Mt Albert Grammar School Art Show and exhibit her recognisable mix of painting and carving style. Works similar to these were chosen to adorn Sir Paul McCartney’s room on his recent tour to New Zealand. She participates regularly in local art shows and has pieces at Endemicworld in Ponsonby. Baker has collectors who commission her work locally and internationally. This year she has been selected to exhibit works at the Beijing Biennale.
Andrew lives and works in Auckland. He has a Fine Arts Degree from Elam and has been a full-time artist for 17 years. Andrew has been a finalist in the Wallace Art Awards on three occasions and has also been a finalist in the Adam Portraiture Award. He is known for his hard-edged, perfectly blended portraiture which takes as its theme idealised beauty. These new works, however, use a reduced palette and brushwork to create more dreamlike portraits with hints of abstraction.
Auckland-based artist and photographer Janine Barr has been painting for over 20 years. She originally qualified as an art teacher and has spent much of her working life encouraging others to strive for their own creative genius. Janine blends her passion for exploration/play in this latest body of work using alcohol inks on synthetic papers. Because alcohol ink causes a reaction, changing mercurially when heat is applied, it is reminiscent of nature and celestial photography, where much of Janine’s inspiration comes from. She recently entered her second art competition in the ‘Abstract - Contemporary’ section of The Royal Easter Show and was received a ‘Highly Commended’ award. To date, her work has been sold to numerous private collectors in New Zealand, Australia and the USA.
Emma Bass is an established Auckland-based artist with a distinctive take on life, flora and photography. Her contemporary floral constructions have been shown at many leading art galleries. She was the only New Zealand artist invited to exhibit at the prestigious Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London in 2016, and was shortlisted again in 2019. Employing a rainbow of palettes - from ethereal pastels to striking bold shades - and unique floral arrangements, Emma’s artwork addresses the universal need for beauty and solace.
Madeline Beasley is one of New Zealand’s most exciting and original contemporary artists. English-born, she moved to New Zealand in 1968. Over the course of her career she has designed graphics, worked as a court artist for Television New Zealand and illustrated several children’s books. In 1990 she began exhibiting her paintings around Auckland galleries. Her works are influenced by early Christian, Byzantine and medieval iconography, and are cut from custom wood then painted in oils. Madeline is interested in people having their own symbolic guardian angel, and sees her paintings as protecting and empowering images.
Blake Beckford is an Auckland-based artist who has completed a Bachelor of Design and Visual Arts. His work is held in The Wallace Arts Trust collection. Blake has recently been working on a new series of 3D lenticular artworks, employing a process which is not yet widely used by New Zealand artists. The images are best viewed from a distance of about 80 to 150 cm while performing a side to side swaying motion to make the magic happen.
Sean Beldon lives in the Eastern Bays of Auckland. He paints in an expressive and sometimes explosive manner. Sean’s landscapes are inspired by his photographic compositions, and although almost abstract, a little bit of true realism is always present. Brush strokes are large and impulsive and the mood of the piece is created by strong colours, exaggerated for effect. At other times his paintings are subtle and the colours are luminous and soft, with quiet composition. As well as landscape painting, Sean also enjoys creating figurative narratives centred around themes derived from his personal life and the world around him.
Juliet Best is a New Zealand painter whose artworks celebrate the stunning coastlines and landscapes of this country. She adds a touch of luxury by generously hand-applying gold leaf in her work. Recently, Juliet completed two successful years as the Air New Zealand guest artist in the Wellington Koru Lounges. She is also the 2018/2019 selected artist-in-residence for the Wellington Westpac Rescue Helicopter Life Flight Trust and the co-owner of a Wellington art gallery. Passionate about her work as a New Zealand artist, Juliet loves her family and friends, and is strongly involved in her community.
Cristina Beth obtained a Master of Fine Arts (Hons) from Elam in 2009. Currently she divides her time between picture framing two days a week, art restoration and her painting practice in her west Auckland studio. Her love for the environment and her daily practice of yoga and meditation provide inspiration for her work. She appreciates quiet contemplation of the natural everyday beauty around us, as we attend to our daily rituals.
Kirsty Black aims to create joyful works that engage the viewer, leading them on a journey of individual interpretation. The first step in starting a new work is intuitive. It begins with the freedom of the initial gestural sweep of colour, with vigorous brush work then providing the framework. Shapes and movement reveal themselves, transporting Kirsty into a colourful world of invented narrative. In much the same way that cloud-gazing prompts a story, or daydreaming allows the mind to meander, the development of the artwork in front of her sparks her imagination and a tale unfolds.
Jane Blackmore is a practising artist with over 20 years of experience. Her work is primarily inspired by the stunning and singular vistas of Wellington’s hills and harbour. In an age where speed and instant gratification seem to permeate every corner of our lives, Jane’s paintings offer a space for thoughtful reflection. Her landscapes are unashamedly spiritual and joyful in equal measure, qualities also abundant in her series of florals. Flowers push forward from dark backgrounds, defiantly sensuous and celebrating the natural cycles of birth, growth and decay. Jane’s recent work continues her exploration of colour, form and the visceral qualities of paint. Marking a shift towards a more pure abstraction, she is peeling back layers of representation to arrive at a mélange of colour and light.
Tamzin Blair had her first solo exhibition in 2002. Her unique collection of paintings on acrylic resin celebrates femininity and the artist's identity. She has always had a love of the human figure and its mysticism, a fascination that can clearly be seen in many of her artworks. Tamzin enjoys the depth and translucency of working on and under acrylic resin. She would like people to look into her paintings and discover layers and depth, colour relationships, contrast, harmonies.
Tanya Blong was born in Australia and raised in Taranaki. She graduated from Hungry Creek Art School in 2006 with a major in painting and sculpture. Her work suggests a timeless era, a mottled memory of belonging to a time and place. It speaks of hot heady summers, seclusion, and escape as it plays with shadow and light, the intoxication of the tropical, and the undercurrent that percolates through it. Tanya works from Muriwai Beach, Auckland. She has had numerous solo and group shows and her work is held in international, public and private collections.
Like most young boys, Robert Brown started out drawing ships with lots of sails and masts. His medium is pen and ink/colour pencil. He draws his inspiration from the gnarled pōhutukawa that fringe the Northland and Coromandel coastlines.
Serena's paintings have a mythical aesthetic, often being perceived as whimsical, ethereal and dream-like. The likes of birds, deer and swimmers are the main subjects of her work, the result of her move from the bustle of the city to the country, where she is now surrounded by nature and the calming ocean. Serena has a unique approach to painting - canvasses are laid flat on the floor, using bold brush strokes for backgrounds, finger painting for figures, while finer details are achieved through wire scratching and pencil drawings. Originally from London, Serena has successfully established a loyal clientele both internationally and in New Zealand.
Caroline Burton works from her rural studio south of Auckland. She creates abstract contemporary fibre artworks, often with three-dimensional sculptural elements. Wisps of wool and silk fibre are used as painterly ‘brush strokes’. Caroline is inspired by natural organic form and fascinated by details in creation that are hidden from sight. Her work is often informed by her background in engineering. A self-taught artist, she has taken a medium that traditionally is ‘crafted’ and has developed her artistic voice. Caroline is an award-winning artist and her work is available in a number of galleries around New Zealand.
Marcus Capes is an English-born New Zealand artist based in Auckland. He has been making art for over 20 years. His work is informed and shaped by the many global issues and ideas that exist in our contemporary world. The materials used in Marcus’ work often include ink, graphite and enamel, creating a dynamic surface reaction and tension. The process allows - even encourages - a semi-controlled trial and error, which can lead the work in varying directions, while the finished works can appear polished and may reference a more organized spectral method. Marcus’ work attempts to explore themes of nationalism, national and individual identity, perception and individuality in an increasingly globalized world, often simultaneously rejecting and embracing ideals of aestheticism. Marcus has work in private and corporate collections in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, New Zealand and Australia, as well as the Waikato Museum and the James Wallace Arts Trust collection.
Pat Casey trained at the Harrow School of Art and specialises in painting London, his hometown, albeit with an intermittently foreboding edge. He attributes this to growing up there during the 1970s, a time when the threat of violence was ever-present. He has developed, and continues to develop, a style which is heavily influenced by the paintings of Edward Hopper and the literature of Robert Stone. Pat was a finalist in the 2010 and 2012 Adam Portraiture Award and in 2010 his entry was selected to tour the country. He was also invited by Liz Caughey to exhibit in the Braveheart Youth Trust Art Exhibition in Auckland in the same year.
Issie is currently in her third year of University studying a Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts, majoring in Contemporary Dance at Unitec. She began exploring portraiture in her senior years of high school and found a particular interest in exaggerating bright colours within the skin tones she paints. She often contrasts the vivid pinks and purples in her oil paints with the wooden boards that she paints on, leaving the backgrounds unpainted and keeping the wood exposed. Despite training full-time to become a contemporary dancer, Issie continues to paint regularly and hopes to have more of her work exhibited in the future.
Kia Ora Tatou, Mere Clifford is a practising artist living in Auckland/Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa New Zealand. She is of Ngāti Porou, Waikato-Maniapoto and Bohemian heritage. She works in a variety of mediums including oils, watercolours, acrylic and mixed media. She is interested in the malleability of paint to evoke a sense of slipping towards the surreal. Mere was a 2017 finalist in the Waikato Painting and Printmaking Award. Her work is held by the Manukau City Council, Whau Local Board and private collections throughout Aotearoa New Zealand.
Art-making is Tracey Coakley’s love. Drawing, sketching, taking photos and painting have opened up her autobiographical narrative, becoming an important instrument that allows her to explore the interconnections of her creative practices and personal experiences, including anxiety and depression. It was in this context that she painted her most recent works, a narrative of a woman feeling overwhelmed by her raw emotions. She now takes a step backwards to view herself through the lens of an audience. The viewer is an accidental observer of these hidden moments.
Bryn Corkery is a Visual Art Teacher at Mount Albert Grammar School. Working in photography and painting, he is interested in exploring memories of places. These recordings of places can dramatically change through interpretation and process. They can become new and unique creations from the memory of the artist who was there.
Elizabeth Crosby works with experimental combinations of watercolour paint and ink. A variety of painting media repel and attract one another in petri dish-like micro-climates of texture, grain and form. Details go beyond the marks made by the artist’s hand and into the granular characteristics of the media themselves, inviting the viewer into a closer meditation on Crosby’s seductive surfaces.
Deborah Crowe’s limited edition digital collages are part field-photography, part proposition, part representation of potential future environments. Trained at Glasgow School of Art, Deborah Crowe has been exhibiting since 1986. She has work in significant public and private collections including the The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, The Dowse Art Museum, Glasgow School of Art, The Wallace Arts Trust and private collections in the UK, USA, Canada, Germany, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Crowe’s interdisciplinary work has won awards and featured in national and international exhibitions. She recently judged the Molly Morpeth Canaday Award.
2019 Artists D to G
Catherine Dunn is a Northland-based artist and curator. She works full-time making art and curating exhibitions for the local arts community. Her main areas of interest are painting, sculpture and printmaking. Catherine’s paintings often develop in three stages. They begin with a very energetic first stage, often being created on the ground, using homemade tools and incorporating full body movements to transfer energy and marks to the surface with charcoal, ink, graphite and acrylic flow paint. The important second stage involves the application of many layers of transparent and opaque colour, involving hours of sanding, wiping, and the application of further layers. The third stage is reserved for the very deliberate refinement of the composition through to its end resolution.
Contemporary artist Adele Eagleson works in oil on canvas. Not restricted to brushwork, she uses a variety of tools, mediums and techniques to achieve the effect she wants. Adele first picked up a paint brush at art school in 1998 after a corporate career in HR and banking management. Exhibitions with established galleries throughout Aotearoa New Zealand followed in 2003, then invitations to exhibit internationally. Adele’s works are held in private collections both here and overseas, and she is currently gallery-represented in Auckland and Wellington. Paintings evolve gradually as the paint is worked to create points of interest on the canvas, maintaining the focus on her desire to capture a moment in time or a memory of a place. Adele’s current collection plays with landforms and abstract seas.
Gaylene Earl has been working and playing with paper for over a decade, creating a series of works relating to her concerns about the natural environment. Her latest work, ‘Playing with Paper - Recycled Series 2017 - 2019’ sees her using her 'painted leftovers'. She delights in mark-making and discovery in her works - without a visual reference, they are designed to engulf the viewer and engage them in contemplation of the detail that makes the whole. Comprised of hundreds of twisted squares of paper, either discarded works, pre-painted paper or recycled printed works from books, they create a sense of movement, depth, texture and the possibility of change. They are tactile, temptingly interactive, swirls of colour, to be read and explored as aspects of nature.
Living near a shoreline rich in bird life has reinforced the preciousness and fragility of something which is uniquely us. John Ecuyer’s work is an artistic expression of these two co-existing realities. His work is to be found in public collections here in New Zealand, in Taiwan and in the United States of America.
John Edgar was born in Auckland in 1950 and since 1977 has been a sculptor. His work investigates human interaction with resources in the modern world, and is internationally recognised for its understanding of the ancient craft of stone working. He has travelled widely and his work is held in many collections. His public sculptures are in the Auckland Domain, Queen Street, and Waitakere City Civic Centre. In 2008 he was honoured as an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to art. He is actively involved in conservation and environmental projects, and has been the President of The Waitakere Ranges Protection Society for the past 20 years.
Lucy's paintings have a dark fairytale-like quality. This, combined with a love of Renaissance painting and techniques, results in work that is both rich in detail and narrative. She is chiefly interested in the area where our conscious and subconscious worlds collide - the stories we create for ourselves, the lines between sleep and death, and dreams and hope. She often uses animals allegorically in her work to represent the various facets of our personalities and the human condition. She has works in private collections throughout New Zealand and internationally.
Val Enger has been been painting full time for the last 6 years and is currently attending Matthew Browne School of Arts. She studied art at High School until the 6th form and was accepted into Elam School of Fine Arts, but put her studies on hold while she travelled overseas. Val paints in acrylics, oils, and watercolour. Often it is her garden or her travels overseas and around New Zealand that are her inspiration. Lately she has been producing more abstract landscapes. She has won several awards for still life and landscape paintings, most recently a First Prize for Contemporary Landscape at the Easter Show and First Prize for Landscape at Waitākere Art Awards and Exhibition.
Michelle Farrell is a multimedia artist. Her works are held in public, private and corporate collections in New Zealand and overseas. Of deep interest to her are the unseen "energy" and spiritual connections which underlie and steer existence, as well as the interconnected nature of all things. She has developed a body of photographic and painted works and has worked in all dimensions of the bronze medium. In recent years, Michelle has found the delicacy of ink a means of expressing things that are interesting and important to her.
Populated by strange and marvellous things, flushed beaks, flamboyant plumes and elaborate displays, Karley Feaver’s art transports you into a world of exotic creatures filled with odd familiarities and strangeness, using animal forms to symbolise escape, freedom and migration. Feaver’s works exist in states of perpetual transformation, showing nature’s ability to survive by adapting, mutating and adjusting to its environment. Environmental and emotional flexibility gives humans and animals the ability to acclimatise to changes during their own lifetime. Her works are simultaneously poetic and vexing, they express the ambivalence of life and take you on a profound journey of self-discovery by tapping into your emotions. Karley's works are held in the James Wallace Arts Trust collection, Westpac New Zealand's corporate collection and in private collections in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Russia, Switzerland and New Zealand.
Arwen Flowers is a New Zealand artist who grew up in Waitākere, near the beautiful ranges, forests and beaches of the west coast of Auckland. After finishing high school she completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Elam, specialising in painting and photography. Since then, Arwen has developed a flexible, multi-media approach to her art practice, which is motivated by a desire to recycle and re-purpose second-hand materials. Arwen's creative impulse is centered around themes of collecting, exploration, navigation, migration, and South Pacific/European identity and femininity. In her body of work - painting, collage, prints and alternative photography - she often references landscape and oceanic forms. She uses poetry and a love of music to help develop her ideas. Arwen Flowers' studio is located in Helensville, Auckland.
Hannah Fouhy is currently completing her Master of Fine Arts at Elam in Auckland. She is primarily interested in the presence given to a space and uses traditional darkroom techniques to develop her black and white silver gelatin photographs. The underlying presence of a landscape is crucial as it means the world the viewer attends or connects to is not a static or indifferent one. With a fascination and love for the land, Hannah seeks to explore the overarching emotional attachment from those that inhabit or pass through the landscape.
Barbara Franklet has been a professional artist for over 20 years. Her charming oil pastels hang throughout the world and can be found in the Fort Worth Library, Dallas Children’s Hospital and numerous other public spaces. Her work is inspired by her love of illustration, graphic design and folk art. Originally a printmaker, she now works predominantly in oil pastels and mixed media. Born in Houston, Texas, Barbara moved to beautiful Nelson in 2008. Her days are spent marvelling at life’s wonder and joy while making pictures at her Mockingbird Studio.
The foundation of Sonia’s work comes from a sense of prehistory: untouched seascapes which convey serene isolation, capturing a sense of the familiar while not necessarily depicting a specific place; uninhabited landscapes, some with faint impressions of former human presence. Trees are a constant theme in her work and are either shown from a bird's-eye perspective, giving a sense of the abstract to otherwise recognisable imagery, or anchored against stormy skies, struggling with the elements. Sonia lives in the Mahurangi region and has an Advanced Diploma of Art and Design. She exhibits and sells her work in several Auckland galleries.
Blurring the line between photography and painting… Combining a love of photography and mixed media painting, Deborah Fuller’s works evoke a feeling of tranquillity and calm. Her subject matter often conjures up images of nostalgia and reminiscence. Working as a full-time artisan for the last 19 years, she is aware of what a privilege it is to be able to spend time creating in a space that feels like home. Deborah is the owner of Lava Gallery in Akaroa, on the Banks Peninsula.
Kirsty Fyfe works from her home studio in Wadestown. Her passion is intaglio printmaking in all of its forms – drypoint, aquatint, mezzotint and solarplate. To Kirsty, printmaking is a fascinating alchemical process that is a combination of creativity, chemistry and continual experimentation. Her work is held in private art collections both here and overseas, and at a number of North Island galleries.
Keith Galvin is an Auckland-born artist who currently lives in the Hunua Ranges. He recently began to create glass artworks. With over 30 years of experience painting in watercolours and acrylics, his subject matter has been predominantly landscapes, in particular water scenes where interpreting the vibrant colours seen in New Zealand coastal margins has been his artistic passion. Using fused glass as a medium provides Keith with the opportunity to combine its transparency and sculptural form with the imagery that has evolved over the course of his years of painting. The result is a unique combination of image artistry and glass craftsmanship.
Anita Gate began her art studies in 1995 in Wellington, which led her to the Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts from 1996 to 2000. She took workshops with John Horner in 1997 and with Edwin Rudd in 1998, and furthered her studies at Uxbridge Arts Centre from 1998 to 2003. In 2003, Anita moved to Seoul where she had solo shows at Le Saint Ex, Itaewon, in 2004 and 2005 and a group show at Kwan Hoon Gallery, Insadong, in 2006. In 2006, Anita and her family moved to Sydney. She undertook further tuition from 2010 to 2015 with Andrew Barns-Graham and with Belinda Wilson from 2015 to 2016, when she returned to New Zealand. In 2010, Anita was awarded the prestigious Supreme Art Award for her portrait “Into The Limelight” at the Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts. In 2011, her artwork “Bathroom Antics” received the Merit Award. Anita has been inspired by expressionism and fauvism, as well as the artists Peter Doig, Richard Diebenkorn, Alex Kanevsky and Linda Christensen. Her work has been collected by McDonald’s (Seoul), the New Zealand Ambassador to Korea, and is in private collections in England, Canada, the United States, Australia, Switzerland, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Korea, Germany and New Zealand.
Sarah Gauntlett is a Mount Albert Grammar School Design and Photography Teacher, Graphic Designer, Illustrator, Mother and Maker of many things. She loves teaching at Mount Albert Grammar, encouraging and inspiring our young people to flourish creatively, find joy in their art, and realise the bright futures ahead of each and every one of them.
Anna Gedson weaves from her home in Opotiki in the eastern Bay Of Plenty. Her works are sold in design stores and galleries throughout Aotearoa. She has always had a love of creating. She expresses this aroha through her weavings, using a combination of metals and natural fibres. Inspired by traditional Māori kete, poi and korowai, she likes to add a strong contemporary feel to the pieces, presenting each work as a precious treasure or taonga.
Neala Glass is an Auckland-based artist who works with drawing and printmaking processes. Characterised by a monochromatic palette, Neala's work features delicate surface details, subtle tonal variations, and compelling compositions that utilise the potential of negative space. Through her figurative work, Neala examines the intricacies of the human condition, often with a deeper focus on psychology. The figure pose is a way of communicating narrative, mood, emotion and tension. These figures are simultaneously realistic and metaphoric; both believable subjects in themselves and vehicles for symbolism and broader narratives. Neala's drawings on canvas are rendered in charcoal, pastel and graphite with technical precision; her works on paper are rendered in ink and applied with a looser approach. Neala Glass gained her Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Elam School of Fine Arts. She exhibits her work in galleries around New Zealand.
Stacey Gledhill is a Wellington-born and raised artist. She now lives and works in Oxford in the United Kingdom. In January 2019, she began a three-month solo campervan journey around New Zealand, completing over 20 works in oils, all painted outdoors on location. Stacey paints from direct visual reference. Her work is a response to colours, shapes and striking patterns of light. She is attracted to moments of everyday quiet, nostalgia, and the beauty of our natural world. In March 2019, she was shortlisted for the Lynn-Painter Stainers prize and exhibited at the Mall Galleries, London.
Lisa Grennell was born in Timaru in 1973 and graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design in Nelson in 2010. Now living in rural Glenhope in the South Island, Lisa’s studio sits high on a hill surrounded by 42 acres of pasture and native forest. Inspired by her experience of motherhood and passion for nature, Lisa’s work uses imagery of children with flowers, animals and insects. She questions young people’s view of the world, seeing modern technology as the cause of a disconnection from nature. Lisa emphasises this with her use of large white vacant space, creating a cavity in which her subjects float. This is the artist’s expression of the uncertainty of our future; it cannot be foreseen. She also likes to involve the viewer in the work via its reflective surface. By looking and reading, the gaze is returned, the spectator becomes the narrative and, in turn, part of the problem and solution.
Belinda Griffiths is a conceptual figurative artist based in Auckland. Working within the disciplines of painting and printmaking, her art explores the expressive potential of the gestural mark. Belinda was the recipient of the Molly Morpeth Canaday Award in 2010, and the Estuary Art Award in 2013. She has been a finalist in the Wallace Art Awards, the NZ Print and Printmaker Awards, and the Adam Portraiture Awards. Her work is held in a number of private and public art collections.
Aimee Guthrie lives and works in Napier in sunny Hawke’s Bay. She completed an Advanced Diploma in Art and Creativity at The Learning Connexion in 2012. Aimee works predominantly in the medium of oil painting, and paints a variety of subjects, most recently focusing on portraits and animals. Aimee has been selected as a finalist in the Molly Morpeth Canaday Art Awards in Whakatane in 2012, 2015 and again in 2016, and regularly exhibits in the NZ Art Show in Wellington. She is represented in galleries in the North and South Islands. Her work is also in many private collections both overseas and in New Zealand, including The Wallace Arts Trust collection.
2019 Artists H to M
Raised in Taranaki, Morgan Hancock is a full-time graphic designer and part-time illustrator now based in Auckland. Many of her drawings and designs are inspired by fashion and popular culture. Born in the 1990s and always having been influenced by 80s and 90s fashion, Morgan draws clothes she would have personally wanted for herself but never had. Incorporating quintessential kiwi icons within her work, she creates a feeling of nostalgia and memories of her kiwi childhood in Aotearoa. Pen, pencil and acrylic paint are predominant materials, but subtle embroidered stitching is also utilised to create an element of surprise… the ‘Aha!’ moment when people realise it is thread instead of paint.
Wendy Hannah is a multi-disciplinary artist known for her geometric 'X' artworks. Her new Kaleidoscope Series plays with overlaying colour which produces an effect very similar to looking through an eye-piece. Her experimental artworks use the alchemy of paint to achieve luscious, dreamy colour palettes.
Brendon and Jane Harley are a husband and wife team from Nelson. They design and create metal art and sculpture for New Zealand homes and gardens. They especially enjoy working with corten steel: the rust takes on its own life and aspect, each sculpture differing slightly from the last. Brendon and Jane enjoy creating high quality, original artwork - both striking and bold contemporary designs that make a statement, as well as more subtle, elegant and rustic pieces which nestle into New Zealand gardens and landscapes. They design and craft all of their art together, using sustainable New Zealand materials.
Hugo Harvey is a former Mount Albert Grammar School student currently in his third year of a Bachelor's Degree in Architecture at the University of Auckland. He is interested in the contrast of figures and architecture through the lenses of colour and form. Hugo primarily uses dry brushing and careful mixing to soften the appearance of his paintings. Between his studies and free time he has been teaching painting with the Fine Young Artists programme for schools and working to develop his abilities further. This is his fifth year with the Mount Albert Grammar School Art Show.
Justine Hawksworth holds a Fine Arts degree from Elam and is trained as a secondary school art and design teacher. Now working from her studio in Mt Eden, she produces limited edition fine art prints and paintings using a range of materials - predominantly acrylic, pencil and copper on nautical charts and maps. Justine’s work can be found in galleries throughout New Zealand as well as pieces held in both New Zealand and international collections. She is constantly inspired by our New Zealand native flora and fauna, our land and sea, holidays in the classic kiwi bach and the things we collect there to create memories.
Julie Green and Gina Hochstein’s 20-year friendship has developed into a wonderful creative collaboration. They contribute a similar creative aesthetic but different skills to their partnership, challenging the viewer’s perception of the humdrum of the everyday. As mums they struggle with the day-to-day conflict which our lifestyle on this planet brings and wrestle with what the future holds for our children. In their recent portrait series ‘Rogue Blossoms’, they have created hugely personal portraits of family and friends in a format influenced by Victorian portrait paintings. According to HOCH+GREEN, their journey working together has been both exhilarating and liberating.
Jody Hope Gibbons is a New Zealand artist making contemporary art from her Matakana studio, just north of Auckland. She has works that can be found in galleries around the country and also has an ever-changing collection at her studio. Her works range from abstract painterly works to contemporary landscapes and assemblage art. She is interested in layering mediums such as paint, metallics and leaf together with pattern, alchemy and surfaces.
John Horner was born in England in 1944. He studied at Elam School of Fine Arts where he was a student of Colin McCahon, Garth Tapper and Robert Ellis. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons) from Elam in 1965 and completed his Master of Fine Arts (Hons) in 2003. He was a teacher of secondary school art until the early 1980s and a senior lecturer at Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design until 2013. John has now retired to concentrate on painting full-time. His expressive. painterly style is inspired by New Zealand’s rugged landscape and sharp light contrasts in cityscapes. John has contributed to the Artists in Eden event for many years and recently did an artist's residency at Karekare homestead. He has been a finalist in the Wallace Art Awards three times and his work is included in many private New Zealand collections, including The Wallace Arts Trust.
Nicola Jackson is an artist and printmaker originally from the United Kingdom. She now works from her studio in Wellington. Using a combination of screen printing, collage and painting, Nicola’s works are an extension of her previous life as a successful print designer, selling work to companies such as Marc Jacobs, Disney, Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. Her work is inspired by her love of the coast, mark making, layering and colour. Each piece is original and unique.
Stuart Jobling’s recent work has been influenced by living by the sea. He works with hand-painted textured paper which he fashions into rocks and tree bark. Stuart has been a finalist in the Walker and Hall Waiheke Art Award and the Waitakere Art Awards.
Tim Jones is a painter specialising in large format contemporary and abstract works. His bold style blends colour and form in an expressive, purposeful way that invites a certain reflection from the viewer. Subtle hues and strong undertones compliment each other in these works exploring emotion and philosophy. He has been painting and exhibiting for over ten years and has combined his art career with work on yachts. Travelling extensively - circumnavigating the world - continues to influence his work with strong reference to the elements.
Jacqueline Kampen is an Auckland-based potter who has been an artist and creator of groupings of objects for some time now. Her work has been exhibited at art fairs and galleries throughout New Zealand. Jacqueline is a member of Auckland Studio Potters where she is growing her studio practice, focusing on the crafting of small pots and vessels. Her pottery is both decorative and functional and is often displayed in wooden boxes that are new, recycled, or made by hand.
Anna Khomko is a watercolour artist from Moscow. After travelling the world, Anna settled in Auckland in 2017, attracted by the natural beauty of New Zealand. She is still fascinated by the variety of life to be found in our environment, the driving force behind her painting. Inspiration for her abstract landscapes and organic sketches comes from observing the environment and the life within it. Painting is a vital process for Anna – it is research, meditation, a visual expression of emotions captured through the medium of watercolour. Anna also uses her artistic approach in floristry and photography and never misses a opportunity to paint outdoors while exploring new places.
Ainsley Leonard completed the first year of her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Ilam School of Fine Arts at Canterbury University. She transferred to the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne to complete her degree. After travelling for many years, she now lives in West Auckland and feels privileged to teach Art at Mount Albert Grammar School. Ainsley’s work is an exploration of oceans and skies. To her, they represent both stillness and movement, beauty and danger, serenity and looming environmental collapse. She explores water and air across two styles, neo-expressionism and organic abstraction, sometimes separately and sometimes colliding. She also works as a portrait painter in the style of the Mannerists.
Petra Leary is an award winning photographer whose work is distinguished by her travels. Petra's work captures a view out of the ordinary - whether through symmetry and motion in architecture or through patterns only discovered from above. Since picking up a camera, her photography has taken her across her native New Zealand, over the ditch to Australia, and beyond the Southern Hemisphere to places like Cuba, Canada and the United States. Petra’s work has been featured in various publications and sites around the world. Instead of creating a monotonous perception, Petra creates scenes from heights and places not for the faint-hearted to tell you a story from a different perspective.
Vera Limmer lives on the west coast of Auckland, where she has painted her landscapes for 20 years. Painting is in many ways an organic process for her. Her inspiration comes from our environment, the New Zealand forest and bush. Each piece of work starts with an idea, careful planning, drawing and an open-minded vision. It evolves with cutting, shaping, paint and patterns emerging in a decorative piece of work, with visible lines and brushstrokes. Vera’s painting technique allows paint and colour to move, sometimes freely, sometimes controlled by the artist. Vera Limmer’s work is available in art galleries in the North Island.
Maria Lloyd is fascinated by ancient civilisations, their cultures and how they created ceremonial art forms and objects to distinguish themselves and document their histories. Maria seeks to replicate that sense of wonder and mystery through cross-cultural exploration of our origins, our ancestors and the land. We can learn more about ourselves by unravelling their mysteries - the symbolism in her work creates a universal language with which to decode them. Maria’s deep respect for artistic traditions is reflected in the beading, sewing, carving and bronze work in her designs, while the graphic and narrative nature of her pieces is informed by her formal graphic design background. Maria is hands-on and produces all her work at her foundry on Waiheke Island. Her sculptures have found homes both locally and internationally.
Joanne Mahoney was born and brought up near the coast of the Wairarapa. She now lives in Whangamatā on the Coromandel Coast and works from her studio at home. She had little experience of art until she went to live in Singapore for two years, where she discovered that she could paint. When she returned to New Zealand she had several inspirational teachers and mentors, but is mainly self-taught. Joanne’s love of the coastal environment is reflected in her watercolour paintings of beachcombing finds. Many of these have been reproduced as prints and cards. Asian influences are often seen in her work. Having experimented with mixed media for some years, Joanne was introduced to printmaking in 2017. She now uses watercolour (for delicate layering), mixed media (for textures and colours), and printmaking (drypoint, collagraph, chine-collé) in her creations.
Angela Maritz moved to New Zealand from South Africa with her family in 2007. Her birthplace, South Africa, is a land of wild open spaces, big skies, lots of colour and cultural diversity. It is a place she still draws much of her inspiration from. She is also inspired by the serenity of her current home, New Zealand, with its ever-changing weather patterns and abundant natural beauty. Her work imparts a sense of freedom with its layers of paint, loose brushstrokes and bold harmonious colour, depicting the beauty of our world. Her paintings can be more than just a picture on a wall - they may serve as a reminder of somewhere visited or something felt, bringing joy for years to come.
Janet Mazenier came to art after raising her children and a long business career. When she retired, her unrelenting need for physical expression led her on a continuing exploration of a new identity within the medium of painting. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2015, and is currently a Master of Fine Arts student at Elam, University of Auckland. Janet’s paintings reflect her search for her unique artistic voice. She pushes beyond the distraction of the obvious, seeking to explore the quirky, the hidden. Her paintbrush has led her on a search for new materials and techniques, combining the layering of art media, colour, texture, mark-making and intuition with layers of personal meaning and, at times, humour. Janet is an invited member of an artist collective based in the United States. Her work is held in private collections in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.
Annie McIver is a figurative ceramic sculptor who hand builds using both coil and slab techniques to construct hollow forms. She tries to use glazes that inform the nature of her work. The formation of identity, particularly during childhood, continues to be a focus. Her motivation is to capture and encapsulate those small haemorrhages of the self which chart a human’s emotional progress through life. Annie completed a Master of Design at Unitec in 2012.
Michelle McIver grew up in the south of New Zealand, and spent most of her childhood with pencil in hand, drawing. After initially studying Fine Arts at the Otago School of Art, she went on to University of Otago to do her arts degree in Anthropology, Education and Japanese. Five years spent living and working in rural Japan piqued Michelle’s interest in the Japanese aesthetic. This country of often extreme contrasts fascinated her, but Michelle found she was most drawn to their practice of mindfulness and appreciation of their surroundings and nature. Upon returning to New Zealand Michelle taught in secondary schools and now lives in Auckland, where she enjoys painting and printmaking full-time.
Paula is an award-winning mixed media artist and printmaker with a nationwide reputation. She allows the viewer to enjoy their journey through the many aspects of her work, delighting in the direction in which it takes them. At her working studio in the Coromandel the fresh, uplifting environment creates the inspiration for her vibrant and compelling works.
Peter Miller lives in coastal west Auckland but works from a central city studio, and has been working from this studio as a full time artist for around 20 years. He is perhaps best known as a realist still life painter, in particular as a painter of old toy cars and trucks. More recently Peter has also been using the human presence within his work to create a stronger sense of narrative within the painting. Within this he has been exploring themes relating to the state of the planet and our impact on it, at times to celebrate human potential and at times to suggest that we are falling well short of our potential.
Harry Moores describes his work as a contemporary look at portraiture. His work combines the indeterminate nature of abstraction with lucid representations and often unmistakable familiarity. Harry was raised in New Plymouth. His interest in art started at New Plymouth Boys’ High School, where he was taught by bronze artist John Tullet. After leaving school, Harry and his brother set up ‘The Drawing Room’, a studio where he began to create sketches that were more intuition than volition, finding harmony in the facility and spaces of their lines. This was his ‘automatic drawing’ approach, blending realistic drawing and painting with the ambiguity of automatism. Moores seeks a meeting point between these two opposites and allows the viewer to see or feel something that is not quite understood. He believes that the whole world is founded on dualistic principles, but thinks that things can converge rather than alienate and oppose.
Deborah Moss works from her country studio in North Auckland alongside lush gardens and a beautiful native forest which provide endless inspiration for her creative practice. Her colourful and expressive paintings mirror her dynamic surroundings and contain references to organic forms and a growing visual vocabulary. Layers and colours are initially applied playfully, inviting a more considered response as a dialogue between gestures and storytelling evolves. Deborah has exhibited throughout New Zealand and, recently, in Australia. Her work is represented by several galleries in New Zealand and held in private collections in New Zealand and overseas.
Anya Mowll is a full-time artist based in Wellington. She graduated with a Diploma in Ceramic Arts in 2012 and then completed a Bachelor of Applied Arts at Whitireia Polytechnic. Anya works from home in her studio mostly with clay, but also experiments with new media. The texture of fired ceramics is intriguing as she explores the very smooth to sharp as a knife, as well as preserving fingerprints in the finished pieces. Fluid glazes are another line of experimentation. Anya finds her inspiration in nature, particularly in features like growth, weathering, evolution and organic structures. Always on the lookout for new ideas, she can also usually be found working on three or four projects simultaneously.
Cam Munroe’s large works on canvas speak confidently of texture and gesture - the latter being a preference for mark-making that offer contour to these creations. Works appear simple in composition, however the technique, restraint and problem solving are integral to the successful outcome of her works. Each gesture - balanced between purposeful lines of light and dark - remains. Each mark contributes to the creation of a work that captures a series of thoughts and moments with the ink and medium used. Each form of shape becomes a letter of an alphabet but not each is used as a code. An L or Y shape therefore can represent any letter, hieroglyph or picture element in any combination. Like codices documents, sometimes these are unreadable until they are more closely scrutinised and deciphered. They also must work aesthetically in the composition which is an integral consideration.
2019 Artists N to R
The distinctive, contemporary artwork of Janice Napper is distinctive for its rich hues and glass-like finishes. Drawn to the shiny, smooth surfaces of lacquer and perspex, Janice paints intuitively, often working from rough drawings while tackling the complex technical challenges involved in working with polymer and gel coat on a large scale. The fluidity of these captivating works demonstrates her confidence using these media, coupled with a strong understanding of design and composition which reflects her background in advertising.
Natalie Nesbitt is a figurative painter who works ‘alla prima’ (wet-on-wet) in oils, usually from life. A distinguishing feature of Natalie’s work is her ability to see and express the intensity of every-day scenes and places, in part by centring her artworks around the subtle qualities of light. Most of her work to date is on a smaller scale, though as she finds a looser, more expressive brushstroke her work is becoming larger. Light and movement are themes she wishes to explore further in her work. Natalie lives in Wellington with her husband and young daughter.
Michael Ng is an Auckland artist and has been drawing since he was old enough to hold a pencil. He attended Mount Albert Grammar School in the 1980s and his interest in art led him to a career in design. After graduating from university with a Bachelor of Architecture, Michael worked in architects’ offices before changing careers in 1998 to photograph architecture and interiors. After having worked with large-format analogue cameras in the past, Michael now prefers to use a high-resolution digital back to reveal subtle tones and details hidden from the untrained eye. Michael’s images in the Mount Albert Grammar School Art Show include personal work from his travels to the South Island back country and views of Auckland. His compositions include the built form and have been described as having a painterly style. 2019 will be Michael’s fourth year exhibiting at the Mount Albert Grammar School Art Show.
Christian Nicolson has worked as a full-time artist for the past 13 years and is based in Auckland. He initially studied design and worked for several years as an art director in advertising roles in New Zealand and London. He loves to paint, sculpt, use photography, create installations, and make films. He has several works in The Wallace Arts Trust collection and has been a finalist in the Wallace Art Awards six times. Christian has also featured in three of Denis Robinson’s art publications including New Zealand’s Favourite Artists Volume 2. He focuses on one solo exhibition a year and has also featured in many group shows such as Sculpture on the Gulf and NZ Sculpture OnShore. Christian has also made an award-winning feature film called ‘This Giant Papier Mâché Boulder is Actually Really Heavy’ (2016). Being creative is king.
Elliot O’Donnell (also known as Askew One) is a self-taught multi-disciplinary artist from Auckland. Starting out in the Auckland graffiti scene in the early 1990s, he became one of our most prominent graffiti artists internationally, as well as an integral part of the local scene, organising Auckland’s first graffiti festival, setting up multiple gallery spaces and publishing a magazine and book showcasing New Zealand graffiti art. Since 2010, Elliot O’Donnell’s art has moved beyond graffiti, focusing on studio work and large-scale outdoor murals. His text and portraiture-based paintings have moved towards a style he describes as 'portraiture by alternative means' - part still-life and part abstraction. He combines analogue and digital techniques in compositions made from 3D scans of random objects and textures from the street. He views these components as a recording of human movement through urban space, creating a mass portrait rather than an individual one.
A meticulous artist, Kristen Olson Stone works to create each painting so that it is abstract in nature when looked at close up. When seen from further away, the brushstrokes magically come together to reveal a particular subject. Her technique encompasses an exceptional level of detail and accuracy, combined with a warm, inviting style. Her artwork is collected and exhibited at five-star resorts, luxury commercial spaces such as the corporate collection of ASB, high-end private homes and the collection of President and Mrs. Obama.
Lisa Ormsby is an established artist based in Otorohanga who has exhibited in group exhibitions and art events throughout New Zealand since 1998. She shares her passion for art with her four children and also enjoys networking with fellow artists. Lisa specialises in acrylic and mixed media, striving for a balance between evolving her work and maintaining her own sense of style and uniqueness. She uses nature as a reference point and inspiration, offering us an opportunity to see the natural world through her eyes - where the beauty of the rock outshines the diamond.
Jade Oskar Harvey is an Auckland-based illustrator. He is currently working in the creative industry, producing commercial illustrations and other pieces. Jade has been drawing from an early age and loves finding inspiration for his creativity in the world around him, especially the native plants and animals of New Zealand. He observes animal anatomy right down to the skeletal structure, enabling him to understand its form. The time that he devotes to fine detail is reflected in his artwork.
John Papas was born in New Zealand in 1942 and is of Scots/Greek parentage. He is regarded as a senior New Zealand artist and a key figure in the history of New Zealand art. He draws symbols for his works from a rich and diverse visual language, including sources such as his Greek ancestry, souvenirs from travel, religious icons and favourite historical artworks. Although John has specialised in painting and ceramics, he uses a wide range of materials - bronze, steel, glass, copper, perspex, ceramic tiles, paper, clay and canvas - to express a concept. John has exhibited extensively with solo shows in London, Lucerne, Hong Kong, Germany, Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and throughout New Zealand. His works are held in the permanent collections of the New Zealand, British and Greek governments, major New Zealand galleries and many private collections, both in New Zealand and internationally.
Monica Paterson has an interest in figure and portraiture in her painting and drawing, weaving this together with a desire to be connected to her Samoan genealogy. Her work references family history and spiritual beliefs, and draws from her background in computer graphic design, illustration and fabric design. After a period away from the arts whilst raising her family, Monica has returned to painting regularly in recent years. At the beginning of 2017, Monica joined the Corban Estate Arts Centre as an artist in residence where she painted as she was inspired.
Jill Perrott’s painting and drawing have been inspired by New Zealand's dramatic and unique landscapes for over twenty years. She would not describe herself as a conventional painter - the last three decades have been full of experimentation, trial and error. The constant of her work, however, is her choice of materials: spray paint, stencils, texture, resin and oil stick. Jill works from photographs in her Titirangi studio and is represented in galleries throughout New Zealand.
Paula Petherick is a fine art photographer. She recently returned home to New Zealand from the Middle East with her husband and two teenage children, to concentrate solely on her art. Paula works mostly in a studio environment combined with a digital darkroom, enabling her to build her images using photographed layers of texture and light. Paula is strongly influenced by the classic forms of art and design that she has seen on her travels, combined with a love of the ‘kiwi identity’.
Jane Pierce attended Elam School of Fine Arts before moving to Japan for 10 years. She now lives on the North Shore of Auckland. Jane draws inspiration from people, music, objects, dance and glossy magazines. Her bright, cheerful subjects are a joyful representation of life. An idea evolves and is conveyed in its simplest form: contrasting colours, shapes, forms and lines are arranged to create a strong composition, people and objects becoming abstract shapes. Jane is featured in the Denis Robinson’s “Gallery” book of New Zealand’s favourite artists.
Grace Popplewell is exhibiting in the Mount Albert Grammar School Art Show for her fourth year, this time as a second year Albertian studying Communication Arts at AUT. In her final year as a student at Mount Albert Grammar School in 2017, she placed 1st in design among the students at the MAGS Art Show and sold one piece to the James Wallace Arts Trust collection. Grace’s illustrated pieces vary greatly in style from digital flat illustrations to mixed media to detailed line drawings. Her goal is to explore as many mediums and styles as possible and let her work speak of the enjoyment she has in creating it.
Jeremy Porteous is a former Mount Albert Grammar student who spends many of his waking hours painting and drawing. His artworks are usually scenes one might come across travelling around New Zealand, such as old farmhouses, dead towns and abandoned shacks. These places become very interesting subject matter as, despite their seemingly lifeless nature, over time they develop real character. Jeremy works with the texture of his paintings to portray their roughness and state of neglect, often using thick layers of impasto and other modelling mediums. Some of his key influences are great New Zealand artists such as John Toomer and Peter Siddell, and his former painting teacher, Peter Rees. Jeremy has exhibited in several Auckland art shows.
Spid Pye began his career in 1995. He acquired his first camera at 17, and was self-taught until he attended art school in London. He obtained a Ronald Woolf Memorial Trust grant on his return to New Zealand, allowing him to continue his photography and design studies. Spid has received many awards for his work. Most recently, he has been selected for the prestigious Lürzer’s Archive 200 Best Ad Photographers Worldwide. Spid has only had two solo showings: in 1997, and recently in Whangamata in 2019, where he sold over 30 prints. Spid says he is going to spend the latter half of his career creating art with more showings to come - watch this space!
Robin is inspired by nature's design and endurance, and how subliminal forces impact on social cultural and environment perspectives. Using a variety of medium she strives to express and share empathy for the viewer in order to recognize and explore universal compassionate themes. Robin achieved a Bachelor Visual Arts in 2005. She was one of three artists invited to visit and exhibit at Image & Imagination 2016, Nongyuang International Arts Village, Chengdu, China. Robin was a winner at the Waiclay National Ceramic Awards 2017, Waikato Museum, and has been selected to participate in the Small Sculpture Prize, Waiheke 2019.
Catherine Roberts lives on the south coast of Wellington, where she has painted her semi-abstract landscapes for 18 years. Painting is in many ways an organic process for her. She is inspired by the New Zealand environment, in particular forest and bush scenes. Each piece starts with an idea and an open-minded vision and usually evolves from layers of texture, paint and lacquer, resulting in an organic-looking piece of work, without perfect lines or brushstrokes. Due to the style and process of Catherine’s painting, some of the movement of paint and colour distribution is out of her control, and she ‘lets nature take its course’. Catherine’s work is available in art galleries throughout Aotearoa.
Mandy Rodger’s practice explores totality and builds on the premise that nothing stands by itself. Her gestural marks create a sense of impermanence and transition. The paintings are an improvisation - a response to, and interpretation of, what lies below and the intrinsic relationships between each form, gesture and colour. The complexity of technique and paint application belie the simplicity of form and gesture. Mandy seeks to step over a deliberative cognitive threshold so as to create a rhythmically intuitive, emergent ‘mind-scape’. Mandy has been selected as a double finalist in this year’s National Contemporary Art Awards.
Originally from Melbourne, Judy moved to New Zealand 13 years ago. Living in Devonport unleashed her creative inner child, her love of fantasy and enchantment. The frequently miniaturised characteristic of her art is representative of her passion and attention to detail, and invariably initiates a smile to those who study her art.
Judy’s work is predominantly Steampunk with a poetically romantic, quirky twist. Often with a practical but non-conformist vision in mind, she is inspired by the English writer H.G. Wells and the French novelist, poet and playwright Jules Verne. Her unique style reflects her view of life, which is to embrace the simple beauty of each day, not take life too seriously and nurture the child within.
Judy Rogers’ work is held in the Wallace Arts Trust collection.
“roOm” is the name under which this artist creates and shows work. As an artist, roOm is interested in the anonymity that photography brings. When you take a photo, people focus on the image and the camera... not the artist behind it. roOm likes the idea of the artist being invisible and letting the camera do the work. roOm’s work has been in the final selection of the Signature Art Award at the NZ Art Show in Wellington four years running, and in 2017 was privileged to be voted the winner of the Signature Art Award for the work: “Less is Less 05”. roOm has been looking forward to exhibiting at the Mount Albert Grammar School Art Show.
RUSH has evolved from Rachel Rush’s love of all the amazing street art around the world - from the alleyways of Melbourne, the surviving slabs of the Berlin Wall, to the gritty streets of New York. She was inspired to capture the energy and feeling from the streets, and to put it up on canvas, offering each painting to ‘become a piece of the bigger picture’.
Rachel Rush has been painting and successfully exhibiting in many of Auckland’s most prestigious exhibitions and galleries for many years. She loves the freedom of mixing acrylics with resin as there are no hard rules, to watch each piece take on its own vibrancy and energy is a real joy.
Auckland artist Cathryn Ryan loves to explore the diverse qualities and alluring nature of botanical subject matter. Magnification and careful cropping are an essential part of her artistic process, helping to provide each composition with emphasis, structural balance and harmony. As a result, form and space collide in an interwoven tapestry of colour, light and shade. These works represent a perfect visual record of the passing seasons, of decay and regeneration, while honouring the innate beauty that they hold. Non-botanical works explore other topics that require attention. Whether a landscape or wildlife, Cathryn aims to pique curiosity, to consider an expression, or to look beyond the surface appearance. Variation of texture and tone enhance the mood and create a fresh, honest and lively portrayal.
2019 Artists S to Z
Originally from Hawkes Bay, Mathew Scott is of Maori, Irish and Scottish descent. He graduated from the Wellington School of Design in 1991. Over the past two decades his creativity and aptitude for design have encompassed landscape and interior stone sculptures, abstract acrylic paintings and more recently feathers and shells carved from New Zealand native timbers. From an intergenerational family of designers and artists, Mat’s work reflects not only his connection to family but also an interpretation of the environment in which he lives. Mat is an avid surfer and skater and the land and sea are as critical to his creative process as the obsessive passion with which he channels his energies into each new creation.
Ioana Schwalger is a photography teacher at Mount Albert Grammar School. The inspiration for her painted work can be attributed to her Samoan heritage, New Zealand culture and Christian beliefs. Biblical symbolism and Samoan female portraiture are a recurring theme depicted in her work.
Growing up in the United Kingdom, Paul Screach was influenced by a heady mix of British television comedy, American science fiction and the punk rock scene of the late 1970s. He believes that these experiences gave him a rich source of linguistic content and had a lasting effect on his visual imagery. Working in acrylics and a variety of other media, he explores a spectrum of abstract painting from the seemingly incomprehensible to the strangely familiar. Paul lives and works in Auckland and has been a resident artist at Railway Street Studios in Newmarket since 2012. His works are represented in private collections throughout New Zealand and overseas, as well as the James Wallace Arts Trust collection in Auckland.
Form, texture and colour are Don Service’s passions. The versatility and beauty of steel and rust, timber and plywood allow him to create his designs on a large scale. These materials remain stable and durable even with large chunks cut out of them, helping his designs create shadows which add depth and intrigue, playing games with your eyes. Don makes his designs with pencils, rulers, erasers ... jigsaws, files, routers, lots of sandpaper and sometimes laser cutters. Basically, he loves making things.
Susan Skelton lives in Wellington, where she started painting in 2006. She is self-taught and continues to learn. Her approach to making art is a vibrant one: colour and texture are key elements in the energy expressed in her artworks. She tries to capture her passion for strong, fluid colour by pushing the boundaries of paint tolerance to create explosions of hue and shape on paper or canvas. She is inspired by many things, ranging from the drama of stormy clouds to feminine beauty.
Tom Somerville remembers the moment of suddenly discovering that he loves the act of creating things, especially things that are going to be appreciated and cherished. After experiencing this light bulb moment, he enrolled in a pottery class which changed his life. Tom met his wife while working in Tonga many years ago. While living there, he would spend as much time as he could snorkelling around the reefs. He loved these secret little worlds brimming with life. These days, Tom and his wife have a joint passion for gardening. As a result of these two influences, his work is largely inspired by foliage, flowers, coral and fish.
Sally Spicer is a graduate of Elam, a Whangarei-based painter and printmaker who exhibits regularly. She paints primarily portraits in oil and watercolour. Sally is interested in memory: nostalgia, drama, warmth, and humour frequently permeate her work. She is inspired by fashion, in particular vintage clothing and style, and she often uses vintage photographs as a resource. The pattern and texture of fabric is given special attention in Sally's work, and she hopes this element is as absorbing and evocative for the viewer as it is for her. Sally aims to imbue her paintings with humanity and personality.
Bruce Stilwell is a father of six and a full-time joiner who works predominantly with velvet and thread. Bruce has always dabbled in art and expresses his creativity part-time. He exhibits locally, nationally and internationally. In 2017, he won the People’s Choice Award in the Arts Council Nelson Changing Threads Contemporary Fibre Art Awards for his first circular piece. Later that year, Bruce won the Dunedin Art Show Award and made the top 10 artists list at the New Zealand Art Show in Wellington. He has also participated in the Christchurch and Dunedin Art Shows. In January 2019, he won the People’s Choice Award in the Craigs Aspiring Art Prize in Wanaka. This is the first time that Bruce Stilwell’s work has been exhibited in Auckland.
Anna Stitchbury’s works are often bold and feature intense hues. Through the use of colour and texture she strives to create rich, vibrant paintings that have an immediate impact for the viewer. She is interested in our emotional response to a work. Anna has been painting and exhibiting for around 20 years and has had many group and solo exhibitions throughout New Zealand and Australia. She paints from her Wellington studio and supplies galleries nationally. Her paintings have been published in a range of New Zealand art calendars, diaries, articles and the book ‘New Zealand’s Favourite Artists’.
Kirily Taylor is a collage artist from Auckland. Nature is the current theme explored in her artwork. She observes and integrates the colours, shapes and intricate patterns of the natural environment into her works. Her collages are made from multiple layers of her own botanical and abstract prints which have been printed onto thin papers. When pasted together, the different layers peek through. The artwork starts to take shape through this process of creating: layer upon layer, covering up, and scraping away. Over the last few years, Kirily has been selected to exhibit for a number of group art shows throughout New Zealand.
Ana Ter Huurne was born in Mexico City and is of New Zealand and Mexican heritage. She graduated from the University of Auckland in 2010 with a Bachelor of Art History. Ana lives in Clevedon and her photography acts as a springboard for her painting. She enjoys the expressive quality of paint and colour, and finds deep inspiration in both the New Zealand landscape and her family and friends. She has been exploring and developing her art for over 20 years, learning from a wide range of influential and accomplished teachers such as Allie Eagle, Cushla Parekowhai and Richard Fahey. These teachers have been an inspiration to her and she is passionate about passing on this knowledge and love to her students at Mount Albert Grammar School. Ana has exhibited in several group exhibitions including Art for Change 2018 at Depot Artspace.
Carol Theologo is an oil painter living in Wellington greatly inspired by our native birdlife and flora.
Largely self-taught, Carol has gradually developed her own style and technique. She enjoys creating varied effects and drawing into, scraping the paint with different tools. She expresses herself as much by applying paint as she does removing it.
Carol is an active member of the Khandallah Art Group and the New Zealand Academy of Fine Art. Her work is exhibited at various galleries and art shows and held in private collections throughout New Zealand and internationally.
Rebecca Tune is a full time artist and graphic designer working from her Auckland studio. Her art revolves around her interest in the ways paint can be manipulated, layered and stripped back to both hide and reveal small gem-like images, flashes of colour, and movement beneath a plain surface. This becomes a dance of chance, control and surprise - of knowing when to let the paint flow where it wants, or when to reign it in and manipulate it into a space that is readable, poetic and eye-catching.
Rebecca exhibits nationally and has work displayed in international collections. She is a regular supporter of the annual Artists In Eden auction, and is a Mount Albert Grammar School parent.
Fiona Tunnicliffe has been a potter for about 30 years. Her beautiful pieces almost always use animal forms as a starting point, mostly horses, and lately, rabbits. She loves the qualities of clay, its texture and surface detail, and its ability to take on a life of its own. Each of her rather special formed ceramic animals seems imbued with its own unique personality, enhanced by the textures, pattern, text and relief work applied to its coat and shape. Fiona has won numerous accolades for her work, including people’s choice and overall section awards at key New Zealand art and ceramic exhibitions. Her work is available in galleries throughout New Zealand.
Suzette van Dorsser is based in Franklin and has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Massey University. She uses printmaking techniques to generate the raw materials to construct paintings and mixed media works. Suzette's work features a series of intricate layers to build depth, movement and interest. Often her work is illustrative, but for this exhibition she has focused on working in an abstract format to depict the vastness of the ocean and Antarctica.
Natalie Walker’s 2019 collection tells the story of her journey of self-discovery and of her whakapapa. It is the telling of her tūpuna, the acknowledgement of their reality, their journey and their whakareretanga (legacy): “The gathering of Taonga to create Korowai. My Awa Te Hoiere (the Pelorus river) Pakohe (argillite), and Pounamu (greenstone), Te Moana the sea, 'Tūrangawaewae, a place to stand and belong’”. Natalie puts creativity into meaningful pieces that go beyond the usual boundaries of resin and spray paint, challenging and allowing her to step out of her comfort zone and create a point of difference from her fellow resin artists. Establishing from the outset a dialogue with her chosen components, the materials have been cast to create an interaction with and be similar to raw stone and rock formations, keeping a conscious smoothness about them. Diluted solvent and resin is manipulated to mimic stone or rock being pulled from the awa, consenting to a rippled mirror effect, a similar effect to that seen when you place your feet in the sand as the waters ebb away. The visual presentation of this allows the viewer to place themselves in that moment of time while contemplating perhaps the stars of ‘whānau ariki’ or the sunset ‘whānau mārama’. As an artist Natalie wishes to recreate this viewpoint: for the observer to sit in their ‘whare’ and contemplate the spectacle of our environment below, within and above us. This collection of pieces has its own story but has the elements of sisterhood: each piece is individual but co-dependent and part of a whakapapa. This is Wahine Matike.
Richard Wells’ artwork captures moments in life revealing movement and emotion. Using traditional techniques and the ancient medium of bronze, his works tell human stories in a contemporary context. Born and raised in the South Island, Richard now lives in Auckland with his wife Nicky and their 3 children. He works from his studio in South Auckland and is the owner of Artworks bronze art casting foundry. Widely represented in art galleries throughout New Zealand, Richard's sought after, collectable works are held in collections both here and overseas, including The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa's permanent collection.
Rae West’s work pulses with the kinetic freedom of fluidity and light. She uses multiple veils of pigment, resin and ink, which blend and react against each other creating beautiful forms and textures. The end results are spontaneous, subconscious, and sensual.
Julie is an established artist based in the Waikato. She first picked up a brush after taking a break from her career to have children, and through practice and exploration, Julie has discovered her natural ability for painting. She works with acrylics and a variety of mediums and tools, adding interest and depth. Her paintings explore colour and form found in nature. Julie enjoys experimenting, producing work that is varied and surprising, and constantly evolving and changing as new ideas emerge. She is attracted to vibrant colour and her paintings are a colourful, beautiful expression of her style.
Lyndy Wilson lives in the small Waikato town of Ngāruawāhia and is of Tainui descent. Art and creativity have always been passions of hers, painting in particular. She is mostly self-taught, although an Arts Waikato scholarship in 2003 enabled her to complete a Diploma in Art and Creativity through The Learning Connexion in Wellington. She has a diverse range of styles but her strong use of colour is constant. Relying on instinct and intuition, paintings often evolve layer by layer; bold gestural movements counterbalanced by the impulse for order.
Heather Wilson is a well-established professional artist originally from Wellington but now living in sunny Hawkes Bay. Over time her work has emerged from painting Kiwiana and inanimate objects, into a visual feast of patterned colour and multi-textural layers of acrylic and mixed media on canvas. Subject matter is limitless, although there is a strong pull towards retro images and repetitive patterns. Heather is a regular exhibitor at the New Zealand Art Show in Wellington, and her work is available from galleries and design stores around New Zealand and from her studio in Taradale.
Ilan Wittenberg’s first photography exhibition was held on Auckland’s waterfront in 2014. Entitled ‘Black, White & Colour’, it featured portraiture, landscape and fine art. Ilan’s next project was to document the people of the Old City of Jerusalem. ‘Faces of Jerusalem’ was exhibited at Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery and was featured in f11 Magazine, Art New Zealand and D-Photo Magazine. His ‘Bare Truth’ portfolio was exhibited at the 2016 Head On Photo Festival in Sydney and the Signature Programme of the 2016 Auckland Festival of Photography. In addition to these achievements, Ilan won the 2016 award for Travel Photographer of the Year from Travcom (New Zealand Travel Communicators) and the Grand Prize at the 2018 Sony Alpha awards. His winning photo was chosen for the cover of D-Photo magazine together with a feature story Faces of Morocco. Ilan has been Auckland Photographer of the Year three times: in 2015, 2016 and 2018!
Daniel Wright grew up near Piha on Auckland’s wild West Coast. He now lives on Great Barrier Island. His work is inspired by a lifelong connection to the ocean and his passion for surfing. The son of two 1970s basket weavers, his own creativity emerged during high school design classes, where he developed a love of working with New Zealand native timber and learned to carve bone. Daniel is a self-taught artist and designer, keeping his art imaginative yet real. His desire for simplicity and capturing the essence and feel of his subjects shows clearly in his work.
Known for her dramatic cast-glass sculptures, British-born Galia Amsel is one of the leading contemporary glass artists now working in New Zealand. A graduate of the Royal College of Art in London, Amsel relocated her studio and family to the rural edge of West Auckland in 2003. She has achieved international recognition for her highly developed understanding of glass, with a visual language uniquely her own. Amsel’s sculpture revolves around the central paradox of glass as both a fluid and a solid medium. Through shape, translucence, texture and colour, she conveys her preoccupation with movement, tension and balance and her resulting works manage both drama and subtlety. She has a prolific exhibition history in the United States, England, Europe and Oceania. Her work is represented in numerous international collections including the Corning Museum of Glass, USA; The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Ulster Museum, Ireland; and Glassammlung Ernsting, Germany.