Creative Matters - with Mandy Jakich: Recent Episodes
Mandy Jakich
Conversations with new and established artists and creatives from all over New Zealand about their lives, creative process and art practice. I love to listen to artists’ stories for inspiration and ideas. And maybe you do too. Which is why I’ve created this podcast - to inspire, inform and educate. I really hope you take away something positive and encouraging from each of these amazing stories - to inspire you on your own creative journey. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/podcast
Andrea Robinson is a painter from Wellington Aotearoa NZ. Her paintings celebrate nature and are made with the intention to touch people's hearts and shine a light on conservation and environmental protection.
From stylised realism to illustration, Andrea explores many styles and approaches within 3 series: florals; landscapes and native birds with a particular focus on kiwi.
In this episode Andrea shares her personal challenges with health issues and periods of chronic pain and how she manages this around her art practice and her love of being in nature. She shares the messages and narratives behind her paintings, the things that are important to her, how she manages her 3 series of work, what she loves so much about kiwis and the volunteer work she does with them, and she unpacks her painting process.
I think you'll find Andrea very inspiring in the way she deals with the challenges in her life, her attitude to the world and her positive mindset.
https://www.andrearobinson.co.nz/
https://www.instagram.com/andrearobinsonartistnz/
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Nicole Russell is a watercolour artist born in Germany and now living in Ruby Bay in the Tasman district at the top of the South Island of New Zealand.
Nicole paints her local environment and what she sees and she loves to paint en plein air.
In this episode Nicole talks about how she came to a full time painting practice after a career in law, her journey to living in Aotearoa, her watercolour journaling practice and what informs the paintings she makes.
We discuss her experience studying visual arts online with The Learning Connexion, what caused her to lose confidence in her practice when her focus shifted to teaching watercolour painting and her connection to local surroundings and events. Nicole talks about her landscapes work and the quirky little caricatures she enjoys and the narratives that are communicated through her work.
And Nicole gives one of the most detailed descriptions of her plein air and studio painting process we've had on the podcast. Enjoy! https://www.nicolerussellart.com/
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Tallulah Nunez was born in Wellington and raised in the Hawkes Bay. She is a painter currently based in the remote Gascoyne region of Western Australia, with a strong creative connection to New Zealand. Her practice is grounded in place — exploring the rich textures, colours, and forms of arid landscapes, native botanicals, and geological structures.
Working primarily in drawing and painting, she uses layered mark-making, and gestural linework to reflect the raw beauty and quiet resilience of the land. Her style is intuitive yet grounded in observation, often blending abstract impressions with botanical and environmental detail.
Tallulah had a traumatic upbringing and suffers from a number of mental health issues including Obessive Compulsive Disorder, Dis-associative Identity Disorder and Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Tallulah generously shares her life dealing with these challenges and how painting, particularly repetitive mark making, is a positive way for her to respond to and process her life and mental health.
This is another unique, enlightening episode I know you'll enjoy. Nga mihi, thank you to Tallulah for her honesty and authenticity and for highlighting mental health issues in the way she has and for explaining how being an artist has supported and created a 'safe space' as a person dealing with mental health illness.
https://www.instagram.com/tallulahnunez_studio/
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Kylie King-Hazel is a portrait painter living in Pōneke Wellington.
https://www.instagram.com/kyliekinghazel/
Kylie's practice inhabits the space of a soliloquy - an internal dialogue shaped by uncomfortable questions and self-reflection. It begins as a love letter to her Māori husband and children and moves to questioning her responsibility in creating work shaped by love, proximity and relationships.
Kylie's practice sits intentionally in an uneasy place and explores the uncomfortable question of what it means to be Tangata te Tiriti in Aotearoa. Rather than finding resolution, her work is shaped by ongoing questioning and reflects her responsibility as a Pākehā artist, wife and mother.Through painting she explores the emotional and political weight of portraiture, where gaze, visibility, histories, relationships and power dynamics combine, considering the accountability of making work in relation to Māori.
This episode is unique, thought provoking, authentic, beautifully honest and even raw and emotional at times.
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Tracey Coakley is a narrative oil painter working primarily in figurative painting and portraiture. Born in Melbourne, Australia, Tracey has lived in New Zealand since 2007 and now works from her studio in Waipu, Northland.
https://www.instagram.com/traceycoakleyart/
Predominantly self-taught, she has been painting since 2000 and working full-time as an artist since 2017, completing a Diploma of Visual Arts in 2006. Her subjects are often friends, family, and self-portraits, and over time have included her children as they navigate from childhood into adolescence and adulthood.
BETWEEN USArt That Connects
Opening Day Ceremony
16th May 2026 2-4pm
Depot Artspace, Devonport, Auckland
https://www.betweenus.co.nz/
https://depot.org.nz/
https://www.instagram.com/figurativeartnz/
This exhibition has been developed to showcase the plurality of voices in contemporary figurative art and portraiture in Aotearoa New Zealand by exploring the rich themes of identity and lived experience with a goal to expand audience appreciation for the genres of figurative art and portraiture, and foster greater expression and connection in our communities.
We start talking about this show 1 hour and 6 minutes in to this episode. Tracey and Karlalise would like to sincerely thank Depot Artspace in Devonport for their wonderful venue and all their support.
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Lynne Sandri is a contemporary artist and a curious idealist living in Seatoun in Wellington.
With a career spanning over 25 years as a full time artist Lynne has had over 100 exhibitions and numerous artist residencies, she has built studios and opened them to the public, she's taught students and mentored artists and she sells just about everything she makes throughout NZ and internationally.
Lynne’s artwork delves into the beauty of nature, the cycles of life and the evolving concept of home and being a care-taker of land. She’s a maker, curator and collector with an insatiable appetite and curiosity for art in all its glorious forms.
I see Lynne as an amazing experienced role model for artists with some sound advice. as well as a damn good human! In this episode we talk about the benefits of art communities, creating and opening her studio to the public, stepping away from being represented by galleries and why she has chosen to do this, why she loves working 'her own gig', and how she sustains her practice by thinking creatively and outside the box as well as taking calculated risks and her business like approach to her art career.
As a past judge, selector, member of the board and part of the founding team of the NZ Art Show, and a guest judge in other art shows, Lynne shares her experiences selecting and judging art.
Lynne talks in depth about her various series, including floral paintings on long rolls of canvas that gather on the ground, her landmark paintings, painting on books, her still life and landscape paintings, and her heavily textured sculptural paintings. http://www.lynnesandri.co.nz/
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Jo Tricker is a glass artist based in Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty, Aotearoa NZ.
Jo creates glass fused, slumped, cast and lamp worked objects that are shaped by a love of literature and travel and the people from different cultures that she has met along the way.
Jo is an exuberant storyteller. In this episode she talks about her younger life living in the UK and studying English and linguistics at Massey University and her initial love of mosaics which 14 years ago led to learning about glass screen printing, lamp working and glass fusing. She shares why she only now feels she's getting to really understand what she's all about as an artist and why she does what she does. Jo works in series which often use different techniques or are based on different ideas. She explains how she juggles the various series of work, her time making as a busy mother and how she manages being an extrovert alongside spending so much time alone in her studio. And she describes the process for her most current series Mythology of Fruit.
Jo shares some excellent advice, philosophies and reflections for artists and people wanting to develop a creative career.
https://www.jotrickerglass.com/
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Rosanne Croucher is a landscape oil painter from Hamilton New Zealand. She sees herself as a 'painter of moments' as well as landscapes, capturing the splendour, light and mood of ordinary everyday Aotearoa scenes.
In this episode we talk about Rose's experience completing a masters degree of design and visual arts at Unitec in Auckland, which she completed in 2013; how she juggles being a mother of 3 children whilst still prioritising time to paint; why she likes to capture ordinary scenes as well as magestic landscapes; how she brings her imagination into her landscape work and why she loves to paint still water, mist and atmosphere.
We talk process - from her preference for preparing her own ACM boards and mounting and adhering canvas or linen on top, to techniques she uses for priming and colour mixing, using a rag as well as brushes and the joys and challenges of plein air painting.
Roseanne generously shares a mental health condition she has lived with for 30 years called TTM or Trichotillomania which she has recently overcome, how this has affected her life and why she now feels ready to share this with others.
This is a wonderful episode I know you'll enjoy. Ngā mihi thank you to Roseanne for sharing her beautiful practice and for sharing her personal beliefs and mental health with us.
https://rosannecroucher.com/
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Katie Robinson is a painter based in both Alexandra, Central Otago and in Devonport, Auckland. https://www.katierobinson.co.nz/
Katie makes work that sits at the intersection of memory, emotion, and mischief. Her art is grounded in its making, but often not in its mood. It’s underpinned by real stories and personal heritage, often tangled up with humour, oddness, and where I unexpectedly find emotion.
Much of her inspiration comes from the Otago region—its landscapes, its histories, its ghosts (real and imagined).
In this beautiful meandering episode we talk about Katie's academic background and varied career: the science PHD Katie achieved in her twenties; her moves into banking, management consulting then intellectual property law and how she finally "grew up" and tapped into her creativity once she became a mother.
Katie shares how she manages her life between Alexandra and Devonport and how these 2 places influence her work in different ways. We talk about leading from the heart, managing vulnerable feelings, painting on found objects, layering colour, the stories of stones, the challenges of solo shows, abstracting shapes and seeing things differently in her landscapes.
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Janet Mazenier is a contemporary visual artist living in Te Hau Kapua Devonport in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
Janet's practice engages with place, time, affect, world bending, and materiality. Her drawn-paintings are characterised by texturally rich, excavated, and striated surfaces that evoke ancientness, the hidden, the unseen, and the ephemeral.
Janet's paintings are created using oil paint mixed with beeswax (known as cold wax medium), enabling a low-toxic practice that results in beautiful textural works.
In this episode we talk about how Janet got started as a full time artist 13 years ago after a corporate career, her experience gaining a masters degree in fine art at Whitecliffe School of Art in Auckland and going on to complete a PHD in Creative Practice at Elam School of Fine Art, which she completed in March 2026. Janet describes the medium of cold wax, its qualities, how it is made and applied and the effects she achieves with this medium in her paintings. We explore concepts around contextual and conceptual thinking, the ideas behind Janet's work related to heritage and place and her involvement in 2 formative artist residencies in Ireland. We talk scale, art collectives, collaboration, working with light, time and responding to the land.
Janet teaches a number of creative classes that encompass painting, drawing, collage and critical thinking, and is also offering one-on-one mentoring for creatives who wish to have a guiding hand to navigate your way through your creative practice. https://www.creativeconnections.nz/post/janet-mazenier-contemporary-visual-artist
https://janetmazenier.com/
Janet's workshops
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Mark Whippy is a Kiwi-Fijian artist born and raised in Auckland, New Zealand. Mark’s figurative and portrait art is inspired by observing the ordinary everyday people and scenes of his environment, hoping to capture their stories and characters, finding the beauty of every day life.
Mark's style is a playful blend of realism and abstraction. His focus currently has been on the urban environment of Auckland City life. As well as being a practising artist, Mark has a passion for teaching art and helping others gain confidence and grow their skills.
In this episode we talk about life drawing, teaching art, participating in art battles, Mark's experience studying fine art at Whitecliffe in Auckland, his experiences drawing people's portraits in public, Mark's painting process, entering art awards, neurodiversity and the ideas behind Mark's paintings. Mark talks about his introverted younger self and the ways he has gained confidence in himself and his practice over the years through his time at Whitecliffe Art School, participating in online art classes and stepping out of his comfort zone.
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Ben Kaye DBKAYE is an Auckland tattoo artist and the co-founder with his wife Madeline of the Roots Auckland Tattoo Convention.
Auckland is set to host its first-ever international tattoo convention in 2026 with the launch of the Roots Auckland Tattoo Convention, a weekend celebration of artistry, culture, and community taking place Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th March at The Cloud, 89 Quay Street, Auckland.
In a country like New Zealand, few art forms hold as much personal and cultural significance as tattooing. An expression of cultural, artistic and personal narrative, tattoos have transcended their origins to become a global phenomenon, celebrated and revered across diverse communities. The Roots Auckland Tattoo Convention is an exceptional tattoo convention designed to unite New Zealand and international artists, enthusiasts, and industry leaders in a shared celebration of ink and artistry.
In this episode I speak to Ben about his own creative journey and tattoo practice as well as the Roots Auckland Tattoo Convention, which is on at The Cloud for the very first time on the weekend of March 14th and 15th 2026, with plans to continue each year.
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Carol Bucknell is a Waiheke artist who has come from a successful career in journalism and garden design. She has been painting commissioned portraits and figurative works in oils for 20 years, and now produces more abstracted figurative works using oils and cold wax.
In January 2024 Carol and artist Sally Tagg held a joint exhibition at Waiheke Community Art Gallery. Later that year she was a finalist in the Walker and Hall Art Awards. In January 2026 she won the runner up prize at the Craigs Aspiring Art Awards in Wanaka.
Carol has completed several specialist courses focusing on painting the figure in order to broaden a mostly self-taught practice. Working out of her Oneroa studio in Waiheke her paintings explore the relationship between contemporary digital processes and oil paint application on panels using cold wax medium. Through the use of bold colour, texture, stencils and other media the resulting paintings take the figure beyond its traditional boundaries while retaining the artist’s obvious affection for the human form.
In this chat we talk about Carol's journey from painting portraits to abstracted figurative works, the cold wax process, abstracting the figure, how she captures movement, her fascination with gesture, human poses and body language, inspiration for her paintings, why she likes to paint women, using the Procreate app in her process, the possibility of using text in her paintings and the influence of a career in journalism and landscape design in her work. And so much more. This is such a great episode I know you'll love as much as I loved meeting and talking to Carol.
Thank you nga mihi to Carol Bucknell for joining us on the podcast and for sharing your story with us.
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Lyndy Wilson is a contemporary New Zealand painter of Tainui descent. She grew up and still lives in the small town of Ngāruawāhia surrounded by the Waikato and Waipā rivers and the majestic Hakarimata ranges, a constant source of inspiration.
Her style can be described as diverse, eclectic and ever evolving which allows her the freedom to explore different subjects such as floral and botanical, abstract, landscape and more recently figurative.
Growing up in Ngaruawahia Lyndy was immersed in Maori culture. Annual regattas At Turangawaewae Marae were always a huge event for the town and a way to celebrate and show pride in their rich heritage. Lyndy has early memories gathering flax with her Grandmother and sitting watching her great Aunties weave. Hangis at Christmas with the extended family were well loved ..these early memories inform some of her figurative work.
In this episode Lyndy talks about studying at The Learning Connexion art school in Wellington, how she manages painting three different genres in her art practice and what inspires each genre, the ways she processes her own emotions through her paintings, her fascination for "the dark side", what she does with her 'failed' paintings and the great story behind her finalist work for the National Contemporary Art Award "Tell Me You Like It Anyway". She opens up about self doubt and learning to handle that, building community, her experimenting Fridays and her tongue in cheek plan for starting up a "husbands of artists support group".
Thank you to Lyndy for joining me on CC. And thank you as always to my faithful listeners and supporters .
Now on to my chat with Lyndy - enjoy.
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Helen Kerridge is a contemporary painter from the Hawkes Bay.
Many of Helen’s paintings are set in sparse environments, with a minimal grouping of subjects exude a sense of stillness, contemplation, and a celebration of the beauty to be found in objects and the stories to be told.
Helen has been painting all her life, from as far back as she can remember. She started her photo realistic painting career in New Zealand and the US, touching up professional photographs before the days of Photoshop.
In this lovely episode which I know you'll love, we talk about how her 18 year teaching career in painting started, from community classes to her private painting classes which became hugely popular in the Hawkes Bay area, and how and why she came to full time painting only 3 years ago. She shares how teaching influenced her own painting practice, pushed her out of her comfort zone and kept her learning across genres.
Helen shares her love of and connection with objects she includes in her paintings like the Crown Lynn Swan and how she likes to learn about the background and stories of these objects. She shares her love of the Old Masters of the 17th century and how they have influenced her work, and how she has created a 'point of difference' in her work with her use of simple compositions and mostly subdued tones, with the occasional addition of pattern.
I just love the little anecdotal stories Helen tells in this episode.
Helen talks us through her painting process, how she paints glass and the paints she uses, her colour and paint management, the thin layers of paint she applies, how she decides what to paint, her studio set up (which is not as organised as you'd imagine!), her poratit training she experienced in 2019 and why she prefers to use acrylic paint.
Helen talks enthusiastically about the loaded symbolism in her "The Devil Is In the Details" painting, which was made for a Hospice fundraiser and sold for $40,000, as well as the symbols and narratives in other works.
Nga mihi thank you to Helen Kerridge for sharing your incredible practice and career on Creative Connections. Your work is such a joy to view and it's been wonderful to learn more about your ideas, process and the connections you make. And a big thank you to you for tuning in.
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Vicki Fox founded Quirky Fox art gallery in 2012. It is located in Hawera, a small town of 10,000 people south of New Plymouth.
Showcasing both established and emerging talents, Quirky Fox invites both New Zealand and international artists to be part of its carefully curated range; all international artists are exclusive to the gallery within New Zealand, while New Zealand artists are exclusive to the gallery within Taranaki.
Quirky Fox aims to provide a home for artists working in new contemporary and representational styles and introduce their works to both a New Zealand and international audience.
This episode is a great insight into how a person can get over challenges and use their strengths to create and work on something they are passionate about. Vicki Fox has lived her whole life with a speech impediment. As a child and young person she was teased and never felt she fitted in, even feeling like a "misfit" at times throughout her life. As she has got older she has come to the realisation that the things she was teased about are actually the really interesting, fun parts of her personality.
In this chat Vicki shares how she finds her artists and builds her network, what she looks for in an artist and her expectations and management of artists both in New Zealand and internationally.
We discuss her advice to artists approaching her gallery, how she feels about artists experimenting and changing their style, why she is against AI, pricing work (her least favourite part of the business), the development of her newly renovated gallery space and her exhibition schedule.
Thank you to Vicki for agreeing to have this chat with me, something I know she had reservations about. I think her story will inspire you.
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Scott Lawrie is a well known, much loved gallerist and writer who was based in NZ and is now living in Scotland.
I absolutely loved catching up with Scott again a few months ago while I was living in Turkey. I last spoke to Scott on the podcast more than 3 years ago in episode 62.
Scott Lawrie Gallery began life in 2017 in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland and continues to thrive now in Edinburgh Scotland. As the gallery’s reputation grew the focus pivoted away from art as a business ontology, towards a more authentic, occasionally experimental, vessel for interesting ideas.
The gallery has hosted over 200 exhibitions, showcasing work by over 140 artists from around the world.
Scott moved from Aotearoa NZ back to his home town of Edinburgh in Scotland in 2022.
In this episode we discuss everything from: giving up alcohol 4 years ago, taking a weight loss drug and how that has affected him, his view of the art world in Aotearoa and in Scotland; to capitalism and how it flattens culture, art for the working class, cultural vandalism, theories of collapse, the purpose of art fairs, funding in the arts and his love of critique.
If you haven't listened already to our first chat on the podcast, I recommend you listen to episode 62 before you settle in to this one.
Nga mihi nui, thank you very much to the lovely Scott Lawrie for his encouragement and support of this podcast and for joining me again to update us on his life and views.
And thank you for tuning in again in our first episode of 2026. I look forward to sharing more inspiring stories this year and connecting with my listeners and artists. Thanks so much for your support as well.
I'm currently in the process of locking in artists for 2026 so please do get in touch if you know of an artist living in NZ who would make a great guest or if you are interested yourself. One of my goals for the podcast this year is to grow my audience and the variety of visual artists I speak to, so I'd be very grateful if you could share the podcast or episodes you've enjoyed with your friends or on your socials.
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In this episode I speak with Mike and Linda Geers, the owners of Art By The Sea, an art gallery in Hurstmere Road Takapuna, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
This is a fabulous chat with 2 people who are very passionate about the visual arts in Aotearoa. Linda and Mike see themselves as conduits between artist and audience, as kaitiaki guardians of artists' work, making connections through art.
We talk about how they came to purchase Art By The Sea in 2001 when it was in Devonport, the early challenges they experienced and their move to new premises in Takapuna in 2021. Mike and Linda share how they choose an artist to represent, what they recommend to artists, how they like artists to approach them, what they look for in an artist's work, how and why they turn down some artists, what they expect from their artists and how they respond to their artists experimenting with new ideas.
We discuss their yearly exhibition programme, supporting charities through group shows and the challenges of owning and running an art gallery,
Linda and Mike generously share the rewards, honours and life changing moments they have experienced as gallerists who are deeply connected to their stable of artists, their collectors and their audience. There is so much great advice for artists in this chat which I'm sure you'll find valuable.
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Katie Leigh Stewart is a mixed media artist living in Wellington, Aotearoa NZ.
Katie's paintings explore floral landscapes, portraiture, everyday life and nature. Her bright and bold palette as well as signature brush strokes gives viewers a moment to pause and find joy.
In this episode Katie talks about her early nursing career and how she finally came to focus on her artist career as a new Mum. We explore her paintings which are mostly inspired by her life, everyday experiences and her love of gardening and nature. Katie talks us through the ways she captures the feeling of the moment she is responding to and the essence of her subject, her painting process and the ways she manages the different media she uses in her work including combining acrylic and oil paints. We talk about why she often likes to underpaint using a fluoro paint and her use of colour, her layering technique, the ways she introduces details, how she paints flesh, light and shadow and the tools and mediums she uses.
Katie shares her approach to sharing her work on social media, diversifying within her practice, experimentation, mark making, commissions and how she manages her days as a homeschooling mumma of 3 young girls.
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Natalie is an emerging multi-disciplinary artist born in Yorkshire, England, with a current focus on figurative oil paintings. Nat moved to New Zealand in 2016 in her early twenties.and is currently based in Auckland.
In this episode Natalie shares how creating likeness in a portrait has become a challenge too tempting not to take on as she's got older, becoming thirsty for something that felt more difficult and less forgiving. As a Mum of 2 boys, her sons have become treasured subjects that she never feels bored of capturing in her work.
Natalie explains what she gains from entering her paintings into NZ art awards and the success she has had, becoming a finalist and runner up in a number of awards such as the Parkin and Adam Portraiture prizes.
We talk all about synesthesia (a word I stumbled on every time I said it in our chat!), what it is, how it presents for Natalie and the ways it influences her painting approach. Nat shares her techniques for capturing likeness in a face, painting flesh, the paints she likes to use and how she likes to apply them. And so much more. You're going to love this chat.
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Andrew Barns-Graham is an established Auckland-based artist known for his hard-edged contemporary portraits with a pop realist style.
He renders smooth, gradient-infused figures set against minimal, atmospheric landscapes.
In this episode we talk about the pivotal moment that led to Andrew devoting himself to his art practice after a career in advertising. Andrew tells us about a traumatic near death experience and how that has influenced his art practice, his outlook and the way he lives his life.
We discuss the different phases of portraiture Andrew has explored throughout his practice, and the ideas behind these series of works - from themes communicating nostalgia, identity, social issues, scientific ideas and the past/present/future to climate change and outer space. He talks about the women in his paintings, his titles, the symbols in his work, the eyes and gazes of his subjects and the significance of his landscapes.
Andrew explains how Arthaus Contemporary, a community based contemporary artist run space, came about and how it works, which BTW is a wonderful space for artists to rent for their own exhibitions and a very good rate.
Andrew's solo exhibition at Arthaus Contemporary opens on November 19th and closes Nov 30th 2025, with an opening event on Thursday 20th Nov. I'll to see you there!
This is a gorgeous chat - thank you to Andrew for letting me take up his precious time while he was preparing for his show and thank you lovely listener for joining us.
See Andrew's work on our blog
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Kyra Alkamil is a 19 year old emerging artist from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, in her first year studying fine art at Elam School of Fine Art in Auckland.
Kyra paints in oils and is interested in storytelling, the human figure, nostalgia, domestic scenes and surrealism.
In this episode we talk about the ways Kyra discovered and developed her love of art and her skills in visual art as a homeschooled teenager, how life drawing has contributed to her figurative practice, her shift from acrylics to oils and the development of her painting practice over the last few years.
Kyra gives us an insightful look into why she decided to study fine art, her first day at Elam School of Fine Art in Auckland, handling feedback and the connections she has with her lecturers and peers at Uni. We explore the challenges, frustrations and highlights of studying fine art as a 18/19 year old, the courses she has done so far and what she has loved or not loved about them and how her study has affected and influenced her art practice.
See images of Kyra's work on our blog
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Katrina Cosgrove is a painter born in England who immigrated to NZ in 2005. She is now based in Bronte, a small settlement at the top of the South Island of Aotearoa NZ in the Tasman District, near Mapua.
Katrina's nature inspired artworks delve into the themes of self discovery, transformation, freedom, and the profound connection between nature and the human spirit.
With a background marked by resilience and a powerful personal journey, Katrina’s art reflects her transition from the corporate world, where she battled chronic pain caused by Fibromyalgia and stress, to a life of transformation and creative fulfilment.
I loved meeting Katrina, she has a gorgeous spirit. In this episode we talk about:
- how she sees the world after an upbringing surrounded by the arts and creativity
- her love of people and her career in recruitment and the ways it has influenced her art practice
- her long term dream to be a full time artist, which finally came to fruition after an actual dream which became an overnight catalyst to this career move
- finding her voice and her personal style as an artist
- the development of and plans for her new open working studio and gallery space in Bronte
Katrina shares her personal story experiencing a nervous breakdown in 2021, waking one day in extraordinary pain followed by an emergency trip to the hospital, which led to 3 1/2 years in chronic pain. Katrina believes art and nature saved her and led to her beating this condition.
Her deeply personal work now reflects her journey and also encourages others to connect to their own journeys, uplifting people's lives through her floral and waterfall series.
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Shelley Ryde is a well known, highly respected Aotearoa art educator and artist living in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland NZ.
Shelley has led the visual art department and taught art at Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland, finishing this position in 2024 after 42 years of devotion, hard work, commitment and a lot of love.
Many young art students and NZ practising artists have been taught and inspired by Shelley, including a number of guests on this podcast who speak so highly of her and her influence.
This is the first part of a 2 part series. In this episode we talk about Shelley's life as an artist and the connections with her important teaching career. She shares her childhood memories, her creative journey and her 50+ years as an artist. Part 2 will be released in the near future and is all about her experiences, reflections and philosophies as an art educator in Aotearoa.
Shelley is a beautiful storyteller. We talk about her childhood on the west coast of the south Island and her family and how those things have influenced her as an artist and a writer. She shares her experience studying at Ilam School of Art in Christchurch in the late sixties, her relationship with her lecturer Rudi Gopas, and her peers at Ilam including Phil Clairmont, Philippa Blair, Chris Booth and Sally Burton. We discuss what Shelley gained from this course and how her work evolved and her early teaching days teaching visual art with Fred Graham. Shelley shares a pivotal opportunity when she won a scholarship to a workshop in New York in 1990 which started her love of printmaking and how that influenced her own practice and her art teaching.
It is fascinating to hear about her era studying art in the sixties, her experiences, her reflections and the evolution of her work. I know you'll really enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed speaking to Shelley. Be sure to tune in to the second chapter of this 2 part series, coming sometime soon.
The link to Shelley's 146 slide presentation which we mention in our chat is available on her blogpost which is on our blog at creativeconnections.nz Here you can see examples of her work and her poems. Seeing this will enrich and really add to the conversation you're about to hear. I've included her retirement poem on there as well.
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Kirsty Nixon is a contemporary New Zealand artist living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Her vibrant, light-filled paintings celebrate the untamed beauty of Aotearoa New Zealand — from the windswept beaches of the North Island to the soaring mountain ranges of the South.
Drawing inspiration from the land, sea, and native birdlife that surround her, Kirsty’s work invites a quiet moment of reflection — a breath of peace amidst the noise of modern life. With an instinctive eye for colour and composition, she transforms everyday encounters with nature into uplifting works of art that feel both familiar and extraordinary.
Kirsty has been a practising artist since 1997 after a career in graphic design and advertising. In this episode Kirsty talks about how working in advertising led her to having a nervous breakdown of sorts which turned out to be the catalyst for taking a break and finally choosing to become a full time artist.
We talk about:
- how art initially provided an 'out' for her socially and continues to nourish her mental health and well being
- Kirsty's positive connection with NZ artist Tim Wilson and what she gained from his influence
- How her work has evolved over the years and even gone full circle in some ways
- Her strategies for dealing with imposter syndrome and a lack of confidence at times and getting through periods where she has felt discouraged or unmotivated.
Kirsty talks us through her painting style and the different series of works she makes, from the well known NZ native flora and native bird landscape works and her 'roadie' series, to more graphic works incorporating different colour palettes and pattern.
https://www.creativeconnections.nz/post/kirsty-nixon-contemporary-artist
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Sarah Ritchie is a New Zealand fibre artist living in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.
Sarah specialises in creating framed works in natural fibres such as New Zealand wool, bamboo and cotton, showcasing her passion for texture, colour, and non-toxic creativity - drawing inspiration from the breathtaking beauty of Aotearoa New Zealand.
In this episode Sarah unpacks her fibre art process for us: from her preferred fibres to use and the tools she uses to her technique , use of colour and the ideas behind her work.
Sarah is an absolute power house, or as she says, a “purpose-driven multi-passionate”!
As well as being a practising artist Sarah teaches needle felting workshops; she has created a range of needle felted painting kits; she has curated a collection of merchandise and a range of prints featuring her original needle-felted fibre paintings; she has written 4 non friction books, she is a business mentor, a member of an art collective, a photographer and a facilitator; all while working full time in graphic design and advertising.
With a background in business, graphic design, advertising, and human resources Sarah has a sound understanding of what it takes for artists to run a successful, sustainable business and imparts much of her knowledge and experience in this episode. We talk about identifying your why, identifying and reaching your audience, aligning to your purpose, different ways of monetising art, creating a business plan, strategic thinking and dealing with 'failure'.
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Ceara Lile is a fibre-based mixed media artist who grew up in West Auckland. She creates abstract textile collages layered with meaning, memory, and emotion as well as eco inkless hand printed fabrics. She now lives in Keri Keri in the Far North of Aotearoa NZ with her partner Mario.
From an early age, Ceara has been captivated by textiles, drawn to their textures and versatility. Her work takes the form of abstract, collage-based fibre sketches, where these materials serve as both her medium and her tool. Caera creates layered backdrops, using these elements to build a rich foundation, then draw over them—playing with color and form to evoke places, emotions, and relationships.
At the heart of her work is a deep fascination with the human experience, particularly the ways in which we seek connection and belonging, both in physical spaces and within society.
I loved meeting and talking to Ceara. She shares how she got back to creating after a break away travelling after completing a fashion degree. We discuss how her love of maths and her fashion degree has informed her work, the process of abstract art and how abstract works often have a 'teenage stage' before reaching a satisfying completion and the mathematical problem solving that is often part of the abstract process.
Ceara goes into fascinating detail about her inkless printing process, from collecting rusty iron and bark and creating pigments to how she chooses the leaves and how each leaf responds to the dying process. We also talk about her 2 other series of works, changing Landscapes and The Venn Of Us, which are fabric collages using repeated shapes and hand stitched lines.
Ceara explains the ideas and the meanings of the codes that appear on her fabric collage works, we go to the craft versus art conundrum and her shifting attitude of "it's just clothes" to seeing her work as art and herself as an artist.
https://www.creativeconnections.nz/post/ceara-lile-textile-artist
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Jane Shriffer is an abstract painter living and working in Wānaka in the south island of Aotearoa NZ. Jane paints intuitively, layering colour and texture, making her marks with a palette knife.
In this episode we have a fantastic chat about Jane's experience studying painting at Dunedin School of Art as an enthusiastic 18 year old only to leave university with her degree and not return to painting for 10 years. She shares how she got back into painting through immersing herself in lthe local art scene, the things she did to grow confidence in herself as an artist and how she managed that dreaded imposter syndrome.
We discuss how Jane's unique and highly recognisable abstract painting style came about and how her work has evolved over the years. Jane talks about her influences, her organic approach to colour and the joy colour brings, making that first mark, how she knows when a painting is finished, and a pivotal moment in her career that got her thinking more seriously about her work.
We touch on the time she overheard someone saying "my 5 year old could paint that", how she feels about people trying to recreate her work, the different ways people respond to the colour pink, the joys of abstract making, how she comes up with the quirky titles of her paintings and what they express to her.
https://www.creativeconnections.nz/post/jane-shriffer-abstract-painter
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Katie Blundell is a contemporary New Zealand artist, living and working from her studio in Clevedon, south east of Auckland. Focusing on the human experience, her work is both personal and universal.
Katie approaches her practice through different media depending on what ideas she is wanting to express, primarily focusing on on printmaking, painting, drawing, photography and sculpture. In this episode we talk about:
- her beautiful gallery/studio space in Clevedon where she teaches, creates, mentors and exhibits her work and how she manages the space and the variety of work she does
- her experience studying at Elam art school from the age of 18
- her unique technique of combining woodcut printmaking and painting to create what she calls relief paintings and how this developed
- The Women At Work portraiture exhibition she is working towards showcasing several Aotearoa artists Katie admires including Jacqueline Fahey, Linda Tyler and Judy Millar, which she is finding slightly terrifying but deeply gratifying
- We discuss her "In My Opinion" videos on Instagram where she expresses her ideas, opinions and vulnerabilities, and how she manages all the things she does in a week while still prioritising her art practice.
Women Art Work
October 17th 2025 opening night from 5pm, October 18th and 19th 10am - 4pm
at Katie's gallery and studio 331 North Road in Clevedon
https://www.creativeconnections.nz/post/katie-blundell-multi-media-artist
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Lynette Fisher is a contemporary painter living in Te Puna near Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty. Lynette's art practice also encompasses printmaking, drawing and assemblage.
Her work investigates themes of adoption, identity, obligation and ownership. While an underlying sense of nostalgia usually permeates her work, Lynette purposefully disrupts it to bring layered and disordered meaning to often commonplace and overlooked themes.
Lynette is such a fun person to talk to and I think you'll enjoy listening to her story and outlook on life as an artist. Lynette shares her early artistic career in graphic design, picture framing, working in an art gallery and quirky artist collaborations which led to her showing her own work after painting and drawing for most of her life.
We talk about her challenging journey with breast cancer and how this became a catalyst to leaving her job and studying art in her early forties, and we explore why she felt she needed to study alongside her art practice and what she gained from this time.
We discuss context for an artist, how boundaries can influence work, the ideas behind her work that relate to her as an adopted person, what interests her about family and memories and artist collectives. We talk about nostalgic objects and how she has brought them together into the gallery context to produce installations or assemblages and what this communicates for her.
Lynette loves to enter art awards and has been a finalist many times in various NZ awards such as the Molly Morpeth Canaday, Parkin Drawing prize and the Adam Portrait award. She talks about why she enters these awards and what she gains from the process.
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Muse Gallery, founded by Kaye McGarva in 2017, is situated in Havelock North, in the Bay of Plenty, Aoteaora NZ.
In this episode I talk to Kaye McGarva, a professional artist herself and the owner/director of Muse Gallery.
This bis a conversation I'm sure many artists will be intrigued to hear. Kaye shares how and why she started Muse Gallery 9 years ago and the challenges of starting a gallery with no former experience in this area and how she grew the gallery from the ground up. We explore how Muse Gallery organises their yearly exhibition programme, the current stable of artists at Muse Gallery, how/why they were selected and how connecting with more experienced established artists helped the gallery to build their good reputation.
Kaye gives some super helpful tips to artists when approaching galleries: the dos and don'ts; her preferred ways for artists to connect and share their work; how and why they choose the artists to join the gallery; what feedback or advice they may pass on to artists approaching them and what they look for in an artist beyond their work.
We talk about how the gallery deals with artists not selling work, how she feels about artists experimenting and changing styles, gallery commissions and pricing work, her view on artists selling work themselves, artist contracts, how the gallery elevates the artists and communicates the ideas behind their artists work. Kaye explains what type of gallery she sees Muse Gallery as, what if offers as a gallery, ways they make the gallery feel accessible, how the gallery operates and where this gallery fits in the NZ gallery landscape.
And so much more! This is a fascinating chat which I know you'll benefit from listening to.
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Caitlin Johnston is a multi media artist living near the Hibiscus Coast north of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
As a Kiwi, much of Caitlin's work shows the deep connection that we have with the ocean and the land in Aotearoa. The way it makes us feel, and how we are connected to it. The sounds of the waves, the emotions we feel, the endless beauty of coastline and the nature of New Zealand inspires her work.
Caitlin uses upcycled surf boards and various other found materials as her canvas, then incorporates mixed media, acrylic paint, drawings and pure oxidized copper often sealed with a resin pour.
2 years ago at the age of 30, Caitlin made the decision to devote herself to being a full time artist. She began by entering art shows which proved to be very successful, giving her the confidence to continue and deadlines to work towards. In this episode Caitlin talks about her love of trying out new techniques and experimenting with found materials such as discarded surfboards, old frames, mirrors and wood. We discuss her use of copper leaf, the oxidising process, her approach to painting on the back of a mirror and her love of experimentation.
Caitlin has a very positive, reflective attitude to her growing art career. We talk about the term 'self taught artist'; how she has found her distinctive, very original style; her love of portraiture and where that is heading; what she loves about the regional NZ art shows; why she thinks she needs to "show some restraint" and the narratives and ideas behind her work.
Subscribe to the Creative Connections Podcast You Tube channel to see a video of this episode.
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Fiona Kerr Gedson is a fibre artist who has used feathers as her primary medium for more than 25 years. She works from her home near Ōpōtiki, in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, Aotearoa NZ.
Fiona’s meticulously crafted, intricately designed feather pieces have a calming and meditative presence. Her work reflects and honours the things most important to her – her family, her spirituality, shared experiences, life stages and a sense of kotahitanga (unity).
Her most recent collection, Pilgrimage, is the embodiment of this. Inspired by walking the Camino de Santiago – completing 1500km over 8 1/2 weeks, this series responds to the many stained glass windows found in chapels and cathedrals on Fiona's remarkable life changing hikoi, which she undertook in 2022.
In this episode we have a beautiful conversation about walking the Camino and how this has consequently influenced her art practice. Fiona shares a personal experience of losing her precious father 3 weeks in to the pilgrimage and how she managed to process and manage her initial grief and keep walking. We discuss another influence in her practice, her work with Family Constellations (a method of family therapy or systemic therapy), and how this has also informed her practice.
Fiona shares how she started working with feathers in her early twenties; how she sources the peacock, turkey, guinea fowl and hen feathers; her positive long term connections with galleries; her meticulous creative process; her framing approach and the meditative aspects of pattern. And so much more.
You can see the uncut video of our conversation on our You Tube channel Creative Connections Podcast. I'd love you to subscribe!
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Lucy Eglington is a painter originally from the UK who immigrated to Aotearoa in 2003. She works from her home studio in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.
Working primarily in oils, Lucy’s paintings explore human states of mind: dreams, successes, losses, grief and love and the narratives we tell ourselves. She often uses animals to represent ideas and feelings and to add individual narratives to each work.
With a successful track record of sell-out shows and recognition in prestigious art awards, her works resonate with audiences around the world.
In this episode we have a gorgeous chat about the ideology behind Lucy's work, the way she uses animals in her work and what they represent to her, what she is communicating through her work, how she wants the viewer to reflect on through her work, her love of portraiture, her creative process from sketching and note taking to filing her ideas and her painting approach.
We have an uncut video of this chat which will be available soon on our You Tube channel, which is currently under development. This will contain images of the work we are talking about and could be a fantastic resource for art teachers, artists and interested creatives, and for people who just love to watch instead of listen.
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Alexandra Tylee is a painter living in Poukawa in the Hawkes Bay. From her early twenties until her early forties Alexandra setup and ran 2 successful businesses, Fuel espresso in Wellington and Pipi Cafe in Havelock North. She has also written 3 cookbooks and an award winning children’s fiction book called If I Was A Banana.
Alexandra started painting around 5 years ago. Selling Pipi cafe in 2023 allowed her to devote herself more to her painting practice and since then she has had two sell out exhibitions at Muse Galley in Havelock North.
In this episode we talk about her passion for cooking and how it intertwines and connects with her love of painting, feelings, memories, stories and the still life paintings she likes to paint. We discuss how she sees running a business as a creative outlet and her approach to working in hospitality, how she feels now she has sold her business and has finally got time to devote to paintings, the painting lessons she had with NZ artist Helen Kerridge and why that felt important for her to do.
Alexandra shares how she choose the objects for her still life works, what they mean to her and what they communicate, the way she sets up a composition that reflects the way she sees things, how she combines different elements and objects in her own unique way and how her paintings create stillness. We also talk about the 4 books she has written and her love of writing despite being dyslexic - I've included the video of Alexandra reading her children's book at the bottom of her blogpost.
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Anna Stichbury is a contemporary New Zealand artist from Wellington whose practice spans painting and installation, distinguished by her bold use of colour, layered textures, and dynamic mark-making.
It was a pleasure to meet and talk to Anna, an artist I have admired for a long time, and hear all about her fascinating art practice. We discuss how Anna studied design in Wellington after high school, what she gained from this course and a significant moment that lead to her first gallery representation in her early twenties, which marked the beginning of her established full time professional artist career of more than 25 years.
Anna works around a number of themes and styles which all connect and talk to each other in different ways. We explore her floral paintings, her installation work and her most recent portraiture work and how she approaches and manages each of these series. Anna shares how her latest focus on portraiture came about and the joys and challenges of exploring a new genre within her practice.
We chat about collage, installation, materials, working between styles and media successfully, maintaining personal creative projects alongside her professional work and why this works for her. And so much more.
Anna has a solo show Listening To Flowers coming up at Parnell Gallery August 12th - 26th 2025.
Read Anna's blogpost
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Sur Collective is an artist collective founded in 2021 out of a need to create a sense of place and redefine the space Latina artists use as migrant women in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Sur-Collective are 5 wahine from Colombia and Chile who work with different art disciplines such as sculpture, drawing, painting, textiles, ceramics, photography and embroidery.
Today I'm speaking with one of the collective artists Cat Guevara, a ceramic artist who migrated to Aotearoa from Colombia 8 years ago.
We have a fascinating chat about how Sur Collective came about and why, how it feels to be a Latina practising artist in NZ and how the collective artists use the arts as a tool to connect, relate and communicate, always with a focus on bringing their heritage and a certain flavour to this land.
The Collective see the all of the work they do a bit like a portfolio: the work they create as individual artists that reflects on the collective, art activations, workshops, their studio space at Corbans Art Estate, installations, artist talks, community projects as well as group and solo shows.
We talk about some of the amazing Sur Collective art activations and community projects they have delivered, the ideas and stories behind the projects, what they hope to achieve from this work and how they engage and communicate with their audience. We discuss their approaches to the funding process and Cat has some great tips for people applying for funding.
Cat talks about her own ceramic art practice and how her work connects back to her heritage, her ancestors and her culture. She shares how she finds living in Aotearoa and NZ people as a Latina wahine and what she has learnt from us, which is super interesting! I am so happy to have had this conversation with an artist and collective who have immigrated to Aotearoa and hope to speak to more immigrant artists who are building community and relationships and developing their art practice here in Aotearoa.
Sur Collective: Catherine Guevara (Ceramist); Juliana Duran (Visual Artist); Jesu Vasquez (Visual Artist); Lina Castro (Industrial Designer, Embroidery Artist); Romina Ortega (Visual Artist)
https://www.instagram.com/sur.collective/
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This episode is different to our usual format. Mandy is in the Kumeu Arts gallery at the podcast group show CONNECTION with 4 previous podcast guest artists who have work in the show.
Contemporary Fine Artist Dita Angeles https://www.ditaangeles.com/
Abstract photographer Chris Melville http://www.chrismelville.co.nz/
Painter Yvonne Abrcrombie https://www.instagram.com/yvonneabercrombie
Contemporary painter Coral Noel Yang https://coralnoelyangart.com/
Each guest was asked what they've been up to artistically since we last spoke on the podcast, to talk about their work in the show and how it relates to the theme of connection, which work in the show would they most like to take home and why, what they think of the exhibition and what's next for them.
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Hello and welcome to season 9 of Creative Connections. I’m so excited to be back with weekly episodes and a fantastic varied line up of artists booked in from now until mid December 2025.
This episode is a bit different. I was interviewed by artist Julie Battisti for The Creative Kind Podcast a few months ago and I thought you might be interested in listening to our conversation.
We’re talking community. Which is very topical at the moment alongside the current Connection group show at Kumeu Arts which I curated, involving 60 artists who have been guests on the podcast. This exhibition runs until July 19th 2025 and is absolutely well worth a look.
The opening last Friday was a wonderful demonstration of the community that is developing through this podcast, made up of listeners, guest artists, other artists, and some of our Aotearoa galleries.
I mention in this episode my previous business Creative Matters, which has been sold since we recorded. Creative Connections is my new business, encompassing creative work in communities, schools and on the podcast, all with a visual arts, collaboration and community focus.
I hope you enjoy this episode and make sure you follow The Creative Kind Podcast if you don’t already, where Julie explores listener questions and visual arts topics with artists and experts, offering diverse perspectives and insightful discussions I know you’ll enjoy.
The Creative Kind Podcast
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Janette Cervin is a contemporary painter. She lives in Warkworth, north of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, with her partner and artistic collaborator Jake Kennedy.
Jan creates beautiful large-scale paintings that offer an invitation to an immersive antipodean paradise teeming with exquisitely detailed New Zealand flora and fauna.
A unique illusion of depth is created through the combination of traditional painting conventions and applications of thick layers of glossy resin, which is where Jake Kennedy comes in.
This is a very special chat with Janette and I loved welcoming Jake to the conversation part way through to talk about his involvement in Janette's artistic process.
Jan and I explore a number of personal life challenges Jan has had and how these have influenced her paintings. We discuss her early successful career in craft and decorative painting which formed the context for her commitment to explore formal art/academic education as an adult student, completing a masters degree in fine art in 2014. Jan shares how her paintings evolve, the the happy accidents that have informed her practice, her folk art inspired painting techniques and the different brushes she uses for different parts of the flowers and how she creates the incredible depth and layering in her paintings.
It was beautiful to see the formidable team that is Jake and Jan together and inspiring to see the obvious love and respect they have for each other. We talk about their shared goals, the way they work together, how they compliment each other and how they both contribute to their art practice and process. Jake goes into detail about his part of the resin process: experimenting with colour, using pigments and dyes with resin, 2 pot polyester resin application, his process of layering, sanding between layers and reusing and reconstructing old paintings.
This is the most gorgeous chat with 2 lovely NZers, I know you'll enjoy it as much as I did.
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Alice Alva is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Kirikiriroa – Hamilton, New Zealand. Her work is informed by an interest in patterns, ornamentation, architecture and craft-based processes.
In addition to her art and design work, Alice is also an art educator and a māmā to her daughter Daphne. She is an advocate for the visual arts in Aotearoa, New Zealand and is on the executive committee of ANZAAE – Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Art Educators.
This episode is our very first episode with our new podcast name CREATIVE CONNECTIONS. Same podcast different name and branding.
I so enjoyed meeting Alice and we had the best chat. We talk about materiality, what mediums in art might be taken more seriously than others, the challenges of attitudes to embroidery or textiles in the art world, the different ways textiles can be viewed and what Alice loves about craft based art.
Alice shares how she combined painting and design after studying both visual arts and design earlier in her career, and why she moved from computer based design to teaching high school art. We explore how she came to embroidery, how her embroidery practice has developed over the years, becoming an integral part of her creative practice. Alice talks about her sketchbook / workbook practice, her interest in ornamentation and how she has brought all the disciplines, styles and themes of her practice together. We discuss how the shift in scale working on murals excites (and exhausts!) her and provides balance to her practice.
We delve into how Alice's priorities and approaches have shifted since becoming a mother and the ways she shares her making process with her daughter Daphne, why and in what ways nature inspires her, how using text and the titles of her work helps her to communicate things that are important to her. And so much more! So let's just get into it! You're going to get so much from this conversation.
You can see Alice's beautiful work at her 2 galleries, The Mandarin Tree Gallery in Hamilton and Masterworks in Auckland.
https://alicealva.com/
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Michelle McIver's is a contemporary artist who grew up in rural Otago and is now living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Her work explores the interplay of light, colour, and form through abstract compositions. Using simple geometric shapes, she layers and juxtaposes blocks and bands of colour to create depth and structure. Each painting is an exploration of how light interacts with form, evoking a sense of balance in its abstract simplicity.'
Michelle and I feel like kindred spirits. I loved sitting down with her and having a good chat in my little studio. We explore how she went from figurative drawing from a young age to abstract painting later in life, her short lived experience studying art at Uni after leaving school, her experience living in Japan for 7 years and how this time has influenced her and her work. We discuss how she came to seascape and landscape painting, her connection to the sea and to land,
Michelle shares her personal story of how the Christchurch earthquake disaster deeply affected her and her family, forcing a move out of the city 4 days later and a new direction.
We explore a pivotal time in Michelle's practice when she studied painting at Browne School of Art in 2024, the ways her art practice evolved over this time and how the guidance from the teachers has helped her to gain confidence in her work - helping her to settle on her own ideas, talk about her work and push her thinking and techniques to finally develop her personal style.
Michelle talks us through her early and current artistic practice and process, her painting techniques using glazes and acrylic paint, how she approaches scale, titling work and her connection with her 2 art galleries Turua and Gallery de Novo. And so much more!
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The Resale Royalties Scheme brings New Zealand in line with global standards to ensure artists are fairly compensated when their work is resold.
It means NZ art resold here and overseas will return a payment to our artists or their successors.
Today I'm speaking with Chief Executive Sam Irvine. He explains everything artists, successors and art market professionals need to know about the Resale Royalty Scheme. I recommend you check out their website https://resaleroyalties.co.nz/ after listening to this episode which has all this information and more set out in a very readable, intuitive way with PDFs you can download, guidelines and helpful videos.
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Isaac Weston is a full-time copper artist based in Matua, Tauranga, Aotearoa NZ.
Isaac’s creative process is a unique blend of artistry and alchemy, combining acids, salts, and sunlight to reveal the hidden beauty of copper. This approach allows him to bring out light, shadow, texture, and vibrant patinas, showcasing the organic elegance of the metal. From sculptures to wall art, Isaac creates high-quality gallery pieces that reflect his ongoing fascination with the ever-changing textures and colours of his materials.
I loved talking to Isaac in my studio at Muriwai. We explore his past careers and how he came to be a full time artist 8 years ago in his forties. He explains how copper became his medium of choice, what inspired him in the beginning to make and what gave him the confidence and impetus to keep going in the early days.
Isaac shares how he has developed his art practice to become a successful sustainable career through diversification, the creation of his own garden and art gallery with the support of his wife Lara, connecting with gallerists and community groups, building relationships and putting himself out there as much as possible.
We go deep into Isaac's fascinating creative process: how he sources and reuses railway sleepers and copper, his process for creating patinas on his copper works; how he creates different patina colours and textures; his approach to scale and shape; how he comes up with designs; his cutting and connecting processes; his varnishing techniques and the development of his large range of sculptural works. He shares how he visualises work in his mind before he comes to make it (often when he should be sleeping - I can relate to that!), ways he has created tools and developed techniques over the years through perseverance, problem solving and modification.
We talk about why he has decided to market his work under two brands, Isaac Weston Artist and Rework It, how he manages deadlines, how he has learnt to say no over the years, how he manages his 'show pony' and 'peacock' tendencies and we also touch on tricky topics like people copying his work and cultural appropriation.
Isaac's enthusiasm and passion for what he does is infectious and his entrepreneurial approach to his work is inspiring. You're going to love this chat.
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Sefton Rani describes himself as a maker, who uses paint as his primary material. Based in Auckland, he is a visual DJ who mashes up industrial materials with Cook Island narratives, to create modern Pasifika art.
Sefton is the current Parehuia Artist in Residence at McCahon House, which is in Titirangi West of Auckland NZ. McCahon House Artists’ Residency, named Parehuia by local kaumatua Eru Thompson in 2008, is amongst the most prestigious artists’ residencies in New Zealand.
Three residencies a year, each of three months duration, are available to outstanding professional artists. Artists receiving the residency live and work in the purpose-built French Bay house with an attached studio.
I met Sefton in the studio this week to have a chat about the residency, being an artist in residence, the work he is creating over this 3 month period, how he has been inspired by past events and his surroundings, his thinking and development and of course his creative process.
This is the second time Sefton has been a guest on the podcast - you might like to go back to episode 73 which we recorded in March 2023 to hear more about Sefton's life and art practice.
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Claudia Aalderink is a self-taught artist based in Kihikihi, near Hamilton in Aotearoa New Zealand. She is also the founder and director of The Mandarin Tree art gallery in Gordonton.
Her works are created by meticulously fragmenting discarded beehives in a non-symbolic approach. Within a reduced visual vocabulary of circles, squares, rectangles, and lines, she explores the subtlety of colour, scale, and composition
Originally from Holland, Claudia says her 2005 move to New Zealand has been ‘life changing’ for her family and her art.
We have a beautiful chat with all the windows and doors open in the studio on a gorgeous summer's day, serenaded by cicadas (and the builders next door!). We talk about how Claudia discovered her medium of choice - beehives, how she sources and stores the boxes, her systems for selecting which parts and which colours to use,
It was fascinating hearing about Claudia's creative process. Claudia likes to work with a variety of scale and shapes, combining them in different ways. She shares her approach to design, composition, colour, space and shape, the ways she incorporates different elements found on the beehives and how she comes up with the titles and what they mean to her. We explore the charring part of her process, how she embraces imperfection and unexpected elements within the boxes, the introduction of stitching and the importance of artistic collaboration.
Claudia shares how she randomly discovered and fell in love with a building in Gordonton 10 years ago, previously a BP service station, which she went on to turn into her own art gallery The Mandarin Tree. We talk about some things she has learnt as a gallery owner and business woman, the challenges of juggling her business and her art practice and how the two parts of her life connect and compliment each other.
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Sara Langdon is a contemporary New Zealand landscape artist living in Beachlands, East of Auckland. Sara currently draws inspiration from the beauty of familiar and distinct volcanic landmarks around Auckland city and the Waitemata Harbour.The New Zealand landscape is Sara's source of inspiration and reason for painting.
Sara paints places she is connected to and loves, places she wants to explore and respond to so that people who feel this same connection are able to enjoy a tangible reminder of a place.
In this episode Sara shares her journey to eventually finding her art practice, trialling other creative careers along the way that never quite felt like the right fit for her. We talk about her initial connection with Parnell Gallery in 2013, her fascination with Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland volcanic mountains and tree scapes and her love of capturing texture, atmosphere, pattern, tone, line and light in her work. We discuss the addition of houses in her work and the challenges these present, how she finds commissions and
Sara shares her approach to framing, varnishing, composition, painting skies, building relationships with galleries and the value of creating beautiful limited edition prints of her paintings. She unpacks her acrylic painting process, starting with a photograph. We talk social media and marketing, her personalised stationery and how she builds and maintains connection with her audience and collectors.
Sara has an upcoming joint show with landscape artist Matt Payne at Parnell Gallery:
Salt and Light III, April 1st - April 15th 2025.
Opening event on April 1st 5.30pm - 7pm.
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Born in Oxford in the UK in 1984, James Watkins moved to Auckland, New Zealand at a young age, kicking off a lifelong journey of travel and creative exploration.
James thinks of his intuitive painting practice as limitless and sees defining his practice as a certain style or describing himself as a certain type of artist as restrictive and unnecessary.
In this episode James shares how he never really felt creative as a young person but discovered photography in his late teens. From photographing beautiful things around him, James went on to explore writing, poetry and arts journalism and then made his way to abstract drawing and painting in his mid twenties.
We discuss materiality, why he likes to use more than one medium in a painting, why he likes to create what he calls 'history' in a painting, his techniques for starting a painting and the metaphors he see in his paintings. He talks about how and why he 'listens' to a painting and how abstraction for him is a form of therapy and self expression.
James thinks of 'excitement' as one of the ingredients and resources he leans on most in his art practice and when he loses that excitement his creativity retreats. We dive deep into the pros and cons of Instagram for artists and explore his approach to building community, connecting with galleries and sharing his work.
This episode is like no other. James has many interesting perspectives on life, life as an artist and ways of thinking about and responding to art, creativity and process.
To be honest, talking to James has really made me think about my own life as an artist and my artistic process.
You can see the work of James Watkins in the NEW COLLECTORS GROUP SHOW at The Frame Workshop and Gallery in Auckland NZ from February 20th - March 8th.
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Working at the intersection of art and technology, Delainy Jamahl's art practice focuses on data as the central narrative. He creates immersive and interactive installations that explore and visualise, transforming complex information into engaging visual experiences.
It was lovely to meet Delainy and to speak with a creative technology artist - the first of his kind on the podcast! In this episode we explore the creative and technical routes he took and the great influence an artist mentor had on him that lead him to consider channelling his skills into an art practice.
We discuss in detail two of Delainy's stunning works: Sight Unseen - which is a unique photographic dataset of infrared and colour infrared images of Wellington, continuing his exploration of visualising the invisible and revealing the beauty of the unseen.
Rivers of Wind, a mesmerising immersive digital artwork, uses 8 years of historic weather data from the Wellington Airport weather station to produce its flowing visuals.
We get into the technical side of immersive video and sound work, which although new to me I actually found super interesting. Delainy shares the feelings he is trying to express and create with the work, how people react to it, the ways he communicates the ideas behind his work and his creative process.
We talk about a collaboration Nowadeus with NZ artist Tim Christie, who has also been on the podcast, and other plans he has for collaborative projects and spaces.Delainy is the owner & director at Artificial Imagination and the co-founder of The Grid, which produce captivating digital art experiences, collaborating with artists to challenge the boundaries of imagination.
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/delainy-jamahl-visual-artist-creative-technologist
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Anna Gibbs is a contemporary painter living in Banks Peninsula, near Christchurch in the South Island of Aotearoa NZ.
If you search her name on Google you'll see she is described as an "internet personality" which probably comes from the amazing work she does on the Instagram social media platform and her loyal audience of more than 100,000 followers.
Anna is interested in conservation and fortunate to live on a rural lifestyle-block populated by many native birds and plants. Her oil paintings are inspired by her daily observations of the interaction between native flora and fauna. She is deliberate with her composition and, whilst her work is detailed, she describes her subject with neither abstraction nor absolute realism.
In this episode we have a fabulous chat about all sorts of things - such as why Anna likes to gild her backgrounds with 24ct gold leaf and her delicate gilding process, her strong connection to NZ native birds and why she loves to paint them and her passion for conservation.
Anna speaks of her apprenticeship with painter Judy Curnow, who studied with legend New Zealand painter Tim Wilson, and how that influenced her painting approach particularly with glazing techniques and helped her confidence as a self taught painter.
We explore her painting process, framing, the size of her paintings, her gorgeous studio, how she prepares for an exhibition and her upcoming show at Little River Gallery. She shares some tips for Instagram and how she feels about this platform
This is another quite long episode but it's full of really interesting tips and treasures and is so worth listening to - maybe over 2 walks or 2 commutes or 2 art making sessions, however you like to listen.
You can view Anna Gibbs unbelievably beautiful paintings at her solo show South Island Songs at Little River Gallery from January 30th - February 24th 2025https://littlerivergallery.com/
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Welcome to episode 155, the final episode of 2024. Ngā mihi nui Thank you so much for listening and for your support this year. I hope the podcast has cheered you up, motivated you, inspired you, affirmed what you do or educated you in some small way.
As you probably know, the CM podcast is largely self funded. However, I now have a way for you to show your support if you'd like to, by making a small donation of 3, 5, 8, or 10 dollars every month. There is a link in my podcast Instagram profile and in the show notes to sign yourself up to donate each month and you can cancel anytime. Every small contribution is hugely appreciated and actually makes a difference., and will ensure the podcast is sustainable and hopefully will continue for years to come. https://www.buzzsprout.com/1713946/support
Now for episode 155. Alex Wilkinson is a ceramic artist and entrepreneur living in Te Awamutu in the Waikato. She founded Mystery Creek Ceramics out of a love for Nerikomi and functional, beautiful ceramic tableware.
Alex talks about her journey to art school in her twenties via 3 years of studying engineering for 3 years and business for 2 years and how discovering and nurturing her creative side has helped with her well being, mental health and managing depression. Alex credits pottery for helping her out of a severe period of depression and putting her back on the path of valuing herself and her contribution to the world. Alex says "I simply would not be here if it were not for me trying a night class in pottery and my incredible support network."
Alex shares the more conceptual part of her art practice and explains how this sits comfortably alongside her Nerikomi tableware production, allowing her to push her thinking and self expression, and how an art competition led to her losing confidence in her conceptual art practice. We explore Nerikomi, a Japanese pottery term describing the artistic technique where multiple colours of clay are marbled or combined to create various designs,.and what Alex loves about this process.
Passing her passion for ceramics on to others is Alex's favourite part of her practice. Alex talks about the different ways she does this through teaching, supplying, mentoring and building her audience and networks through social media. We have great chats about using Tik Tok and Pinterest, the highs and lows of small business, the commercial and conceptual sides of Alex's art practice, mentors, being the face of the business, branding, suppliers and so much more. This episode is a fascinating insight into business life alongside the life of an artist and a lovely peep into the world of Mystery Creek Ceramics.
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Established in 1974 by a group of young jewellery makers to promote their work, Fingers has become synonymous with innovation and originality and the development of an indigenous style of contemporary New Zealand jewellery.
Fingers has been at the forefront of treating and displaying the craft object as art, and has constantly challenged the notion of what is precious. As the oldest contemporary jewellery gallery in New Zealand, Fingers has become an institution recognised locally and internationally, providing a platform for many artist's careers.
In this episode I speak with jeweller Roy Mason who is one of the founding partners of Fingers. We explore Roy's experiences at Ilam Art School in Christchurch in the early seventies, his early artistic practice, insights into his creative thinking and how nature inspires his work.
Roy reflects on how and why this group of like minded craft makers came together, the early days of Fingers and the move to Kitchener Street opposite the Auckland Art Gallery Toi ō Tāmaki in 1987.
He talks about the Fingers early group exhibitions - a pivotal part of the establishment of Fingers - each one focusing on a chosen concept such as a material. We discuss how the partners worked together and supported each others' practices, the use of diverse and less often seen materials such as Paua and Mother of Pearl (mela mela), how the group shows allow for the team to experiment and push boundaries and how other artists have come on board with 72 artists now exhibiting in the gallery.
This is a fascinating look into an iconic New Zealand contemporary jewellery collective who this year celebrate 50 glorious years of intelligent art making.
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Bailee Lobb is a queer, disabled artist born in Whanganui, Aotearoa, 1989 and now based in Wellington. She is a multi-disciplinary artist who works with textiles, colour, and movement to create sculpture, installation, and performance artworks that explore art as disability access and care.
In this enlightening episode Bailee talks about how she felt as a teenager, as a person who was dealing with undiagnosed autism and how her artwork now responds to and nurtures her disability. She shares how she started her studies in architecture at uni in Aotearoa, why she changed degrees and went on to study fine arts in Sydney and how architectural ideas continue to inform her art practice.
Bailee speaks about how her work has always connected with mental health in some way and how her art practice has helped her discover and acknowledge her own health and disability issues such as chronic pain, sleep problems, depression and autism. For Bailee, art is a way of communicating personal things that are hard to put into words.
We explore a number of Bailee's installation and performance works in depth, how audiences react to and interact with her works, how she uses colour to , how she manages creating work that is for people to experience more than for people to purchase, how grants have helped her to push her practice and the ways in which she considers creative access in all of her work.https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/bailee-lobb-sculpture-installation-and-performance-artist
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Julie Battisti is a painter who grew up in Melbourne Australia and moved to Aotearoa New Zealand with her husband in 2017, settling first in Rawene in the North Island then going on to make Dunedin her home.
Julie's paintings currently have two significant themes; clouds and flowers. Both are studies of light and texture.
In this episode Julie shares how she sources and chooses the flowers she paints, how she creates her floral compositions and her floral painting process from underpainting and taking photographs to painting the final details and how she approaches colour.
We discuss her cloud paintings and how they have initially came from feeling homesick, helping her to feel more connected to her friends and family on the other side of the Tasman.
We explore how she manages work for her gallery with regular commissions, how she connected with the 2 NZ galleries who represent her (Gallery de Novo in Dunedin and Parnell Gallery in Auckland), why she is no longer represented in Melbourne and how she manages 2 distinct themes in her practice.
Julie is the host of The Creative Kind podcast, where she explores creative questions with the help of fellow artists & art professionals who share insights and inspiration with listeners who, like Julie, are passionate about creativity in all its forms.
As fellow podcast hosts we talk about our podcasts, why we started them and our plans for the future of our shows. It was so nice to connect with Julie. We have a fantastic conversation - it was such a treat to hear Julie talking about her beautiful art practice for a change!https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/julie-battisti-painter
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Chris Melville is a photographer, graphic designer and jazz musician living in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.
In his latest photographic collection, Chris uses household items and a slow shutter speed to create landscape compositions, suggesting dreamy lakes or mountains appearing from the mist. Chris currently works with linen, denim, smooth cotton and coarse hessian, creating visual layers and textures. The resulting images, while being made entirely of practical human-made objects, speak of the mystical natural New Zealand environment, referencing Colin McCahon paintings through their minimal aesthetic.
Chris shares lovely reflections on life and creativity in this episode. We talk about his experiences showing his abstract photographic work at the last 2 Art in the Park events in Auckland, why he also likes to take photographs of musicians, how his sense of humour comes through his art practice and the other things he likes to capture with his camera.
We explore his photographic process, how he comes up with the titles of his latest series and how he juggles a full time design job, being a musician, being a Dad and going to gigs with his photographic fine art career.
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Ross Jones is a painter creating works that evoke a heady sense of nostalgia and elevated playfulness, living in Snells Beach on the east coast north of Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.
Each meticulously devised painting offers hints at various narratives as the artist invites the viewer to engage with his role as storyteller.
I loved meeting Ross and chatting to him. We talk about Ōtaki on the Kapiti Coast of Aotearoa where he grew up and the things he loves about where he now lives at Snells Beach. He shares how he failed his first year studying art and design at Wellington Design School only to return a year later and start the course again, gaining his degree 3 years later.
Ross talks about how he likes to play with time and scale in his work, his love of incorporating toys form his childhood and sourced from around the world into his paintings, how his previous illustration career informs his fine art practice today and his love of using sketchbooks for organising ideas, experimenting and drawing.
We discuss goal setting and how this has evolved into his 100 painting project which started in 2009 and finishes in 2028 and The Final 50 painting project which will start up after that and hopefully take him through to his early 80s. We explore why Ross doesn't like to paint NZ scenes, why he wouldn't enter an art competition, why he likes to paint one painting at a time and only have a solo exhibition every 2 years and why he loves to paint his dog Alice and why he won't paint yours.https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/ross-jones-painter
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Cathy Carter is a photographic and multimedia conceptual artist, living in Grey Lynn, Auckland.
Cathy's art is inspired by concerns about climate change and our evolving relationship with bodies of water as physical, cultural, and unique environmental ‘landscapes’ and investigates our complex psychological relationship to water through different perspectives and geographical locations.
Cathy and I have a lovely chat which I know you'll enjoy and I just loved our time together. We talk about an influential trip to Europe with her young family that influenced her and informed her early art practice, why she finally went back to uni to study fine arts at AUT University gaining a Master of Art and Design (Hons) in 2013 and why she felt she needed to do this. She shares how she came to make water her muse and how her work became more conceptual, and how she came to be represented by a dealer gallery as soon as she left uni.
We explore her extensive and wonderful series of works from her Oceanids series to her latest Fluid Alchemy series and why she likes to dip in and out of these series. We discuss her creative process, how she makes some of her work, the ideas behind her work and how she likes to also incorporate sculpture, light boxes and collaborative pieces in her shows.
Cathy talks about why she likes to enter art awards and competitions, the success she has had with this and how she approaches submitting her work.
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Jeff Thomson is a sculptor living in the little suburb of Helensville, in the north west of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. He is well known for his corrugated iron animals, birds, cars and people as well as NZ icons like the Taihape gumboot and the Holden in our national Museum Te Papa, and is often referred to as the corrugated iron man of Australasia.
Unconventional, humorous, challenging, iconic and ironic, the sculpture of Jeff Thomson has given a whole new perspective to corrugated iron in the New Zealand landscape and in art.
Jeff'swork is keenly sought after by collectors in New Zealand and internationally. He has had major exhibitions in Australia and Germany as well as New Zealand. His work never stands still, and he continues to be recognised as one of NZ's leading and most original contemporary artists today.
After a successful artistic career of over 40 years Jeff has a lot of great stories - from making an elephant fence for James Wallace's home and sleeping rough in a rotunda in Albert Park for 9 days whilst installing iron elephants, to his early long distance walks and meeting the locals, his first corrugated cow made for a letterbox and his love of finding a 'non art' audience. Jeff shares some of these stories in this episode.
He talks about some of the domestic craft processes he has explored with iron such as knitting using downpipes for needles, french knitting, screen printing, weaving, lace making and making pompoms. He shares the ideas and techniques behind some of his artist led community projects, public and private commissions and other sculptures and he talks about some of his favourite works.
We discuss one of his career highlights, which he describes as functional art out in real life, roofing in the community and the beautiful connections he's had with other respected NZ artists such as Don Binney, Paul Dibble, Ralph Hotere and Rosalie Gascoigne.
This is a fascinating glimpse into Jeff Thomson's incredible career.
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Emma Hercus is a painter born in Hastings and now living in Plimmerton, just north of Wellington.
The everchanging ocean and its view from her home serve as constant reference points in Emma's narrative abstract figurative paintings.
I loved talking to Emma. We talk about her early influences and inspiration from family as she was growing up, the amazing basketry and weaving practice she developed when she first decided to get back into being creative after having kids - which after a number of years finally led to her painting practice. We discuss her experience studying art for 3 years part time at the Learning Connection in Taita, Wellington, gaining a diploma in creativity.
Emma shares what she loves about painting, how she incorporates mark making using her favourite scruffy brushes; layering, sanding, scratching to create beautiful marks and glimpses of colour and patterns through the layers.
We explore interesting topics like using chatGPT or AI for writing artist statements (or not), framing, why she sometimes likes to elongate limbs in her paintings, where her stories come from and the symbols in her work.
We talk about her joint show Wildy, coming up this week at Railway Street Gallery + Studios:
An exhibition by painter Emma Hercus and ceramicist Jenn Leov
Wed 23rd October - Saturday 9th November 2024
And you'll hear from Emma's doggie Ricky at times making a guest appearance.
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Today I'm catching up with painter, printmaker Kylie Rusk to see what she's been up to since I last spoke to her in March 2021.
Listen to Kylie's first chat on the podcast in episode 2:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-on-air-with-kylie-rusk
You can see her work at her upcoming group show ELEMENTS at Turua Gallery
October 18th - 30th 2024
https://turuagallery.co.nz/collections/kylie-rusk
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Gilly Sheffield is a sculptor | weaver living in both Glendowie in Auckland and Wanaka in the South Island.
After a lifetime of making, it was only a few years ago that Gilly developed a more specific art practice using corrugated iron and started to see herself as an artist.
In this episode Gilly shares how she came upon this very iconic NZ material, corrugated iron, how she sources it (with help from her 'Iron Rescue Collective' friends) and the stories this medium tells for her.
She generously shares a personal traumatic event in her family's life that led to the creation of a whakapapa installation of crosses for her home, which marked the beginning of her art practice. She explains how she came to adding woven line and pattern with thread, and the steps she took to learn to weave.
This chat was motivating for me and got me thinking about all the potential of not only Gilly's work but other ideas that came to me using different materials. I'm sure you'll feel the same! We both get excited about the potential of her work, exploring the possibilities of outdoor sculpture, scale, perspective, use of different threads and public installations.
We also reflect on the pricing of her work, the dreaded imposter syndrome and how she came to exhibit her work in a number of NZ art galleries.
Gilly is celebrating a big year with her first group show, with Kylie Rusk and Claudia Aalderink:
ELEMENTS - Turua Gallery, 18th - 30th October 2024
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Creative visual thinking is fundamental to us all as human beings as we strive to understand our sense of self and the world. Chartwell seeks to deepen understanding about the importance of art and creative thinking for our future and our wellbeing.
The Chartwell Trust was set up in the early 1970s by Robert Gardiner, then a Hamilton businessman and accountant, as a charitable trust to realise Chartwell's vision for wider access to and deeper understanding of creative visual thinking.
The Chartwell Collection was established in 1974 as a privately managed public collection, a new model for its time in New Zealand. From the beginning, all acquisitions went immediately into public gallery care and use.
In this episode I speak to 2 of the Chartwell trust directors Rob Gardiner's daughters Sue and Karen Gardiner, as they celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Chartwell Trust’s involvement with and support of the visual arts in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Karen and Sue share some lovely stories about their early days with their parents Rob and Ev and the man that is Rob Gardiner. We talk about the long 50 year history of Chartwell, how and why Rob started the Chartwell Collection, why the collection eventually came up to Auckland from the Waikato to the Auckland Art Gallery in 1997, why contemporary art makes up the collection and how acquisitions are chosen.
Chartwell's activities and projects are divided into four key domains - Being, Seeing, Making and Thinking. Karen talks about one of the Chartwell outreach projects named Squiggla, which is a cross curricular tool that helps develop creative thinking through the power of mark making https://www.squiggla.org/
Sue takes us through ideas around asking questions in art, how we respond to contemporary art, the affects of viewing art, slow looking and Chartwell's hopes for the next 50 years and she shares the 50th year Chartwell anniversary programme which is running from March 2024 - March 2025.
This is a wonderful conversation which recounts an important part of Aotearoa New Zealand's social and visual art history and celebrates the value of art and the creative process for everyone.
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Levi Hawken is a brutalist | modernist sculptor living and working in west Auckland. His practice includes sculpture in concrete, glass, wood and bronze as well as painting.
As a skateboarder, Levi understands the undeniable attraction of the urban concrete landscape. His work responds to the forms and elements of this environment.
In this very authentic conversation Levi takes us through his extraordinary life from early graffiti days and his world of skating to his appearances on TV and in film and the Nek Minute meme that made him famous, although not necessarily for all the right reasons. He speaks from the heart about experiences in his life that have affected the person he is, the way he works today and the art he makes.
We discuss Levi's early work, how his first show came about and how he built his reputation as a serious artist. We talk about his current work the False Idols series and the Solv series and how his work is inextricably intertwined with skateboarding and urban forms. Levi describes the ideas behind his work and his process for making and how he feels about showcasing his work in a more commercial environment.
This is an amazing story which will inspire young and old, giving you a true insight into the person and artist that is Levi Hawken.
Text Mandy - leave your name and email so I can get back to you!
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Di Tocker is a sculptural glass artist living and working from her purpose built studio in Cambridge, in the Waikato.
Di maintains a structured approach to her art practice and business. She provides work for 5 galleries throughout New Zealand, and undertakes commissions for private residences and commercial projects. Di loves to connect with people who enjoy her glass work and welcomes visitors to her studio by appointment.
In this episode we chat about how Di discovered her love of working with glass and the ideas and narratives her work conveys.
Di very generously shares her complex glass casting process and guides us through her glass casting from design and polishing to managing colour and creating spaces and curves in her work. Di talks about studying glass sculpture in Australia and how that contributed to the artist she is today and why she likes to include figures in her work.
She shares her approach to the business side of being an artist, how she chooses galleries to work with, her love of making notes and keeping journals.
This is such an insightful episode, I learnt so much! Di has an inspiring approach to life as an artist - her journey is fascinating and she has so many great tips for creatives.
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Ronja Schipper has been lovingly making up-cycled art objects since 2015. She lives in the Waitakere Ranges in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.
Ronja uses waste materials for creating design pieces, aiming to highlight the relationship with our at-risk environment & its resources. All pieces are hand made in NZ from discarded bike innertube, cleaned, polished & enhanced with new findings.
Ronja was born in Munich, Germany and is a creative all-rounder with 20 years experience in the publishing, fashion and advertising industry in Europe and NZ with a particular passion for illustration. Since moving to New Zealand in __ she has set up bureau55, her own design studio in West Auckland and in 2015 she started her art practice.
This was such an inspiring chat with a truly formidable woman. Ronja talks about how she uses her art practice to highlight the relationship with our at-risk environment, how she got started with jewellery making using this recycled resource and how her business and art practice has evolved over the last 9 years. She explains her process from sourcing and cleaning the inner tubes to the designing, cutting, painting and packaging stages. Ronja shares how she is starting to use inner tube in different ways with framed artworks designed to be hung on walls and how she is learning to define herself as an artist.
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-ronja-schipper
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Mandy Patmore is a multi-media environmental artist living in Karekare, on Auckland’s west coast.
Primarily a painter, Mandy's current work focuses largely on deforestation and habitat loss in New Zealand, and the plight of many endangered native species, whilst exploring themes of colonisation and human impact on our landscape.
I find the work Mandy does in the community, with the environment and her own art practice super inspiring and this is a fantastic episode I know you'll gain many things from. We talk about the Piha domain footbridge project she completed in 2009 which won the NZ Recreation Association Award for most outstanding project and other projects she has done to highlight environmental issues.
Mandy tells us all about the Kōkano Youth Arts Collective which was developed from a pilot programme in 2013 as a response to recognising the needs of some of the most vulnerable young people in West Auckland; all of whom have struggled with mainstream education. She shares the challenges and highlights of working with at risk youth and what she has learnt.
We talk about how Mandy manages all the things in her life and how they all connect, her art practice, her love of using found surfaces and timber to paint on, why she wants to diversify within her art practice, who and what has influenced her practice. We discuss funding, self doubt and how she sometimes feels some form of shame around creating realistic works that may seem more about beautification than the message she is trying to convey.
As this episode goes live Mandy will be listening from her latest residency in Peru, which I'm following with fascination on her socials.
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-mandy-patmore
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Born and raised in Auckland, Dita Angeles completed her BFA at Whitecliffe College in 2004 before spending the majority of her career in Asia and more recently Australia.
With a strong background in portraiture - social presentation, perception and persuasion are the dominant themes that run through Dita's work. Her paintings are inspired by existential philosophies and 20th century aesthetics, and depict social issues and personal moments that incorporate the spectacle of contemporary culture, paying close attention to behaviour, ego, identity and anonymity.
We have a fascinating honest chat about the difficulties of moving to other countries and trying to maintain an art practice, creating new contacts and artistic communities and then also the challenges of returning to NZ and again building her community and promoting her work. Dita talks about a traumatic medical event she experienced in Hong Kong which left her disabled and how this has affected her life.
She speaks of her photographic practice, how important composition is for her, how she has to see something to paint it and likes to use her own photography or found images for her work with an emphasis on anonymity and how she sometimes uses herself as a subject but in that case sees herself as a character playing a role.
We talk about her striking upcoming show #Iconograph, which is showing at The Grey Place in Auckland from September 3rd - September 14th 2024. We discuss the symbols in these works such as leather and sunglasses and the icon references she incorporates.
Dita talks in depth about other portraiture series of works - The Post Mod Wallflowers which she showed at the Auckland Art Show in 20, The Gentleman's Club referencing the Me Too movement and her ongoing series Compositions of Identity which are thought provoking cropped images of people at a party in the mid 20th century. We discuss her amazing painting "It's love" of NZ musician Chris Knox which is a finalist in the Adam Portraiture award 2024, and how this came about.
And she shares how people often don't connect her as the artist of her work and how anti-climatic it feels for her when she finishes a painting. And so much more!
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Leigh Tawharu, is a contemporary mixed media and printmaking artist living in Kaeo, Te Tai Tokerau in the far north of Aotearoa NZ.
Her work is created through various techniques and mediums which seek to explore surface texture, pattern and design on paper. She is influenced and inspired by her surrounding landscape of maunga (mountains), native bush, fashion, textiles and still life from within her immediate domestic environment.
This is the best conversation and I absolutely loved meeting Leigh. We initially connected when I inited her to exhibit a work alongside my own thread paintings in a group show I'm involved in with Muriwai Arts Collective. As our conversation went on we found more and more connections between our work and the way we think.
Leigh speaks about the immense pleasure she gains from the object and the cloth, the memories they hold and the cathartic practice of repetitive stitches, which provides a daily early morning exercise in mindfulness. She shares how she finally devoted herself to studying fine art in 2018, how she uses printmaking and painting in her work and how she manages threading on paper.
We discuss her various series of works she has done over the last few years, using thread and different mediums such as shellac, gold leaf, collage and ball point pen, and how they all connect. We have great chats about all sorts of interesting things like nostalgia and how that creeps into our work, sales at shows, imposter syndrome, how we both feel connected to our land and place and how her work responds to the environment around her. Leigh goes into fascinating detail about all the different processes she uses to bring thread into her work.
Once again please excuse my blocked up croaky wheezy voice in this episode.See the blogpost for this episode
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Sam Leitch is a contemporary painter and print maker living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
Sam sees himself as a storyteller of everyday life and the unknown, capturing time and combining commonplace objects and surrealist expressions to invite the viewer in to the painting.
He has always been fascinated with what makes a piece of art. The connection between the viewer, the artist and the piece is a relationship which dominates his ever-evolving art practice.
Sam and I have a great chat, firstly off air about our dogs - my border collie Mali and his Staffy cross Mikey. On air, we talk about his experience studying fine art at university straight from school at the age of 17 and a life changing experience he had at uni that still runs deep with him 16 years later and affects his art practice today. By the age of 24 he was represented by 2 Auckland galleries with a sell out first solo show and marked the beginning of a full time career as an artist. Sam shares why he likes to include birds in his latest work combined with abstract shapes, his painting process including how he uses resin to get a shine for some works and sands it back to create a tile like hardness and flatness, a contrast he enjoys. We discuss his screen printing process and why he loves this medium so much.
Sam is part of a group show Contemporary Creations of Colour at Turua Gallery with Beautifully Frank Frankie meaden and Agate Rubene, Restless & Infectious. This gorgeous show starts tomorrow - Friday August 23rd (with an opening event from 5pm) and runs until September 4th 2024.
Ngā mihi nui, thank you Turua Gallery for generously sponsoring this episode.
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GUEST UPDATE: Textile artist Frankie Meaden was last interviewed on the podcast in July 2023 in episode 87.
Today we catch up with her to hear about what she has been up to since then - including a residency, her first solo show, a group show at Turua Gallery coming up and the creation of new works. She was also involved in and a finalist in the Changing Thread’s Contemporary Textile and Fibre art awards 2024 show (which she forgot to mention in our chat!)
Her group show at Turua Gallery with Agate Rubene and Sam Leitch: Contemporary Creations of Colour
August 23rd - September 4th 2024
Opening August 23rd from 5pm.
Listen to Frankie's original conversation in episode 87
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-frankie-meaden
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Agate Rubene, aka Restless & Infectious, is an artist and illustrator with a background in fashion and graphic design. She is from Latvia and now lives in Wānaka in the South Island of NZ.
Agate’s work focuses on people and their actions, capturing emotions and feelings. She is inspired by the people around her, human interactions and patterns in nature. Agate loves using bright flat colours to create her own alternative realities, where feminine themes take centre stage.
It was such a pleasure meeting Agate and I found it super inspiring to hear a positive story of someone who has settled in NZ from Eastern Europe and is making her life as an artist here in NZ. Agate talks about how she came to live in New Zealand from Latvia and how both her homeland and her background in fashion influences her work. She shares how successful her initial approaches to galleries were, her first exhibition at Art in the Park art show in Auckland and how her knowledge and experience in graphic design has helped her so much with managing her art practice.
We chat about her illustration work, mostly with breweries, and how that connects and fits in with her fine art practice. Agate reflects on working as an artist in Aotearoa, how she feels she would never have been an artist if she'd stayed in Latvia and how painting brings her calmness and is so good for her well being.
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Jennie De Groot is a contemporary painter living near Hamilton in the Waikato.
Jennie's oil paintings occupy a space where reality, imagination and memory all hold equal tenancy. These psychological landscapes hold the tension between realism and abstraction, place and non-place. Her status as immigrant informs her work, exploring themes of identity and adaptation.
After studying archeology, a career in travel consultancy, moving to New Zealand from South Africa and then contracting a serious infection at the age of 39, amongst many other things, Jennie finally devoted herself to her art practice at the age of 40.
In this awesome episode, Jennie talks about how her landscape paintings reflect more of a feeling, an idea and are often more about self than an actual place. She talks about being in the state of flow and how music contributes to this, how she thinks of herself as a colourist, how she builds her colour palette and how she creates balance in her work. Also the different surfaces she likes to paint on and the mark making tools she loves to use. We talk about her amazing Cold Comfort and her Figures in Space series and how and why these paintings came about.
We talk about what she loves about painting plein air, why she went back to university in her fifties to gain her masters in fine arts and how that has contributed to her art practice and what she gains from her mentor relationship and friendship with fellow NZ artist Di Tocker, who will also be on the podcast later this year. And we touch on so much more!https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-jennie-de-groot
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Alice Fennessy is an artist based in Palmerston North in the Manawatu. She uses drawing to convey themes such as intimacy, domestic life and interior worlds.
Her work is currently intertwined with motherhood as she raises her two young children, dreams and memories. Alice is endlessly fascinated by the juxtapositions or dualities thrown up by pregnancy and motherhood, how these experiences can be simultaneously beautiful and ugly, tender and excruciating. Her work aims to be sensitive and vulnerable, casting light on experiences of life often disregarded.
I loved talking to Alice. We discuss her secondary art teaching career and how that feeds into her art practice, how her drawing practice developed and how she uses drawing to process what's going on in her head and around her, and sometimes as a place to escape. She shares her love of cyanotypes and the colour blue, how she has introduced stitch and printmaking into her art practice and why she likes to sometimes create her own supports or frames that become an important part of her work.
Alice was a finalist in the Parkin Drawing prize in 2023 and is a finalist again this year in 2024 - we discuss the reasons why she likes to enter this art award, and how scary but great it feels. Another juxtaposition for Alice to be fascinated by.https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-alice-fennessy
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Artist Rosanna Raymond aka Sistar S’pacific is in her words an "activator, fabricator" who has achieved international renown for her performances, installations, body adornment, and spoken word.
Rosanna is an innovator of the Pacific art scene and notable producer of and commentator on contemporary Moana culture in Aotearoa New Zealand, the U.K, Canada, Australia and the USA.She is a long-standing member of the art collective the Pacific Sisters and a founding member of the SaVĀge K’lub. Her body centred practice includes working within museums and higher education institutions as a researcher, curator, artist, performer, guest speaker, poet, and workshop leader.
Rosanna's acti.VĀ.tions not only expose and critique the colonialism of traditional Western museum practices of conservation, collecting, and display, but also propose other methods for keeping culture alive, through inherited tradition, personal innovation, and embodiment.
Rosanna has achieved so much in her long career internationally and in Aotearoa. This episode only just touches on her achievements and all the things she has been involved in but you will get a fascinating insight into her life and her art practice. We talk about how and when she came to think of herself as an artist, the stories behind The Pacific Sisters and Sa'vage K'lub, the work she has done in institutions around the world and the changes she has seen over the last 30 years in the Pacific arts community. https://www.instagram.com/rosannaraymond/
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Georgina is a painter living in Nelson in Te Waipounamu, the South Island of NZ.
Informed by her print & pattern textile design background, Georgie develops distinctive, warm and earthy colour palettes and paints with broad expressive brushstrokes. Her work is primarily semi-abstracted landscapes, still lifes and portraits.
I loved meeting Georgie. We have a cool chat about how she came to be a full time painter 8 years ago, how being a self taught artist makes her feel and what she would like to learn more about and connect with to help further inform her practice. We discuss her approach to paint and painting, how she developed her own style and what it represents to her. She shares her process and tells us how she selects a composition for her still life paintings and how she responds to the environment inspired by walking in nature but not necessarily representing exactly what she sees.
We talk about her use of colour and simplified, strong shapes, how she likes to have a number of artworks on the go so they can inform and 'talk' to each other in some way, what she is still learning about the colour blue and what she wants to convey through her work.
Ngā mihi nui, thank you so much to Turua Gallery for generously sponsoring this episode https://turuagallery.co.nz
I'm so looking forward to seeing her work at her joint show coming up later this month:
DUALITY
Georgina Hoby Scutt & Jamie Adamson
26 July - 7 August 2024
Opening night from 5pm, Friday 26 July
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Jamie Adamson is a sculptor based in East Auckland.
He works in a range of materials including rimu, pine, oak, pohutukawa, maple, walnut and steel. The timber pieces utilise steam bending techniques; while the steel works involve meticulous welding to create seamless forms.
With a background in boat building, design and business, Jamie now works full time on his sculptural art practice.
In this episode Jamie shares how and why he started making sculptures in 2013, the success of his first solo show at Railway Street Gallery + Studios, some random positive feedback he received from a guy who turned out to be no other than artist Billy Apple and how he went on to have more sell out solo shows early in his art career.
He speaks about how he manages showing his work with 5 galleries across Aotearoa plus commissions and art shows such as Art in the Park and why he still likes to exhibit at some of the school art shows. Although he admits he finds talking about his work difficult, when he starts speaking about his fascinating process with both wood and steel he gets on a roll. His passion and drive is really evident and infectious. I really enjoyed chatting to Jamie.
Ngā mihi nui, thank you so much to Turua Gallery for kindly sponsoring this episode https://turuagallery.co.nz
DUALITY
Jamie Adamson & Georgina Hoby Scutt
26 July - 7 August 2024
Opening night from 5pm, Friday 26 July
“Duality" unites the wonderful warm tones of both Georgina’s painted landscapes & still life with Jamie’s wood wall sculptures.
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Pam Wildbore is a contemporary artist from Hastings now living in Napier.
Pam is a resin and acrylic artist who began her art practice only 4 years ago. Since then she has had 7 solo shows, participated twice at the NZ Art Show with a sellout show of her work in 2023, and is currently preparing for at Art in the Park 2024.
We have such a great chat covering topics from the creativity of hairdressing and my softball fears in high school to how Pam first got her work out there and then found herself exhibiting at the NZ Art Show only 3 years later. Pam unpacks everything resin: the products she likes to use; the discoveries she has made along the way using this medium; how she adds opaque and transparent pigments; her techniques for painting with resin and how she adds layers and finishing touches to her paintings.
We also talk about things like pricing, marketing, imposter syndrome, her love of colour, her different collections and what she wants to say through her beautiful paintings - including the cheeky coded messages in her code collection works.
Pam's story as a reasonably new practising artist is inspiring and she has many helpful insights into starting a career.
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Natalie Holland is a textile artist from Wellington. She produces bright and colourful punch needle pieces that feature motifs and patterns used in hiapo (Niuean tapa cloth), linking to her Niuean heritage.
Her works are made using 100% NZ wool and feature botanical and geometric elements in a wide range of often unexpected colour combinations. Natalie’s work enables her to reflect on the important women in her life and the impact the history of women’s making, sewing and crafting has had on her own creative development. The results are beautifully crafted and contemporary works that pay homage to the traditional design language of her Niuean heritage as well as to generations of women to whom making has been a fundamental part of everyday life.
I absolutely adored talking to Natalie.We talk about how her hiapo inspired art has helped her to connect with her Niuean heritage and learn more about Nuie. It was only 2 years ago that Natalie started her art practice and in time started calling herself an artist. She explains how she started creating her punch needle works, what she has learnt over this time, how research has informed her developing practice, the goals she set for herself in her first year of making, how she put herself out there and her early success selling her work.
We discuss the challenges of pricing work as a 'new' artist and the support she has sourced to help build her art career. Natalie goes into fascinating depth about punch needle stitches, framing, fabric, wool, lacing at the back of the work and how she comes up with her designs.https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-natalie-holland
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Yvonne Abercrombie is a contemporary artist living in Helensville just north of Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. Applying the figure to an abstract landscape is where Yvonne’s practice is situated. Yvonne combines personal narratives and imagination with an exploration and development of the painting process.
It was so lovely for me to speak to someone I know quite well and a friend and discover so much about her work.In this episode Yvonne talks about her love of traditional hearty cooking and how that translates into her paintings and how she handles paint, and her love for dressing well and accessorising and how that contrasts with the use of colour in her work.
We talk about how painting realistically felt disappointing to Yvonne, how she finally found her identity and ways to express her personal stories in a less realistic form during her masters degree and how she transitioned from studying painting at uni to managing her own painting practice and earning power.
Yvonne describes her work as abstract figuration paintings - personal or reimagined narratives but not necessarily expressed in the traditional way, that develop organically. Largely about the human condition, existence, who and what we are. She shares why she likes to paint the naked form, exposing rawness and vulnerability and symbolising the narrative.
Yvonne goes into great detail about her painting process, which is fascinating, and her yearning and drive to create something she has never seen before.
We discuss how she landed into community art spaces, how working in these diverse artistic environments contributes to her art practice and the benefits she sees in community art galleries.
Yvonne is showing her latest work in a joint show entitled Reimagined by the Muse, which opens this week on June 25th and runs until July 10th 2024, at The Frame Workshop and Gallery in Herne Bay Auckland.
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Rachael Errington is a visual artist living, working and exhibiting in both New Zealand and Australia. She has been showing her paintings professionally for over 20 years, and has had 40 major solo exhibitions to date.
Rachael grew up living in the middle of an English wood, where she and her brother spent most of their time making dens and treehouses. It is undoubtedly this experience that created her fascination with painting trees. Her work is inspired by colours in nature and the way light filters through flora, creating emotive connections for the viewer, encouraging them to ‘feel’ something that is peaceful, wistful and calming.
It was such a pleasure meeting the wonderfully vivacious Rachael. Her positive outlook on life and her approach to her art business and painting practice is really inspiring. She has some great tips for artists and valuable insights for us all after experiencing a traumatic health event in 2020.
Rachel goes into fascinating depth about her painting practice: how she paints her entire canvas black before starting a painting; how her underpainting becomes a simple landscape with a light point which are beautiful in themselves; how she creates the sculptural elements in her trees; how she adds in the light rays and mists at the end and why she loves to paint big.
You can see her current solo show Memoirs from Nature on now at Art Bay Gallery in Queenstown, running from June 19th - July 3rd 2024.
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Tim Jones is a contemporary painter born in the UK and living in Matakana New Zealand. He creates bold abstract paintings through the use of strong gestural mark making.
Driven by inquiry, and with evocative reference to the natural environment, colour and painterly form are intertwined and steeped in rhythm and movement.
Tim talks about how he has always liked to draw and paint and also take photographs and how his background travelling extensively, diving and working on super yachts has ultimately informed his art practice. He shares his intuitive painting process, the worlds he creates in his work and what they mean to him.
We talk about NFT scams and the merits and downsides of social media, how his identity has been stolen more than once on Instagram and the difficulty he has had resolving this issue. He shares how he sometimes experiences imposter syndrome as a self taught artist and how he deals with that.
We discuss Tim's current solo show Quo Vadis at Parnell Gallery in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland and we explore some of the works within the exhibition. Quo Vadis is on now and runs until June 25th 2024.
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Zoë Nash is a multidisciplinary artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. Her brightly coloured, abstract works explore a slow and mindful accumulation of repeated and highly detailed mark making.
Reflecting her love of nature, Zoë’s works increasingly draw on selected plant and flower motifs as inspiration. Frequently initiated by things seen, things spoken, or things remembered, narrative and nostalgia are also used to trigger personal connection with viewers.
After taking some art classes with Zoë at Browne School of Art, it was a real privilege to talk to her and get to know her and her practice a little better. Zoë speaks about the 'round about way' she came to design and the fine arts arena and her challenging year completing a one year masters degree in fine arts without having an art practice at the time, and how she didn't make art for 4 years after this experience.
We discuss her identity crisis at the age of 30 as a British born woman who had lived in NZ for as long as she'd lived in the UK and how this translated into her fine arts study, which focused on identity, the use of autobiography and the role of female narratives. Zoë talks about how renting her own art studio finally kick started her art practice again and why her work became so connected to nature. She shares the ideas behind the presence of dots and repeated marks in her work and how that can be therapeutic and sometimes reflects her own personal stories.
AND Zoë has the best list yet of artists and reasons why they have inspired her and informed her practice.
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Belinda Griffiths is a conceptual figurative artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. Her work lies within the disciplines of painting and printmaking and explores the expressive power of the gestural mark.
When coupled with depictions of the human form, this tension between mark and form has the potential to dig deeper and communicate something of the human experience that becomes instinctive and visceral. Belinda's work is an ongoing exploration of that potential.
In this episode we talk about how she came to emigrate from South Africa to New Zealand at the age of 18, how she started her career in design and then made the switch to full time artist. We discuss how she discovered printmaking and what she loves about monotypes, why she likes to create monotypes as well as paintings and her printmaking process.
We talk about the different residencies Belinda has done and how they have influenced her work, how she knows when a work is finished and successful, how she manages the push and pull between marks and form. And how she sees her process as a metaphor for her work and why she doesn't like to share all parts of her process.
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Clinton Christian (aka Clint© or CC'd) is an award winning contemporary New Zealand artist based in Hamilton New Zealand.
His graphic style, themes and mediums reflect his personality - fun, bright, shiny and often nostalgic with a love of all things 70s and 80s.
Clint initially gained a big following with his animal pop portrait series ‘Animal Instinct’ during 2020/21 and he has recently developed a new collection of work ‘Retrovision’ that dives into his youthful nostalgic memories of the 1970’s -80’s.
Clint loves making people smile and is super passionate about what he does. In this episode we talk about Clint's journey from architectural designer to full time artist and how well received his work has been right from when he started painting only 6 years ago. He talks about a pivotal light bulb moment in 2018 after a tough year when he decided to leave his job and start creating, even though he initially didn't know what form this would take. We discuss how he once thought he wasn't 'creative' because he would draw what he sees and didn't feel he had his own ideas - ideas is defintely not something he is short of today!
Clint has a very entrepreneurial approach to his art career. He talks about some of his tricks and techniques he has for promoting and selling his work, connecting with artists and gallerists and building a loyal following. He unpacks his painting and sculptural practice and goes into great depth about his process, from sourcing and using resin and how he builds his pieces to the way he transfers the text in his Title Deeds series and his favourite paints to use. Such a good listen!
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
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POPUP is a versatile platform for artists, organisations, and venues in Aotearoa to produce their own online experiences. Born out of years of online event production, POPUP allows users to effortlessly create and manage their online events.
The platform's immersive virtual spaces facilitate serendipitous encounters and meaningful interactions. From customisable environments to interactive features such as video chat and spatialised sound, POPUP empowers users to curate memorable experiences tailored to their unique visions. Additionally, the platform prioritises ease of use, ensuring everyone can participate fully in the digital realm.
Artist Naomi Azoulay, who I spoke to on the podcast in episode 106, talks about this amazing virtual resource for artists, what it offers, how it works, who could use it and why and how she can help you set up your very own virtual meeting, exhibition, event, interview, or party (fully funded until the end of July). I'm already working on my own virtual space for the podcast, with the help of Naomi, and I can't wait to see what we can do with this exciting way of communicating and sharing the work we do.
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Dunedin based artist Nic Dempster has been part of the city’s art scene for over twenty years. His bold colourful geometric style has developed out of contemporary landscape work and reflects his love for architecture and design.
His works play with ideas of urbanisation, our infatuation with property and the great kiwi quarter acre dream.
It was such a pleasure meeting Nic. We talk about how he went from studying history at Uni and gaining a masters degree to full time artist. He shares how he approaches the composition of his work, how he fills a space and the mathematical formula he uses to construct the shapes and form of his paintings. We discuss his colour palettes and use of shades and tints, his signature black outlines and what drew him to this style, how he orders his process, how his work has evolved over the years and where he can see his work heading in the future.
This is a lovely chat I know you'll enjoy. Nic also very generously shares his personal surrogacy journey, which I'm sure you'll appreciate as much as I did.
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In this episode I'm chatting to Charles Tongue, the founder and CEO of Brother Theo - a platform dedicated to career coaching and legacy planning, tailored specifically for artists.
Brother Theo provides a range of perspectives to help artists plan and grow their career as well as their legacy. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to take your career to the next level, Brother Theo helps you achieve your goals and reach your full potential as an artist.
Charles talks about the Studio of Contemporary Art Gallery which his mother founded and he went on to buy and then run for 15 years, his experiences in the art industry in Aotearoa NZ and what he has learnt. He shares what information artists should collect and how to put it all together, archiving and cataloging artworks, creating processes and outsourcing, approaching galleries and pricing work. And so much more! You can learn more out Brother Theo and the services they provide at brotheo.com
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Robyn Fleet is a painter from the Hawkes Bay. Her paintings capture the essence of human experiences and our deep connections to the environment.
Robyn is obsessed with the materiality of paint itself and all its possibilities.
A common thread in Robyn's work is 'the human condition' suggesting avenues of emotion and thought, the human experience through sensations of materiality and tactility.
We discuss the Ruahine Ranges landscape series which help to tell the story of an accident her father had in 1955 in the ranges which has had a big impact on Robyn.
Robyn talks about her jury member portrait series and where these characters come from, her deep connection to land, people and animals (especially her cats and her gorgeous lab/retriever cross Fred), how she likes to paint and why she is drawn to dark moody landscapes. She shares how caregiving gives her insight and often informs her practice
Robyn has a solo show coming up at the Frame Workshop and Gallery 9th May - 25th May 2024, with an opening event on May 9th from 4pm - 6pm.Support the Show.
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Sally Bulling is a contemporary New Zealand painter living in Queenstown.
Invoking a sense of energy, Sally Bulling's abstract works are created with physical movements, sweeping marks, dripping flicks and elaborate pours. Her love of colour, light and reflection is captured in her beautiful paintings.
After a successful career in the fashion and fine art industry she returned to her love of painting in 2020 and now works full time on her art practice.
I loved hanging out with Sally in my Muriwai studio. What a gorgeous woman! We share a love of sparkles and colour and I found our chat very inspiring as I'm sure you will too. Sally talks about her career in art consultancy and shares some great tips for approaching galleries, choosing a gallery for your work, the advantages of being represented by a gallery and what galleries look for in an artist.
She talks about how she got back in to painting in 2020, how she came to use mirrors as a canvas and stickers as a medium and how her first work sold in a gallery within 3 hours - marking the beginning of a very successful artistic career. We chat about her process from sourcing and cutting mirrors, selecting and layering paint to tinting and applying epoxy resin, adding gilding to the edges of her work and her technical approach to colour.
Sally has a solo show at Parnell Gallery coming up - A Pansy for your Thoughts -
14 - 28 May. Preview: Tuesday 14 May, 5.30-7pm.
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Tim Christie is a designer and artist currently based in Wellington New Zealand.
His innovative, fashion-forward artistic style has been described as a modern synthesis of op art, pop art, street art and geometric expressionism.
Over the last two years he has extended his collection to include light boxes, large original acrylic paintings and illuminated weavings, enjoying playing with the space or ‘void’ between abstract and representational art.
Tim shares his inspirational story from graphic designer to successful artist and some of the stories in between! He talks about how he first came up with the idea for digital artworks while holidaying in Scotland, how he gained momentum early on with sell out shows and a huge amount of interest from collectors, how he came to exhibit internationally and how he now manages a very busy art practice and artistic business.
Tim unpacks his varied digital and painting art practice and shares his fascinating creative process. He talks about another of his artistic ventures this time with his wife Katie, Yogallery - a hybrid world of art and yoga contained in a large light filled space in central Wellington.
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-tim-christie
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Alison Gilmour is a painter from Auckland, New Zealand. She grew up in Devonport, a coastal suburb in Auckland, which has instilled a deep love of the sea inspiring her to paint it in its many forms. She is also well known for her beautiful floral and still life paintings.
Alison captures the endless beauty of her environment with delicate brushwork – creating images which have a photo-realistic quality and hues which reflect the clarity, light and richness of the South Pacific.
In this episode Alison tells the great story of meeting Tim Wilson, one of New Zealand’s most successful landscape artists and often referred to as the 'Master of Light'. She talks about how she came to be mentored by Tim two years later, how he got her into painting with oils and how she was eventually invited to exhibit in his acclaimed gallery in Queenstown, the Tim Wilson Gallery. Through this connection Alison increased her global profile, commanded bigger prices for her work and gained confidence in herself as a fine artist.
We discuss her 40 year career in graphic design and how it has informed her art practice and parts of her process. We have an interesting conversation about realism and the unique elements she brings to her realistic paintings and she shares parts of her process such as how she adds layers and why she sometimes likes to paint upside down. We talk about a pop up gallery she created with a friend and her plan to allow herself a few months to purely experiment and play with a view to possibly bringing some new techniques and ideas to her practice.https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-alison-gilmour
https://www.instagram.com/alisongilmour_artist/
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This episode is kindly supported by Turua Gallery
Dominique Marriott is a Waikato-based artist living near Raglan on the west coast. She specialises in life drawing and is well known for her minimalistic nude paintings created with sumi ink and calligraphy brushes.
Dominique works in a bold and uninhibited way to capture the essence of the human form. Her work reflects a deep appreciation for simplicity, energy, and the intrinsic beauty of the body. Guided by the principles of Zen, Dominique approaches her artistic practice as a form of active meditation and self medication.
This is another gorgeous, honest conversation. We had a beautiful time together in my studio at Muriwai Beach.. Dominique talks about why and how she got into life drawing after studying fine arts at Uni and what she loves about this art form.We talk about her unique process of creating multiple drawings in each sitting, why she likes to leave negative space in her drawings, how she chooses which drawings to add to her collection and which ones to discard and why life drawing is so good for her well being and her ADHD brain.
Dom shares her life drawing commission process, why she believes every artist should use life drawing as part of their practice, her amazing life drawing performances and how she has become so comfortable with this process after initially being fearful of painting in front of others.
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Raymond Sagapolutele is an Aotearoa NZ-born Sāmoan artist and academic living in Manurewa in Auckland. His photographic practice focuses on his lived experiences, his heritage and his cultural ties to the history of and the lands within the Pacific.
In his hands, the camera gains a voice and connects to the cherished Samoan tradition of storytelling. As Raymond says, his camera has been there when he has laughed with friends, it's been there when he has cried with family and it's been there when he has sought inspiration, clarification and resolution.
Raymond is a natural orator and storyteller. This episode is a wonderful account of not only his life as an artist and his art practice but how he sees himself as a Samoan born in Aotearoa, the importance of aiga - family, ways he has honoured his parents and siblings through his art.
He speaks of the concept of the 'va' and how that is represented in his work and he unpacks a number of his photographic works and series in fascinating detail.
I learnt a lot from this talanoa, this conversation with Raymond today and really appreciate his honesty, insights and perspectives. As I know you will too.
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Auckland based artist James Emery has always had a keen interest in art and art history, particularly NZ art from the 1950s and 60s and the American abstract expressionists.
Majoring in art history at Auckland Uni James worked within the art industry for many years before developing his own practice only 2 years ago. This month he celebrates his first solo show at The Grey Place in Grey Lynn, Auckland, which opens March 26th 2024.
This chat was highly motivating and interesting for me and honestly made me feel so keen to get back into my own painting practice. We talk about NZ art and artists and discover a mutual admiration for a number of abstract artists. James talks about how his natural eye for good aesthetics influenced his early career buying and selling art, decorative arts and jewellery.
We discuss how James started his painting practice after years of observing, researching and thinking; how paint and process drives him, how he strives to create a new approach or technique in painting that could leave some kind of legacy and how he is never short of ideas, just time.
James talks about how circuit boards as objects and metaphors first inspired him to create his series "Incommunicado". We discuss his latest series for his upcoming solo show Tension and Attitude and he shares his innovative painting process, tools and techniques.
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Jae Frew is a contemporary portrait photographer previously based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland and now living in Mahurangi.
Jae's commercial career spans over 30 years and the highly respected and sought-after photographer lists prime ministers, heads of state, TV personalities, corporate CEO’s, film and television actors, and prominent sports people among his subjects.
With time and space to pursue his own photographic projects during the 2020 / 2021 COVID lockdowns, Jae began exploring a more personal side to his practice and Manu Kōingo – Birds of Yearning was formed. A concept that had been pressing on his mind for many years – to create a series of works that speaks to and engages with the interests of his youth while raising awareness of Aotearoa's fragile and diminishing bird life.
We talk about Jae's commercial photography and some of the amazing New Zealanders he has photographed such as Jacinda Adern, Sir Edmund Hillary and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.
We go deep into Manu Kōingo - Birds of Yearning, how he developed this more personal side of his photographic practice and the shows he's had since, why he likes to construct the native wood frames for each of his works.
He talks about his upcoming solo show at Parnell Gallery which opens on April 4th in Auckland and runs til April 21st 2024.
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Artist Michael McHugh is New Zealand born and resides in Sydney Australia. For more than three decades, he has been exploring the vast potential of colour, composition and abstract form with an inquisitive emphasis on the natural world.
McHugh believes constant drawing and collaging to be fundamental to his painting process. This foundation enables him to fully explore composition and vigorously push boundaries with colour, pattern and technique.
I had a lovely chat with Michael. We talk about his career in advertising and media and how he juggles life as Editor in Chief of the Mindfood magazine which he and his wife founded in 2008 with his art practice and how working in publishing influences his art practice and the way he works. We discuss his initial lack of confidence in his own art and how the passing of his beloved mother became a catalyst for developing his art practice further. He shares the story of his first opportunity to show his work and how to his surprise the show sold out within 20 minutes. This marked the beginning of his very successful career as an artist.
We hear all about his painting and drawing process and he shares some of the tools, tricks and techniques he likes to use. Michael talks about his current solo show entitled CHROMA at Martin Browne Contemporary in Sydney, which is on now and runs until the end of March 2024.
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Faleata Ualesi is an emerging contemporary Samoan Artist living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. His current work is built around motifs shown through grids and pacific patterns.
I loved meeting Faleata and welcoming him to my studio (and black taro patch) at Muriwai Beach. In this episode we talk about Faleata's teaching career, how he manages his art practice around his job, and how he feels having a full time job in a way takes away the pressure to sell his artwork, allowing him to focus on experimenting and exploring and trying new techniques and media.
Faleata is a proud South Aucklander raised in Ōtara. He has participated in the South Versed annual group shows for the last 2 years and will again in 2024. Faleata talks passionately about his work inspired by siapo, tapa cloth and Samoan tattoo and how he is currently experimenting with "breaking free out of the box" using more open curved lines, texture, colour and pattern. We discuss his use of acrylic pens, his commission work, his drawings and paintings, his light boxes and the beautiful installation tribute to his parents in the Auckland CBD.
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Tony Ogle is known as one of New Zealand’s leading screen printers. He currently lives in Tairāwhiti, Gisborne.
Next month in March Tony celebrates a prolific art career of more than 30 years with a retrospective solo exhibition at Parnell Gallery in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland, showing more than 60 of his original paintings that have rarely been seen in their original state.
Tony digs deep into his fascinating life story and art practice. He talks about how his grandmother inspired him as a youngster and the long summer days he spent exploring the NZ coastline and the Hauraki Gulf in Auckland with his family, sparking his curiosity and imagination and consequently influencing his art practice.
We discuss how he got into screen printing, what he loves about this form of printmaking, his screen printing process and how it has allowed him to work full time as an artist for so long and make such a name for himself.
Tony also tells a few awesome stories about the old villa he used to flat in on Takapuna Beach that later became the Lakehouse Arts Centre and his involvement in creating the Lakehouse Trust to retain the house for the future.
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Tawhai Rickard is a contemporary New Zealand Maori artist born in Gisborne, Tūranganui-a-Kiwa, of Ngati Porou decent.
He is influenced by the epic history of his country Aotearoa, New Zealand and its historical interrelationship between Māori and Pakeha to the present day. His work reflects the social, historical and cultural landscapes of Aotearoa - Korerō, commentary, history and stories about our journey as New Zealand.
In this episode Tawhai talks about his journey from growing up in Tairāwhiti, Gisborne, rarely seeing artwork representing his Maori culture, to becoming an artist himself. He reflects back on his first experiences drawing and how some of those ideas have been carried through to his art practice today and how he creates work to honour his Maori culture, to lift it up and to make as much noise visually as he can. Encouraging people to stop and take notice.
We discuss his interest in pop art, music, TV and movies, British and NZ pop culture, figurative paintings from his ancestorial wharenui or house and our bicultural foundations and how these things create fuel for his art practice.
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Esther is a photographic artist living in Greytown in the Wairarapa. She has had a long successful photographic career firstly in wedding photography then in project and portrait photography. Her personal fine art photographic practice has become her main focus since 2020.
At her core Esther loves to illuminate others and give them their opportunity to shine.
She is passionate about giving people a voice and is interested in the emotion and story behind a work. It's important to her to balance this with her desire to create, experiment and explore, and to be curious - in a less conventional way.
Esther and I talk about how and why she loves to work with people, her wedding photography days and how this career shaped her skills, techniques and influenced her future photographic practice. She shares her experimental creative process and some of the tricks, techniques and tools she uses for achieving such unique photographs. We explore some of her other collections and the meaning behind the work she does.
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Naomi Azoulay is a middle-eastern-born, Auckland-based award-winning portrait and mixed media collage artist.
Naomi creates captivating, bold, intimate and vibrant mixed media collages and oil paintings. She aims to tackle social justice issues, decolonise the art space and expand the definition of beauty. She is passionate about exploring the female gaze and probing traditional gender roles. With over three decades of experience in education, Naomi has also earned a reputation as an innovative and dynamic art educator.
Naomi talks about her childhood in Israel, why she came to emigrate to Aotearoa 22 years ago and how the Israel-Hamas War of today has affected her. We chat about how she discovered the art of collage, when she came to have the confidence to call herself as an artist and why she thinks collage is such a great medium.
We dive deep into some of her collages and paintings and why she likes to portray women in all of her work, how she manages and promotes the 2 sides to her art practice and the amazing work she does in community art education. And she has some great perspectives on being creative, learning new art skills, buying local, the merits and magic of intuitive collage, supporting her community and applying for funding - to name a few!
https://www.instagram.com/naomi_azoulay_collage/
https://www.instagram.com/naomi_azoulay_art/
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Oliver Cain is an English born artist who emigrated to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2013. His work covers a wide range of topics and materials and takes many forms from ceramics to sculpture to installation and painting. His artworks push the boundaries between conceptualism and post-pop art.
As a proud member of the queer community, Oliver uses his work to examine, question and criticise the relationships between gender, (homo) sexuality, and society's misconceptions about these themes. His work initiates a conversation between avant-garde artistic production and human perceptions about queer sexuality.
Ollie and I have such an inspiring, honest chat in this episode. He reflects on how he dealt with being gay growing up in the UK, how he navigated through this time and how the decision in his second year at Unitec to express his queer identity through his art gave his work 'wings' and 'heart'. He's passionate about creating work that engages and questions people, making people stop, engage, react and think.
We talk in depth about a number of his provocative and possibly confronting works, his fascinating project where he placed a banana in urinals at international galleries and how he has used toilets and other everyday objects as vessels for communicating ideas and telling stories. He comments on the challenges of being an artist in New Zealand and why he has decided to move back to Europe.
This episode is like no other and a fascinating insight into conceptual art and the life and work of Oliver Cain. https://www.instagram.com/olivercainartist
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Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Joshua Davison is a contemporary artist from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, with a diverse body of work in both realism portraiture and sculptural painting.
Josh is a self taught artist who has developed personal techniques which he uses throughout his impasto and sculptural paintings such as a methodical palette knife technique, layering MDF like a topographical map, making moulds and piping modelling paste.
Joshua talks about how he strives for originality and how experimenting with different media and techniques, stretching his own canvases, making his own frames and making the tools he uses contributes to finding his own unique style. We have a very candid conversation about dropping out of Elam Art School after one year and how he still went on to become a full time successful artist. We talk about pricing and the big prices his work is commanding and his so called 'failure' at his first Art in the Park event and what he learnt from that. He shares parts of his unique painting process and his connection to realism, surrealism and portraiture as well as nature.
Josh has some great tips and perspectives as a young emerging artist. I'm sure you'll find his story very inspiring. https://www.instagram.com/j.davison
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Tanja McMillan, a.k.a Misery, is an Australian born painter, sculptor, photographer and mural artist living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Her creative reach is extensive, ranging from highly crafted fine art paintings and wall art to animation and fashion.
Tanja’s work, under the name Misery, graces streets and galleries in Aotearoa NZ and around the world. She has exhibited in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Melbourne, Taiwan, Berlin, Los Angeles, California, New York, Hawai'i and Paris and has collaborated with New Zealand and international designers and brands such as Blunt, Casio Baby-G, Telecom, Serato and Anna Sui of New York.
In this episode we hear about how Tanja entered the graffiti world as a teenager, how she connected with her grafitti crew TMD and how her artist name Misery came about. Tanja talks about her collaborations with brands and gives some great advice on how to get yourself out there, share ideas and show the world what you do.
Tanja dives deep into Miseryland. She shares how the characters and worlds she creates develop and what (or who) they represent and why she often personifies plants and objects in her work. She tells a wonderful story about the making of and responses to her 2 bronze sculptures in Karangahape Road. We chat about how deadlines work for her, a week in the life of Misery and how she juggles motherhood and her creative brain. https://www.instagram.com/miseryland/
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Sierra Roberts is an artist from Wānaka, in the South Island of New Zealand. She creates bold, statement portraits exploring perceptions of beauty and the female experience.
Her travels through Australia, Asia, South, Central and Northern America have strongly influenced her art, inspiring her to share and celebrate the beauty she has experienced, challenging her work beyond traditional portraiture.
We talk about Sierra's experience studying fine arts in Utah and at Whitecliffe in Auckland, how she eventually decided to leave before completing her full degree and why she didn't pick up a paintbrush for the next 4 years. We discuss a pivotal moment in Mexico that triggered her creativity and passion for art, how she found her artistic groove again in 2018 and how she went on to become a full time painter in 2019. Sierra shares her approach to marketing and social media and how 75% of her 2023 sales were through Instagram.
She shares the ideas behind her Frida, Taonga and Coming Home collections, why some of her portraits have their mouths cut off or are painted from the back without seeing the face, how many of her paintings are based around herself in some way and the ways she expresses a sense of belonging and place through her paintings.https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-sierra-roberts
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Angela Rowe is an artist, writer, curator and mentor based in Whangārei. Her creative practice includes storytelling across performance, installation, photography, drawing, and textile works.
Angela is interested in the future of arts in Aotearoa and how to create a more sustainable arts industry. She founded Creative Practice, a collaborative mentoring program designed to empower artists and creatives with a focus on resilience and community support.
I loved hearing stories about Angela's grandparents and how they have influenced her and her practice. Angela talks about her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Whitecliffe in 2004, why she returned 15 years later to complete her Masters, and her final installation and performance show 'I used to find dead insects in your pockets' . We talk about her Selfie series of works first created in lockdown and still ongoing, where she shifts the photographic image of herself to pencil on repurposed hand died cloth and then embeds the image and line with black thread.
We have such a wonderful chat about the real, sometimes challenging, life of an artist: applying for funding; maintaining multiple income streams; creating work that you're passionate about but might not be able to be sold easily; selling work without being represented by a gallery; the merits of entering art awards and so much more. This is a great listen with many tips and opportunities for artists.
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Jamie Chapman is a painter based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. He was born in the United Kingdom and immigrated with his family to New Zealand when he was 2 years old, settling and growing up in Whangarei.
Jamie talks about his figurative oil paintings and how they have evolved over the years into different 'series' of portrait works. He shares how he likes to "shift it up" and challenge himself to loosen up in his painting process, partly because he doesn't like to get bored and partly because he enjoys exploring new ideas and techniques. He loves to surprise himself and the viewers of his work and the he likes the idea that people coming to his shows might be wondering what they will see from him this time.
Jamie is passionate about paint as a medium and the process of painting. He takes us through his different painting approaches and talks about the magic he feels when leaving his own paint marks in his work.
We discuss his side hustle business The Picture Hanger where he curates and hangs work for galleries and private clients, which he finds inspiring and a good way to get out of the studio and interact with other art lovers.
Jamie shows his work at Foenander Gallery in Auckland and Boyd Dunlop Gallery in Napier. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-jamie-chapman
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You can support the show with a small monthly donation https://www.buzzsprout.com/1713946/support
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Sofia Athineou is a full-time artist of Greek heritage, based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Her practice is mainly in glass, a medium she sees as having many sensual and optical qualities.
Surrounded by the dramatic bush of Auckland’s west coast Waitakere Ranges, it’s easy to see the inspiration behind Sofia Athineou’s incredible glass sculptures. These pieces represent vitality through light, texture and colour and appear to blend into the ever-changing landscape. Elemental forces such as wind, fire and water and the constant movement and natural patterns of these elements are captured in her sculptures.
Sofia talks about how she adjusted to NZ life when she immigrated here at the age of 23 from Greece, how she became a full time artist after raising her children, the work she has exhibited at sculpture shows around Aotearoa NZ, the challenges she faces of living on a single artist income, pricing her work and the many hats she has to wear to keep the money coming in.
She takes us step by step through her glass casting process using open cast moulds and explains why she prefers not to polish her work.https://www.instagram.com/sofiaathineou
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You can support the show with a small monthly donation https://www.buzzsprout.com/1713946/support
Learn more about the podcast
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Andrew J. Steel is a New Zealand contemporary artist with a passion for story telling. Over his career he has worked across the mediums of public art, private interiors, fine artwork, letterpress, land, body, photography and digital works.
"An artists role is to live a remarkable life and report back on it in their work." says Andrew. Andrew makes art to learn more about people & the world, then he retells these stories in his work to offer perspective and peace - both for himself and for others seeking comfort through the arts.
In this episode we talk about a traumatic event in Andrew's childhood that has had an impact on how he lives his life and his art practice. We discuss the collaborative way he worked for the first part of his career and the route he took from skateboarding, graffiti and street art to full time artist with a science degree thrown in. Andrew shares his beautiful process of working with clients to come up with stories for him to creatively respond to, his fascination for hieroglyphics and the art of story telling and how he developed such an entrepreneurial approach to his art career.https://www.instagram.com/andrewj.steel
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Tanya Blong was our very first guest on the Creative Matters podcast and lucky for us she is back 96 episodes later to talk about her artistic journey since March 2021 and how her practice has developed and evolved.
In this episode we start by talking about the Creative Matters podcast, how it has evolved over the last 2 and a half years since I first interviewed Tanya in episode 1 and my goals for the podcast going forward.
Tanya talks about her upcoming solo show State of Leisure at Allpress Studio in Tāmaki Makaurau which opens on November 2nd and runs until December 1st. She shares her ideas around leisure and being idle, the inspiration for her titles, how music she's listening to or what she's reading can influence the narratives that develop in her paintings. She describes her approach to colour and the 'haloing' process in her paintings and how she almost wants to "halo the halo" and we discuss ways Tanya has got through creative block and grown the business side of her art practice.https://www.instagram.com/tanyablong/
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You can support the show with a small monthly donation https://www.buzzsprout.com/1713946/support
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Julie and Michael Freeman are award winning hyperrealistic pastel artists living in Auckland NZ.
Julie is currently creating work with the intent of realism beyond the photograph. Her subject matter is varied, from coastal and nautical to the natural fauna and flora of NZ, but if asked she would say she has an affinity with painting animals.
Michael’s subjects range from his current series of still life paintings featuring iconic New Zealand toys and objects, through to landscapes featuring old weathered sheds, barns, railway carriages, windows and doors, old locks, and farm animals (mainly cows) – all inspired by his photographic trips along New Zealand's roads with his lovely wife Julie.
It was such a pleasure to meet Julie and Michael on a gorgeous Muriwai day. We discuss the similarities and differences between their practices and creative process, the ins and outs of sharing a studio space and teaching together as a couple and the different ways they like to work. They talk about how they have built and connect to their audience on an international level and how the competitions they enter and pastel societies they belong to contribute so much to their success and artistic careers. They both demystify the pastel process and make really interesting comment about how hyper realist artists and pastel artists are viewed by some within the hierarchy of the art world.https://www.instagram.com/michaelfreemanpastelartist https://www.instagram.com/juliefreemanartist/
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Toby Raine is a contemporary artist living in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. He has a distinctive approach to his work, moving large quantities of oil paint across the surface of a canvas with confident strokes, creating expressive, emotive, gestural paintings.
Toby spent eleven years studying at Elam School of Fine Art in Auckland, beginning in 2006 when he was 23-years-old. Over the next decade he would go on to complete a degree, then a masters, then a doctorate in Fine Arts.
In this episode Toby talks about how he chooses his subjects, how he achieves the delicate balance between representation and abstraction and how his paintings reflect his personality. We discuss his journey to being represented by dealer galleries in Australia as well as in NZ, why he doesn't like his paintings to be described as portraits and how he communicates with the viewer through his titles.https://www.instagram.com/tobyrainepainting
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You can support the show with a small monthly donation https://www.buzzsprout.com/1713946/support
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Matthew Browne is an abstract painter living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Born in London UK, he relocated to New Zealand in 1991.
Matthew's striking geometric paintings feature sharp lines with bold, experimental colour palettes. His process starts in exploring formal relationships in colour and form and develops greater complexity as the work progresses. He has been making and showing paintings and sculptures for more than 40 years.
After many years of teaching visual arts in both the community and tertiary sectors, Matthew founded his own art school Browne School of Art in 2013.
We have a wonderful chat and I Ioved welcoming Matthew into my studio at Muriwai. Matthew talks about how he wants to make paintings that have an untroubled aspect to them in response to the crazy cacophony of everyday life, and for people to feel a moment of solace when viewing and experiencing his work. He shares how his work and process shifted from more figurative, externally motivated paintings over the years to abstract and more internally driven expressions.
**We discuss his yearning for a sense of balance, order and stillness which comes about in his current paintings through the relationships of colour. He uncovers the mysteries behind his painting titles, why he recoils when people describe his work as hard edged, why form and shape is so important to him in his work and why he loves to paint on linen and sometimes leave it exposed as the first point of reaction, the bouncing off point.
And of course we talk about how and why he founded Browne School of Art.**https://gowlangsfordgallery.co.nz/artists/226-matthew-browne/
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Fleur Woods is a contemporary fibre artist based in the beautiful rural village of Upper Moutere (near Nelson, New Zealand) She is surrounded by vineyards, hop farms, orchards and country gardens - it makes sense that her work is largely inspired by nature.
Fleur describes her style of her work as contemporary stitched paintings. Coming to stitch as a mixed media artist she has taught herself a variety of embroidery techniques which generally don't follow traditional embroidery but beautifully serve the kind of mark making she loves to create.
From so called "Nana craft" to discovering your "creative soul". Fleur talks in this episode about her love of nature, connecting people, encouraging creativity and inspiring others. She shares how she came to be a full time artist starting with mixed media and paint, how she discovered embroidery through her love of mark making, how vintage fabrics resonated so much with her but she was never sure why until later in her practice. She talks how connected she feels with past generations of women and how she feels stitching is part of her DNA, part of her "maker genes".
We chat about her entrepreneurial approach to her business and art practice which includes creating and selling beautiful personally assembled kits and textile treasure packs, teaching workshops around NZ and in Australia and building a hugely engaged community and audience across the world through social media. AND she tells us about her most recent exciting project and new baby, her own book The Untamed Thread, which is out next month.https://www.fleurwoodsart.com/
Ngā mihi, thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Abstract artist Evan Woodruffe lives in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. He is a well known, much loved figure in the NZ art world.
Evan is an artist with many threads to his practice. Most of his time is spent making work for exhibitions, projects, and commissions. He's also the “product specialist” for Gordon Harris, running workshops and writing editorial for their art stores. He is one of six Global Brand Ambassadors for both Schmincke Artist Colours and da Vinci Artist Brushes in Germany. He teaches at Browne School of Art in Auckland and he is an active advocate for the visual arts, a collector, awards judge, fabric lover and writer.
In this episode we talk about his parents' art store Studio Art Supplies in Takapuna, Auckland, which they started in 1973 and how this has influenced the work he does now. He shares how he began his adult life as a musician then later decided to study fine art, completing a BA in fine art at AUT and then switching to another art school Elam School of Fine Arts to complete his MFA, and how this changed his art practice. We discuss what makes a good abstract painting, what he wants his paintings to do to the viewer, why he loves to paint big and how he builds a painting starting with collage using fabrics from his favourite NZ menswear tailor Strangely Normal (who also make all the gorgeous shirts he wears) and sometimes finishing with found materials (such as fur from the vintage throw on his bed.)
He talks about his work as a brand ambassador and educator and he gives us a lovely insight into his and his partner Jeannie's growing art collection.
Ngā mihi, thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Sean Beldon is a South African born, Auckland-based artist best known for his large New Zealand landscape paintings. His style is mostly painterly with a modernist feel.
For more than a decade, Sean has been photographing and painting landscapes from the far north to the deep south of Aotearoa. He finds his inspiration on road trips throughout the country and only paints places he has been. Even though his compositions will be quite abstract at times, the scene always originate with what he sees through the camera’s viewfinder – his primary canvas - and every painting has a story to tell.
Sean is a wonderful storyteller. In this episode he talks from the heart about his ancestry and how that connects to his current work, the story behind his use of and connection to clay oxen and how he incorporates them into his art practice. He describes his painting style and how he doesn't think of himself as an abstract artist despite his work being quite abstract. He speaks of his appreciation of colour, how he makes his own colours, his incredible attention to tonal qualities and how he sees colour almost as a form of communication.https://www.instagram.com/seanbeldon/
Ngā mihi, thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Jasmine Kroeze is an an artist and textile designer living in Papamoa near Mt Maunganui. With a background in the fashion and textile design industry, Jasmine fell into the art world through painting large scale murals as a passion project and now she applies the same creative process to her original paintings and digital artworks.
Jaz enjoys working with commercial clients and interior and product designers and she has collaborated with many well known companies such as Kathmandu and Bolt of Cloth.
Her designs have been printed on stationery and textiles, installed in private homes and commercial interiors and painted on large scale exterior murals.
This is an inspirational story about a motivated, passionate woman who has created a highly successful creative business as well as a beautiful art practice. We talk about the many ongoing projects she is involved with from licensing her work and writing and designing an Ebook about artists' overcoming creative block - to her Etsy Interior Mock Ups store and her reels on Instagram showing examples of ways to encourage play in your creative practice.
We talk about how Jaz manages her social media presence so expertly and how as a self confessed introvert she is so comfortable with videoing herself and creating perosnal content for her loyal audience. Both Jaz and I buzzed about our chat for some time afterwards and I'm sure you'll feel the same after listening.https://www.instagram.com/jasmine.kroeze/
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Elliot Love is a contemporary artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. His hyper realistic paintingsdepict cars from the 80's and 90's era set within a city's still and lifeless urban environment.
Elliot works in oil on canvas, often on an unusually small scale. Many of the cars he paints are reaching the end of their lifespan - several of the cars he has painted no longer exist. With this in mind, Elliot looks to convey not just a moment in time, but the passing of an era.
Elliot talks about how he gave up art at school in year 13 and went on to study PE at Uni for one year before realising this wasn't the direction he wanted to go. Viewing NZ artist Tim Wilson's gallery in Queenstown 5 years ago at the age of 20 was a pivotal moment for Elliot and a major catalyst in his decision to become a full time professional artist, which he has been ever since.
He shares how he relies on instinct when choosing cars and urban scenes to paint, how he organises his compositions, what he chooses to leave out or add and what he loves to capture. He reflects on how he best uses his time, how he feels about social media and how he stays present. When asked of his dreams for his future he simply says "the next painting session is the most important thing in my practice."https://www.instagram.com/elliotloveart/
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Linda Va’aelua is a full time visual artist and designer of Samoan Scottish heritage. She grew up in the West Auckland suburb of Te Atatu South and is based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.
Linda straddles the worlds of digital graphic design and fine arts. Her aim is always to bring unique perspectives to the creative landscape. Her recent work explores her identity and mixed heritage through abstract maunga forms and malu patterns.
Linda strives to provoke emotions and challenge conventional perspectives. Each piece she creates is an invitation for the audience to delve into a world where the norm begs to be understood then challenged. From abstract compositions that explore the depths of human emotions to intricate digital collages that merge analog and thought, her artwork tells stories that resonate with diverse audiences within Pasifika and beyond.
We have an inspiring chat about how Linda studied design after leaving school and became an art director for a magazine at the young age of 25 and how years later she started painting and created a virtual show of the first works she produced, marking the beginning of her full time art practice. Linda talks about her incredibly busy, successful last 2 years where she has had 3 solo shows and more than 12 group shows, written and designed a book and curated a show and is now working on a joint show with her sister Alison - all at the same time as being a dedicated mum to 4 children. https://www.instagram.com/lindavaaeluaartist/
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Frankie Meaden is a textile artist and painter from Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. She makes giant embroidery artwork from recycled materials.
Frankie’s art is almost always botanical, with her large-scale sculptural pieces challenging the scale at which embroidery is usually seen. Frankie tells the story of the rich biodiversity of our world using colourful rope and recycled street banners in a way that is impactful, beautiful and sustainable.
We talk about how Frankie came to work on such a large scale, how she sources the recycled materials she uses and the joys and the challenges of creating a large scale public installation. We talk about her process of making these beautiful pieces in her studio, how she connected with her 2 Auckland galleries and her dreams for her business Beautifully Frank.https://www.beautifullyfrank.co.nz/
https://www.instagram.com/beautifullyfrank/
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Mandy Rodger is a contemporary abstract artist based in Auckland, New Zealand.
Mandy's first career was in law and in 2014 she began studying painting and drawing at Browne School of Art. Since 2017 her art practice has been her main focus and she hasn't looked back..
Mandy's abstract paintings are characterised by fluid moves and sweeping energy flows made up of spontaneous dynamic gestures. She is motivated by the way painting allows her intuition to come to the forefront of logic. She intertwines embodied subjectivity, emotions and senses with intentional paint application. She explores colour, space and the materiality of the paint itself.
We discuss why and how she ended up moving away from law into making art, how entering art awards and school art shows have helped her develop her career and build her audience and her beautiful gestural painting process. Mandy speaks fondly about her positive experience studying visual arts part time over 4 years at Browne School of Art in Auckland which kick started her artist career, her latest independent group show at Allpress Studios and how she approaches the business side of her practice. https://www.mandyrodger.co.nz/
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Matt is a landscape painter living on the North Shore, in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
Much of Matt’s work is inspired by a love of New Zealand’s landscapes and coastlines, which is reflected in dramatic compositions and depicted with vivid colour and extraordinary attention to detail. He has a fascination with the relationship between colour, light and form and how these are perceived by the eye.
Matt's career began in high level sportsmanship where he represented New Zealand in Waterpolo at Commonwealth and World Championship level, complemented with a degree in Sport and Recreation. Straight after this degree he went on to study visual arts at Whitecliffe College of Fine Arts in Tāmaki Makaurau. He has been working full time as an artist ever since.
In the episode we have a great chat about his journey from high achieving sportsman to full time artist, his connection to the sea, tramping and the outdoors and how that translates in his paintings, his painting style and process and the laborious screen printing process he sometimes uses in his practice. He discusses how commissions make up 50% of his practice and how he approaches each commission.
https://mattpayne.co.nz/
https://www.instagram.com/matt_payne_artist/
https://www.parnellgallery.co.nz/artists/matt-payne/
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Sam Mitchell is a visual artist based in the north west of Auckland, well known for her artworks painted in acrylic on perspex in reverse and watercolour paintings.
A sassy and subversive bricolage of rescued materials, painting media and eccentric imagery are utilised by Sam to explore the potency of pictures.
This is a fascinating look into an amazing artist's life and work. There are lots of little gems and interesting perspectives in this episode which I'm sure you will take away and think more about. We have a wonderfully long chat covering everything from Sam's early work in art administration, her experiences at Hungry Creek and Elam Art Schools, her fascinating painting on perspex process, her watercolour and ceramic painting parts of her art practice, her 7 residencies and the value she places upon these kind of opportunities.
We discuss her opinion of entering art awards, her view of the current art world in Aotearoa, her views on her work and process being used in many NZ secondary schools as an artist model and how she thinks her work reflects her personality. And so much more! www.sammitchellartist.com
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Gavin Chai, born in 1997 in Malaysia, is a figurative painter and artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
He specialises in the traditional technique of oil painting on wooden panels, linen and canvases and paints the world through a subtle introverted gaze. He captures everyday contemporary experiences through his careful composition and clever treatment of colour, light, and shadow. His world is idyllic yet often bound by loneliness, and colourful yet often tinged with a certain sadness and anxiety.
We talk about how his sense of belonging and home is often recreated in his paintings, perhaps as a reaction to moving countries from Borneo to NZ at the age of 14. He shares insights into his partly autobiographical Interior series which depicts everyday domestic life and his Strange Paradise series which has more of a dreamlike surreal feel. We talk about the way he sometimes makes his own paint using powdered pigments and linseed oil, how he has thought of himself as an artist since he was a boy, his perception of dealer gallerist and artist relationships and he speaks about his upcoming solo show at Föenander Galleries in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and some of the major works in his show. https://www.gavinchai.com/
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Marcus Hipa is a Niuean artist born and raised in Alofi, Niue Island, currently living in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa NZ. Drawing, painting and carving are some of the mediums he utilises to explore and share insights of his people's history and culture.
Marcus moved to Aotearoa New Zealand at age 17, attending the Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland, completing both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
His work celebrates the values, traditions, progress and sense of community and sheds light on social and political issues affecting the Pacific people in the Pacific region and in Aotearoa.
We talk about Marcus's experience at Elam School of Fine Art, Auckland University at age 18 not long after moving to Aotearoa from Niue. He discusses the gestural, intuitive, graphic, lineal and figurative aspects of his work and the ways he enjoys to make. He dives deep into 3 of his artworks created in 2022: Petals Adrift; Heroes Scrape Coconuts and Smoke Signals.https://www.instagram.com/marcushipa.art
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Dagmar Dyck is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, art educator and social justice advocate. She is a New Zealander of Tongan and German descent, living in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.
Dagmar graduated from Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland in 1995 and was the first woman of Tongan descent to do so. She has spent the last 30 years regularly exhibiting nationally and internationally with her works being held in significant public and private collections in New Zealand.
Her prints and paintings are inspired by her cultural heritage and explore the textile practices of Tonga.
We talk about her experiences and views of high school art education and the current state of art education in NZ. She speaks of the communities she is connected to, how Pacifica artists have had more impact on the NZ art scene in the last 20 years and how these artists inspire her and influence her practice. She shares how her identity is a central part of her practice and we have a great discussion about her ideas around the use of cultural symbols in art and cultural appropriation.https://www.dagmardyck.com/
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Janet Hafoka is a visual artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, working primarily in the medium of photography. Her art practice focuses on transience and time passing.
Her current work explores both the uncertainty and beauty in the short lived. The centuries old fascination with the ‘golden hour’ is referenced, known as the brief period after sunrise and before sunset when the sun casts a golden light.
With decaying leaves and seed pods illuminated, falling and in flight, her current images seek to breathe life into nature past its prime. Through this process her work highlights value where existence is temporary. It also questions how we depict and remember that which is no longer.
Janet shares her experience returning to her passion for the arts and completing a degree in visual arts in her early 40s. We discuss how she discovered her love of photography, how light, skies, movement and decay influence her work and her magpie qualities and love of collecting things.
https://janethafoka.com/
https://www.instagram.com/janethafoka
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Neville Parker has been a full time sculptor and illustrator since 1995 and he opened his first art gallery in 1996.
Since then he has had 7 more distinctly different galleries including 1 in Auckland, 2 in Marlborough and 4 in the Nelson/Tasman region. He has represented more than 400 artists from a variety of disciplines in Aotearoa. His most recent Gallery, Church House Gallery in Motueka, opened in April this year.
Neville is interested in helping our creative community members with a desire for a sustainable career in the visual arts to not just survive but to thrive.
He is the host of the ARTWONK podcast - an art marketing show for visual artists and crafts people that unravels the problems and pitfalls of bringing products to market.
We have a super interesting chat about how Neville went from the corporate world to becoming an artist and opening his first art gallery in Lorne Street, central Auckland initially as a way to show his work. He talks about how he has benefitted from artist communities and mentors, building relationships, as well as working collaboratively and holistically. We talk about his approach to the art market, his opinion of craft art verses fine art and his recommendations to artists for approaching a Gallery with their work.
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Sean Hill is a Kiwi Samoan emerging visual artist from Auckland, currently based in New Plymouth. His art practice is influenced by graffiti as well as his heritage, everyday life and the natural environment and includes painting outdoors, graphic design, installation, paintings and prints on clothing.
As Gallerist Scott Lawrie says " Sean Hill is one of those rare discoveries - an emerging artist who was ‘doing his own thing’ while inventing a new visual language at the same time."
In this episode Sean shares his experience studying visual arts for 4 years at AUT and how he felt he didn't find his style until well after his uni days. We talk about the elements within his abstract paintings and what they represent, how he feels about showing his work in group shows, his connections with the amazing Bradley Lane Project, Auckland's longest running street art festival in Glen Innes, Tāmaki, and we discuss the amazing 8m long painting he applied directly to the wall of the Scott Lawrie Gallery and what he gained from that experience.
https://www.seananomaly.com/
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Auckland based Aimée Ralfini is an artist, design director and the founder of Art Ache.
As an artist Aimée works in the digital space, collaborating with other artists to create “campaigns” of their work.
Art Ache believes art is the most potent form of communication and artists are the litmus paper of society. It aims to make art and culture part of the everyday conversation and aims to assist intellectual and creative development, for the betterment of the local community and national identity.
In this episode we talk about: how she loves to poke the bear; how and why she founded Art Ache; Aimée's techniques for drawing people into the Auckland art scene and engaging with art; her marketing, writing, presenting, promoting and curating approaches; how she handles the trolls and her art activation campaigns throughout Aotearoa. https://www.instagram.com/aimee_ralfini
https://artache.com/
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
UK born painter Neal Palmer immigrated to New Zealand in 1998 and has been painting full time ever since.
Through the exploration of the New Zealand environment he has discovered subjects that evoke strong emotional responses such as Harakeke (NZ flax). He is inspired by the natural forms, composition, spaces and shapes, as well as nostalgic references his botannical subjects provide.
Neal blends visual languages within his practice, exploring how the languages of colour, texture, pattern and abstract forms can inform and cross-reference each other. He likes to develop work that uses the illusion of a photographic ‘depth of field’ to allow images to slip in and out of pictorialism and abstraction through shifting the viewer’s conscious reactions to colour, composition, and form.
In this episode we have a lovely conversation about how Neal found himself in NZ and how his new environment informed his art practice. He shares his gilding and painting processes and we talk about his latest artist residency and body of work created at Auckland Botanic Gardens. In the last 25 years Neal has had 27 solo or joint shows. We talk about his solo exhibition Thorny Issues, which was created in response to the Covid pandemic and lockdowns. https://nealpalmer.co.nz/
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Richard Penn is a South African artist living and working in Auckland, Aotearoa.
His work examines the intersection of scientific and artistic vision, using scale and detail as metaphoric devices to reflect on our invested positions as viewers.
He works across various media, including painting, drawing, sculpture and animation, exploring the relationship between visual and conceptual abstraction.
More recently Richard has worked exclusively with clay and ceramics and in 2022 he was the recipient of The Premier NZ Portage Ceramic Award
In this episode we discuss his upcoming exhibition in May at Public Record and a fascinating collaborative exhibition he is curating at Depot Artspace in October, his journey from SA to NZ and how he has found his community here,
And we meet the glorious Artu Peatoo, a collaborative persona between Richard and his wife Robyn Penn, who is also an artist.http://richardpennart.com/
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Helen Ollivier is a painter living in West Auckland. She graduated from Elam School of Fine Arts in 1997 and since then has had 6 solo exhibitions, participated in group shows and been included in several NZ art publications.
In the last few years, she has been busy running art programmes for kids and raising four children of her own, which has left her little time and headspace for her own work. Recently, she has embarked on a 100-day challenge in order to find her voice as an artist and is loving the opportunity to become a full time artist again.
Her latest works are landscapes with a strong compositional element. She is interested in rhythm and movement and the contrasts of texture, colour and light. Her work has a dream-like quality, combining a unique sense of movement and stillness.
Helen and I talk about how she came to be represented by a dealer gallery in her second year at Elam School of Fine Arts not long after leaving high school and how amazingly she is still connected to this gallery 25 years later. She speaks openly about prioritising her art practice, imposter syndrome, self doubt and the joy she has found rediscovering her art practice after a 5 year hiatus.
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Sefton Rani works out of Piha, a coastal settlement west of Auckland. He describes himself as a self taught maker who uses paint as his material of choice to create modern Pacific art.
Paint skins are collaged or simply allowed to float as a sculptural object. He encourages the apparent ageing of his work surfaces to show the lineage and journey of both the materials and of the migrant Pacific people whose artistic traditions strongly influence his work.
Sefton is of Cook Island heritage. His work enables him to explore his “Pacificness” and navigate his Pasifika identity within the broader context of New Zealand.
In this episode we talk about how the February 2023 cyclone has affected Sefton's studio and how this event may influence his next body of work; how he sees his work as “industrial tapa” which is influenced by the marks, patterns, motifs and forms of traditional tapa, carving, tattoo, weaving and tivaevae; the value he places on community within his art practice; his goals to be represented in galleries around the world and the lenses that have impacted his work. https://www.seftonrani.com/
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Rebecca Hazard is a young emerging artist currently based in Tãmaki Makaurau Auckland, working primarily with oil paints.
**Rebecca's current work references raw meat to investigate our tangibility within existence and her own social concerns, offering the viewer a moment of mindfulness and philosophical reflection.
Her oil paintings are large scale with a limited palette of vibrant colour. Although the works are fundamentally representational there is also a distinct abstract, surrealist and sometimes geometric feel to her paintings.**
Rebecca talks about her decision not to attend an art school after leaving school; her expectation of and drive to becoming a practising artist from the age of 19; how reading philosophy, researching and writing influence her practice; the different ways viewers see and respond to her work; and what drives her to make the work she makes.
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Bonco, aka Paul Nathan, is a visual artist living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. He predominantly paints with oil on linen and sometimes makes sculpture and textiles.
https://www.boncosmos.com/
Bonco explores the language of geometric abstraction, signs and symbols and is interested in discovering the spiritual, through an investigation of the modernist grid and its variations.
In this episode we discuss the varied career Bonco had in the UK and America before studying at Elam School of Fine Arts and committing to a painting practice in 2017, the metaphors he uses in his work, how he feels his work doesn't really belong in Aotearoa and his overarching determination to do some good in the world.This episode is generously supported by Creative Communities Scheme, Auckland
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Sarah Oostendorp is a contemporary emerging artist from Southland Aotearoa and currently living in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. Her art practice focuses on the state of mind whilst in the midst of creating labour-intensive drawings of repeated circular movements using paint.
Viewers are provoked to create their own narrative in the drawing, as figures, landscapes and textures begin to appear amongst the circles.
Sarah talks from the heart about how her unusual upbringing in a small rural town in Southland and her parents (who are outsider artists) have influenced the way she works and the work she creates, an "out of this world" experience she had in her early twenties that has shaped her as a person and an artist, her fascination for drawing circles, and how her practice is essential in helping her deal with change, her emotions and her general well being. Sarah's story is incredible and I have so much respect for her practice and her positive mindset. https://sarahoostendorpart.wixsite.com/website
This episode is generously supported by Creative Communities Scheme, Auckland.
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Olivia Asher is an emerging multidisciplinary artist currently studying at Auckland University's Elam School of Fine Arts.
In this episode Olivia shares her experiences as a second year student at Elam School of Fine Arts. We talk about how the school is set up, the application process, the papers and electives offered in different semesters, the recording and assessment systems, the critiques, what she finds inspiring and challenging about studying at Elam and what she her goals are for the future.
**Olivia's art practice currently focuses on the process of making rather than the resolved image, exploring her own vulnerability she allows her materials to dictate their outcome. Her subject matter blurs between whimsical and melancholy, often creating abstracted and figurative windows into her serene and flamboyant world.
Season 3 is generously supported by Creative Communities Scheme, Auckland.**
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Stephen Templer is an artist and illustrator previously from Wellington and now living in Kumeu, in the north west of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
His art practice includes street art, murals, graphic design, prop and concept design, illustration for children's books and community art and festival projects. His work has elements of humour and tells playful stories, connecting people to form shared worlds where they feel safe and free to express themselves.
Steve's paintings and illustrations offer a delicious escape into your own imagination with works that are like adventures with strong figurative hooks to take the imagination of the viewer on a personal voyage of discovery through old world mysticism and early nautical expeditions.
I loved meeting Steve today. We talk about his amazing art and illustration practice and how he is so compelled to tell stories. He shares his passion for tinkering, building things, historical clockwork technology, all things Havana, festivals and above all how he loves to create work that makes people smile and bring joy to the world. https://cargocollective.com/templer
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Virginia Woods-Jack is a British-born photographic artist and curator currently living and working in Aotearoa New Zealand. She is also the founder/curator of Women in Photography NZ & AU.
Virginia's art practice explores notions of connection to place, materiality and memory to consider relationships between the human and more-than-human worlds. By doing so, she aims to understand how memory informs the way people interact with the natural environment to highlight the importance of care in navigating the climate crisis. https://www.virginiawoodsjack.com/
Virginia talks about how she built connections in the UK and Aotearoa early in her career and developed her photographic art practice after uni, the ideas and intentions behind her art practice and her current project Women in Photography NZ and AU, a curated instagram page that celebrates female and non-binary photographers and the ideas behind their work.
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Logan Moffat is a painter who graduated from Elam School of Fine Arts with a BFA Honours in 2018. Since then he has been painting full time from his little studio in Pukekohe, in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.
Capturing the portraits of people through highly detailed oil paintings at uni began his interest and exploration of painting. These early studies of people have since evolved into paintings that attempt to communicate the portrait within, provoking thought with the viewer through their interaction of the large scale and often unconventional shaped canvases to offer the viewer a moment of pause and introspection away from the distractions and cacophony of everyday.
In 2018 he received The Adam Portraiture Award for his painting “Elam” (at that time the youngest recipient to receive this prestigious prize) and since then he has had three solo shows and a number of group shows in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland and Beijing.
We have a wonderful conversation about his inspirational painting practice, his fascination for the portrait and how he can play with it, his interest in virtual and augmented realities, how and why he creates irregularly shaped canvases and frames for some of his work and how he found being a fine art student at Elam School of Fine Arts.
This episode is generously supported by Creative Communities Scheme, Auckland.
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Grace Thresher is an artist, exhibition coordinator and marketing creative based in Port Waikato, New Zealand. She uses a variety of media in her work; black pen, photographic manipulation, photography, collage and paint, inspired by nature, and things around her.
Each mark is a testament to patience, detail, accuracy and precision. Aiming to create intricacies and dimensionalities, creations the viewer can get lost in.
Grace expresses the movement and feeling of nature’s ever evolving, breathing, changing splendour through her work. Her practice is driven by a love of line, shape and colour in aquatic and terrestrial life, an exploration of the patterns and shapes of the living world.
We have a great chat about Grace's time at Elam School of Fine Art straight out of high school, how she kick started her career after uni in a number of artistic fields, the art exhibitions she has set up, curated and marketed and her very first solo show this year.
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creativematterspodcast/
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Deborah Crowe is a visual artist working in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Her practice involves building 2D and 3D environments that explore architectural, spatial and environmental characteristics. The work often queries perceptions of space, place, human's impact on the environment, systems of containing the body and language frameworks.
Deborah's practice acknowledges its origins in woven construction and a strong interest in drawing, particularly collage. Her training as a weaver forms an overarching conceptual frame and the notion of weaving is embedded throughout the construction of imagery, fabrication of sculptural objects, installations and her approach to research.
2022 marks Crowe’s 40th year of exhibiting. Her practice has been shown in a variety of art and design contexts across and between disciplines. Exhibitions and projects have included textiles, works for the body, fashion design, object, drawing, digital print, photography, public art, sculpture, sound and installation.
It was such a pleasure to meet Deborah. She talks about her tertiary teaching career, her business Crowe Creative Art Services through which she delivers workshops for artists, mentoring and art consulting, her love of connecting with people and community and her stunningly varied art practice and process.
https://www.deborahcrowe.net/
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creative_matters
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Jessica Gurnsey is an 18 year old artist from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland currently based in Pōneke Wellington.
In 2022 Jess became the youngest ever recipient of the NZ Adam Portraiture Award with her self portrait Lady Day. Her paintings have also been recognised through the National Youth Art Awards where she was the overall winner in 2021 and the winner of her category in 2022, the Kumeu Arts Awards 2022 where she won her category and just recently it has been announced that her painting Shady at Midnight has been chosen to be part of the Wellington Regional Arts Review.
Jess and I have a lovely chat in my studio about how she has suddenly become a well known painter at such a young age and how that feels, how she sees her art practice, what inspires her and how she is capturing her life through her painting.
Her story will be super inspiring for young art students and emerging artists but also for more established and older artists - as a young woman Jess has a great fresh outlook on life and her career and I have no doubt in 10 years time we will be seeing even bigger things from this very special young artist.
http://www.jessicagurnsey.com
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creative_matters
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043
Scott Lawrie is an art lover, writer, entrepreneur and the owner and director of the Scott Lawrie Gallery in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
Scott Lawrie Gallery aims to connect hearts and minds when it comes to encountering and experiencing contemporary art. They proudly show a range of emerging, mid-career and Internationally-renowned artists from around the world, with a focus on New Zealand, Australia, and the wider Moana region.
In this episode Scott talks about his life, his passions, how he got to be the director and owner of an art gallery, his latest show and what he loves most about what he does.
I ask him the tough questions that I'm sure every artist would like to know. From whether he thinks a dealer gallery is the holy grail for every artist and how to approach a gallery to dealing with rejection and NFTs.
About your host:
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist and a teacher, with more than 30 years experience teaching in primary and intermediate schools across Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and as an art educator at Auckland Art Gallery Toi ō Tamaki.
As well as this podcast, Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers, visual art creative workshops and experiences for children and
public art projects and creative opportunities in the community.
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creative_matters
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043?see-all=reviews
Tiffany Singh is a social practice artist, specialising in socially engaged art outcomes. Her practice explores relationships & engagement between arts, culture, health & well-being. She was born in Aotearoa New Zealand of Indian and Pacific decent and is currently living in London UK.
Tiffany's work positions the arts as a vital contributor to health and well-being by utilising a fine art framework. Her interest in cultural preservation combined with an integrated social discourse has seen her use the arts as a vehicle for education, outreach & empowerment. https://tiffanysingh.com/
Tiffany talks about her priority to make work that facilitates others people to be seen and heard, how she highlights and empowers marginalised communities, how her buddhism beliefs and culture inform her practice and the ways she uses colour, space, materiality, sound and smell to connect and communicate. You can see process videos about the works we talk about in this episode on our blog
About your host:
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist and a teacher, with more than 30 years experience teaching in primary and intermediate schools across Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and as an art educator at Auckland Art Gallery Toi ō Tamaki.
As well as this podcast, Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers, visual art creative workshops and experiences for children and
public art projects and creative opportunities in the community.
Ngā mihi thanks for listening!
See the artist's work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
You can follow us on https://www.instagram.com/creative_matters
Please rate and review our show to help others find us https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/creative-matters/id1561034043?see-all=reviews
Lauren Kitts is a sculptor living in the Tasman area at the top of the South Island who works mostly in stone but also in bronze and wood.
Lauren has gained international recognition as a professional sculptor over the last 30 years. She exhibits on a regular basis and now has her own sculpture gallery in the Tasman area on her 13 acre property.
Her inspiration is the natural world where form and all its complexities abound. She explores the connection between the material world and the “unseen” and is concerned with the nature of uncertainty and man made climate change, which is expressed in many of her new works.
Lauren has a fascinating practice and I really loved hearing her story. We talk about her deep connection with stone and her passion for form, how she sources some of the stone she uses from a local river and Takaka Mountain, her stone carving process, the tools she uses and the endless source of inspiration she gets from positive and negative form.https://laurenkitts.co.nz/
https://www.instagram.com/laurenkitts/
https://www.facebook.com/people/Sculpture-by-Lauren-Kitts/
About your host: https://www.instagram.com/creative_matters/
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
Mandy is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years experience teaching in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ and as an art educator at Auckland Art Gallery.
As well as this podcast, Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers, visual art creative workshops and experiences for children and
public art projects and creative opportunities in the community.
Glen is a sculptor born and raised in the UK and now a NZ resident living in Napier. His contemporary sculptures are made from recycled materials, off-cuts from native timbers, recycled copper, brass and natural elements like stone and wood.
Being an innovative craftsman fits comfortably with Glen Colechin’s engineering background. With a past career in product design and production engineering, he has a sound foundation with the skills to drive his creative core.
He has recently transitioned to a full-time artist and focuses his creative energy on fulfilling his passion and connecting to his very loyal fan base.
Glen is an awesome guy with a great accent who is very passionate about what he does. We talk about his deep down need to design and create, how found materials inspire him and often form the starting point for his work, how popular his work has become almost overnight and how he endures depression and uses art to help him control it.
https://gcolechin.com/
https://www.facebook.com/GCsculptor/
https://www.instagram.com/gcsculptor/
About your host: https://www.instagram.com/creative_matters/
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
Mandy is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years experience teaching in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ and as an art educator at Auckland Art Gallery.
As well as this podcast, Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers, visual art creative workshops and experiences for children and
public art projects and creative opportunities in the community.
Elliot is a text based artist from Tāmaki Makaurau, currently living in Taranaki, who works in an interdisciplinary way. He incorporates painting, language, photography, installation and sculpture to discuss ideas of time, memory and ways we interpret our environment.
Elliot is interested in the art that can inform our lives and can be used as a filter or divining tool to see the world we inhabit with greater clarity and purpose.
I so enjoyed meeting Elliot and chatting to him in my studio. We discuss his amazing art career of nearly 20 years, how he works and connects ideas as an interdisciplinary artist, how he comes up with the words for his paintings and what they mean to him and his thoughts on exhibiting and selling his work.
http://www.elliotcollins.com/
https://www.instagram.com/the_elliot_collins/
About your host: https://www.instagram.com/creative_matters/
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
Mandy is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years experience teaching in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ and as an art educator at Auckland Art Gallery.
As well as this podcast, Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers, visual art creative workshops and experiences for children and
public art projects and creative opportunities in the community.
Valerie Auersperg, also known as Valerism and I Am Valerism, is an Austrian artist living in New Zealand. She creates acrylic paintings and digital drawings depicting pop-surreal scenes in a colourful, dream-like manner. Her work brings a smile and sense of wonder to the viewer.
Valerie explores the world inside and around herself, pairing the expected with the unusual. She focuses on themes such as memory (real and perceived), pop culture and mental health. Her work is a whimsical commentary on how our inner journeys, moods and situations are something that connects us.
Valerie is a self-taught artist who has worked in fashion, animation and advertising. Art has always been her passion and side hustle and finally she took the leap to become a full-time artist in 2020.
We have a really fun insightful chat about how Valerie processes her pregnancy through her work, the potentials of NFTs, the reasons why some of her characters are masked and how she uses symbolism and narratives to express herself. Like her work, this episode will make you smile I'm sure. Enjoy!
https://www.valerism.com/
About your host: https://www.instagram.com/creative_matters/
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
Mandy is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years experience teaching in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ and as an art educator at Auckland Art Gallery.
As well as this podcast, Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers, visual art creative workshops and experiences for children and
public art projects and creative opportunities in the community.
Welcome to Episode 56. This week I'm talking to Josh Lancaster. Josh paints the places and buildings New Zealanders know and love.
"I do this by trying to capture the essence of a familiar place" says Josh " be it someone’s dairy, beach, view, flat, island, road, takeaway shop, family bach or simply just the memory of one. These are the places we cherish - the iconic moments that make up who we are. They are an agent for fond memories, stories, feelings. Collectively we love these places for what they remind us of – they connect us."
In 2015 Josh made the decision to leave a highly successful career in advertising to follow his dream of being an artist and is now a full time painter living in the Hawkes Bay with his 3 sons Lennox, Archie and Spike.
We have a great (long!) chat about the intricacies of a creative career in advertising, how he made the challenging shift to becoming a full time artist, the NZ artists who inspire him, his connection to places, buildings, text and branding and why he doesn't like to add people to his paintings. https://www.facebook.com/joshlancasterpaintings About your host: https://www.instagram.com/creative_matters/
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years teaching in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ and as an art educator at Auckland Art Gallery.
As well as this podcast, Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers, visual art creative workshops and experiences for children and
public art projects and creative opportunities in the community.
Rachael Mayne is an artist with a passion for wild flower fields, gardens and all things floral, living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Rachael juggles a career as a clinical psychologist and a professional artist, as well as being the mother of 2 young children.
Rachael mainly paints impressionistic and abstract pieces and draws inspiration from the colours and forms surrounding us in nature. She loves to experiment with new colour palettes, as demonstrated in her vibrant abstract pieces. Rachael is also fascinated by the use of light, layers, and texture, and how this can be used to portray depth.
In this episode we discuss how she manages her clinical psychology practice and her art practice, how one of her 3 second reels on Instagram went viral with 7 million views which created 30,000 more followers, her love of colour and light and the experience of approaching an art gallery with her work for the very first time.
https://www.rachaelmayneart.com/ About your host: https://www.instagram.com/creative_matters/
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years teaching in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ and as an art educator at Auckland Art Gallery.
As well as this podcast, Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers, visual art creative workshops and experiences for children and
public art projects and creative opportunities in the community.
Artfull is an online gallery platform that bridges the gap between artists, galleries and art collectors in Aotearoa NZ. https://www.artfull.co.nz/
On Artfull you can discover original artworks from established and emerging Aotearoa New Zealand artists, connect with the story behind each piece, engage with art, culture and design and buy and collect New Zealand art - all in one place.
Artfull was founded by two passionate art lovers, Jessica Agoston Cleary and John Barnett, who believe that a life full of art is a meaningful, joyful, soulful, beautiful life. I could't agree more!
ARTFULL is more than selling art. It's also about the people and passion behind it.
Today I'm speaking with the co-founder, managing director, curator and editor of Artfull - Jessica Agoston Cleary.
About your host: https://www.instagram.com/creative_matters/
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
Mandy is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years teaching in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ and as an art educator at Auckland Art Gallery.
As well as this podcast, Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers, visual art creative workshops and experiences for children and
public art projects and creative opportunities in the community.
Lucy is a full time artist living in the small seaside town of Snells Beach, an hour North of Auckland, New Zealand, with her husband & 3 young children.
She studied Photography and Art at Elam School of Fine Art in Auckland NZ and spent 8 years running her own photography business (Lucy Rice Photography) before launching her painting career in early 2019.
Lucy works with acrylics & mixed media to create intuitive abstract pieces with glorious soft pastel and earthy tones. Her paintings play with the idea of physical & emotional landscapes as one. She is interested in the way colour balances each other on a painting & the healing properties of colour in a room. Natural earth elements, forms & metaphysics play a huge part in her work
Lucy is a beautiful person with a beautiful art practice and I'm sure you'll love listening to her story. She talks about her positive experience at art school, her passion for working with people through her photography practice, how she manages a healthy work/life balance as a full time artist with 3 young children and the ways she connects with her beloved Mum through her painting.
https://www.lucyrice.co.nz/
About your host: https://www.instagram.com/creative_matters/
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years teaching in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ and as an art educator at Auckland Art Gallery.
As well as this podcast, Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers, visual art creative workshops and experiences for children and
public art projects and creative opportunities in the community.
This is episode 52 and the first of a new series of shorter format podcast episodes that will be sprinkled through our artist interviews and are devoted to highlighting a creative business from Aotearoa NZ who provide a great service or product I think you would love.
This week I'm talking to the Founder of Blank Inspiration, Hadleigh Vernall.
Hadleigh AKA Hads talks us through the range of awesome pre framed, primed cotton/linen canvases, available through his Blank online store.
https://www.instagram.com/blank.inspiration/ About your host: https://www.instagram.com/creative_matters/
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years teaching in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ and as an art educator at Auckland Art Gallery.
As well as this podcast, Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers, visual art creative workshops and experiences for children and
public art projects and creative opportunities in the community.
Jim Wheeler is a veteran NZ sculptor living in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland.
Jim generally works in cast metals such as bronze, aluminium and iron but also uses concrete, ceramics, plastics, wood, stone and fabric- whatever is appropriate to express his ideas.
His current work is a blend of botany, biology, and beauty. His interest in plants and how plant communities evolve informs his sculptural practice.
Jim has been exhibiting sculpture and drawings since 1979 with eight solo exhibitions and many group shows here and overseas, and is work is held in Museums and galleries in NZ and around the world. In 1989 he became a full time sculptor.
I loved meeting Jim and his wife Bunny today and welcoming them back to Muriwai, the beach that Jim came to on his very first day in NZ 41 years ago!
Jim speaks passionately about his 43 year career as a sculptor, the incredibly involved process of bronze sculpture and his fascination for the mange mange fern, the Puriri leaf and the Tanekaha and how the NZ forest and all that lies within inspires so much of his work.
I loved meeting Jim and his wife Bunny today and welcoming them back to Muriwai, the beach that Jim came to on his very first day in NZ 41 years ago! Jim speaks passionately about his 43 year career as a sculptor, the incredibly involved process of bronze sculpture and his fascination for the mange mange fern, the Puriri leaf and the Tanekaha and how the NZ forest and all that lies within inspires so much of his work.
His latest exhibition Following Nature is showing at Artis Gallery from 2-22 August 2022.
About your host: https://www.instagram.com/creative_matters/
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years teaching in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communities
Lucy Melville is a painter, creative entrepreneur, business coach and Mum based in Mt Maunganui.
Lucy’s work centres around energetic geometric shapes with strong, vibrant colour. Her latest work features some of the most stunning birds found on earth combined with shape and contrasting colour to reflect their spiritual meaning.
As well as managing a busy full time art practice Lucy is on a mission to help artists learn the skills to share and sell their art with confidence, combining the key business skills she learnt in her 15 year corporate career and experience from building her own art business over the last 5 years.
Her UNLEASH YOUR ART membership programme, 1-1 business coaching and artist courses are designed to support artists to learn the skills to enable them to share and sell their art with confidence, feel good about what they do and connect with other like minded people.
This episode will be especially interesting for artists who are looking for support managing the business side of their art practice.
Lucy and I have a great chat about how her 15 year corporate career has informed her approach to her art practice and creative business, how a head injury changed her attitude to her life and work, the ways geometric shape and form inspire her so much and her amazing mentoring programme she has developed for artists.
About your host: https://www.instagram.com/creative_matters/
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years teaching in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communities
Coral Noel Yang is a Waitakere-Auckland based, Taiwanese born, multidisciplinary artist who specialises in expressive figurative and abstract paintings with oil and acrylic.
Her passion for Aotearoa nature, her Chinese/Japanese heritage, and living and working across the US, Europe and Asia inform her works.
Before pivoting to full time painting during Covid in 2020, Coral worked as a film and animation director/producer in Hollywood for 15 years, before pivoting to full time painting during COVID lockdown in 2020.
Growing up under the tutelage of her mother, a premier artist in Taiwan, Coral is rooted in the Asian water-ink tradition and is inspired by the kinaesthetic experience, gestural mark-making and intuitive expression in the painting process.
Coral endeavours to bring narrative storytelling from her film background to create works that transport the audience to a world of possibilities and imagination.
I had a lovely lovely chat to Coral about her incredible film making career and how it informs her art practice, how she navigated grief and stress after losing her beloved brother. how she overcame her fear of failure and need for success and how she found her truest passion through painting.
https://www.noelyangart.com/
About your host: https://www.instagram.com/creative_matters/
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years teaching in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communities
Fraser Williamson a.k.a. ‘Fraz’ has had a love of art since he was a young boy and has been creating incredibly distinguishable paintings and illustrations for 35 years. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-fraser-williamson
In the early 1990’s he became known as Red Shark Art and Illustration, putting his dreams and musings to canvas and his love of diversity and the quirky to paper for children’s books.
Fraser sees himself as a magpie picking up ideas and styles anywhere from Mesopotamian bas reliefs to underground comics.The ocean, family beach life, time spent in Tonga and Spain are constantly reflected in his work.
Fraser creates wondrous narrative scenes, some of which he doesn’t understand himself his art. http://www.redshark.co.nz/
We had a really fun chat on a blustery Muriwai day about his wild dreams that end up making appearances in his work, the way he sits in a cafe and collects ideas from a random magazine, snippets of conversation or passers by while he's drinking his coffee, his dream of writing and illustrating his own books and his amazing narrative painting process. Amongst many other things!
I loved meeting the fabulous Fraser and I'm sure you'll enjoy and relate to many aspects of his fascinating story.
Shane Hansen is an artist, a designer of graphics, furniture and fashion, a loving husband and doting Dad to two boys.
Born in New Zealand in the 1970s, he is of Maori (Tainui, Ngaati Mahanga, Ngaati Hine), Chinese, Danish and Scottish descent. Shane is the benefactor of a life lived long and well in Aotearoa. The country is in his blood, in his heart and in his art.https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-shane-hansen
Shane’s creations spring from the characters, creatures, moods, memories and moments lying deep within the country he calls home. His artistic world is one of bold colours, modern Māori motifs, optimism and clarity inspired by his multi-cultural heritage and an admiration for pop-art, strong graphics and a profound appreciation of the landscapes that surround him.
As well as depicting the various shapes and tones of Aotearoa, Shane’s works also represent ideas about who he is, where he comes from and how he fits into the country he grew up in. Shane describes his work aptly: “it’s therapy, kai for the mind and soul”.
His work has become a channel for an on-going examination of his multi-cultural heritage and he is determined to continue pushing the parameters of what he can express and achieve through it.
Shane speaks generously of how he manages his mental health through his art and the way he lives, his varied design and art making practice, his passion for giving back and yes, his stint on NZ TV as the host of Design Junkies. It made my morning meeting Shane today and I'm sure you'll find his story inspiring.https://www.shanehansen.co.nz/
About your host:
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years teaching in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communities
Helen Dean is an artist based in Titirangi, Auckland. Her abstract paintings begin with colour and are created through many layers of paint to build up a surface that is full of life, showing glimpses of what’s underneath, combining gestural brushwork, playful shapes and subtle glazing. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-helen-dean
https://www.helendeanart.com/
Helen explores a range of different marks and techniques, some gestural, some more controlled and the paintings slowly take form. Avoiding a formula, each painting develops in its own way as she aims for a balance between light and shade, loose and controlled.
Helen obtained her BA (Hons) Fine Art in painting in the UK in 1995 but only returned to painting in 2015. Since then she has had a regular painting practice and has sent her work to collectors around the world.
**We talk about Helen's time at a Fine Art College in England in her early twenties that turned out to be quite a negative experience, putting her off painting for many years and how she finally returned to painting 7 years ago. She explains how it feels to finally be painting and creating again and speaks so passionately about her painting practice and process, including an amazing collaboration with NZ Fashion designer Juliette Hogan. It was so lovely to hear Helen's story and I'm so happy her beautiful paintings are back in the world!
About your host:**
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communitiesAbout your host:
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
Kell Sunshine, a.k.a Kelly Spencer, is a lettering artist, muralist & illustrator from Gisborne with a big love for Mother Earth.
Her creative style is characterised by bright and retro-fresh colour palettes and curvaceous forms, meticulously hand crafted lettering, and illustrative elements of flora and fauna.
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-kell-sunshine
“I consider it a privilege to be able to use my creativity to amplify the voice of Mother Earth, with my personal and client work often serving as a platform to promote love & respect for our natural environment.” says Kelly
Kelly’s portfolio of 12 years in the industry includes murals/street art, illustration (editorial, promotional, books), sign painting, apparel graphics, festival & gig branding, installation, identity design and more. She has collaborated with clients such as Trade Me, Red Bull, Whittakers Chocolate, Boon Street Art, PangeaSeed Foundation, Bell Tea, Ministry for Environment, Garage Project, Good Buzz Kombucha, Rhythm & Vines, Department of Conservation, Creative HQ and Framingham Wines
Kelly does not engage in conversation before consuming coffee in the mornings but is henceforth a social creature. Things that make her happy include: Her pup, sunshine, seedlings, the sound of tropical rain, scuba diving, and TRAVEL.
Kelly shares her journey from fashion design through to graphic design, illustration and large scale mural making, some of the collaborations and inspiring projects she's been involved in and her passion for typography, sunshine and all things retro.https://www.instagram.com/kell.sunshine About your host:
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communities
Sarah Barton-Hills is a painter and photographer based in Auckland, New Zealand.
As a girl, Sarah was drawn to pattern, colour & texture. She constantly drew, sculpted, photographed, sewed and created with fabric to express her deep fascination with these elements, inspired by her NZ bush clad Waitakere surroundings.
Through her career in fashion and textile design, retail, visual merchandising & interiors she has honed her eye for detail, layout, design & colour. As her children have become more independent, Sarah has returned to her love of art, primarily embracing her painting and photography practices.
Sarah's Still Life, Portrait and Landscape paintings are rich and gorgeous and full of joy. Her appreciation for nature, texture, colour & light are revealed in her vibrant tactile pieces.
In this episode we discuss how beautiful as well as traumatic experiences have informed her creative perspective on life and how she managed to finally devote herself to a full time art practice. I loved talking to Sarah and I'm sure you'll enjoy hearing her touching story.
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-sarah-barton-hills
Kate Hursthouse is a New Zealand artist, illustrator, creative entrepreneur and mother of one living in Te Atatū Peninsula, Aotearoa NZ.https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-kate-hursthouse
She is on a mission to help women find their own place of joy and calm through colour and creativity.
Kate has a background in architecture and design and has been running her creative business since 2014. Her work has taken a number of forms over the years, from contemporary artworks, calligraphy and commercial illustrations to an illustrated children’s book, colourful abstract paintings and large scale hand-painted murals.
Kate is currently working on The Colourful World of Kate, a suite of online art courses brought to you from inside Kate's studio, into the sanctuary she has within her studio walls which is full of colour and play. Kate believes Art and colour is therapeutic and good for the soul and creating has helped her through some of the most challenging years of her life.
2022 also saw Kate dive into the whole new world of podcasting. The Creative Mother Podcast features interviews with creative women from a range of professions, who are also mothers. Artists, designers, musicians, film makers, fashion designers and other creative Mums talk to Kate about the impact of motherhood on their creativity and business. I'm really enjoying this podcast and I think you will too! https://www.katehursthouse.com/blogs/the-creative-mother-podcast
Kate talks about the development of her small creative business and all the things she's learnt as a business owner; her development from architecture to design and illustration through to her current abstract painting practice; how she got to be the host of her very own podcast and her philosophies on how changes in circumstances are there to feed change to your perspective and to keep you learning.
https://www.katehursthouse.com/
About your host:
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communities
Gae Webster is a multi-disciplinary artist from Auckland in Aotearoa NZ. She works in paint, print, paper, fibre, glass, sculpture and contemporary jewellery from her studio in Pukekohe.
Gae's works are all a narration of her views and responses to life – the telling of the story is the focus across all the mediums that she likes to create in and all of her disciplines connect and relate to each other.
I talk to Gae in her studio about her incredibly varied practice and all the different media and processes she uses. She speaks of her joy of teaching 4 days a week from her studio, her desire to keep her work accessible, her views on the languages of her different disciplines and how they 'speak' to each other, her strong connection to the Hauraki Gulf, curating her own exhibitions and her love of learning and developing her creative skills.
www.gaewebster.com
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-gae-webster
About your host:
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communities
Toipoto (which means Closer Together in Te Reo Maori)) is a free mentoring programme for the creative sector in Auckland NZ. Developed from The Big Idea's popular Mentoring in the Arts format, Toipoto has been expertly designed for those starting out or looking to build momentum in their creative journey, who are driven to build a sustainable and rewarding career in the arts.
Today we are thrilled to be speaking with Dina Jezdic, a mentor and director from Toipoto.
Toipoto helps you connect with the people and pulse of the arts sector and gives you the tools and tips you need to thrive.
It doesn’t matter what your creative background is - visual artist, performance artist, event planner, producer, game developer, musician or the countless other disciplines the arts sector embraces - Toipoto has mentors with real-life knowledge and experience to help make your career sustainable and rewarding.
You can learn more about this amazing creative mentoring programme and potential opportunity at thebigidea.nz/toipoto
Ko koe tēnā ko au tēnei kīwai o te Kete
You take that handle and I'll take this handle of the kete. Working together we will succeed.
Eric Schusser is a photographer from Central Otago in New Zealand. He has a diverse style and portfolio that includes social documentary, abstract works and fine art imagery. His work is often project based and he's fascinated by the power of text and photo together.
He is drawn to the big skies, dramatic weather and season changes and the graphic wide-open spaces of the South Island of New Zealand, which he has explored extensively in his 36 year career as an Outdoor Education teacher. He is fascinated by the simplicity and complexity of light, form, line and shadow.
Eric's photographic practice is expanding and he is developing an interest in the abstract beauty to be found in urban spaces and to appreciate people more and the importance of telling stories.
Eric is intrigued by photo books and has published 4 books, 2 of which are collaborative works with his wife Annemarie Hope- Cross, exploring her journey with breast cancer and his role as caregiver.
He wants his viewer to make an emotional intimate connection to an image, project or photo story where something resonates with their life experience, their humanity. This intimate, emotional style reflects his involvement over thirteen years as both a search and rescue volunteer and thirty plus years as a volunteer frontline ambulance officer/ EMT.
You can see images of Eric's beautiful photographs on our blog which is on our website https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-eric-schusser
and on his website http://www.ericschusser.com.
Eric has some truly moving messages for sufferers and carers going through cancer and how creativity and collaboration has helped him and his wife Annemarie through the tough times, as well as a super interesting story about his creative journey and practice.
You can hear Annemarie's story on our previous episode, episode 39.
About your host:
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communities
EPISODE 39: Photographic artist Annemarie Hope-Cross was born in Wellington NZ, grew up in Auckland and has lived in Alexandra, Central Otago, since 2008.
Annemarie uses three historic processes that date back 180 years to early pioneering photography techniques, some of which are referred to as camera-less photography.
Her mousetrap camera is set up outside in her back garden. It takes six to eight hours to create the images and a lot of hoping the weather does not change in the meantime.
"It can be fraught with peril but it’s the part I enjoy." says Annemarie. "It’s serendipitous but nothing is guaranteed in life."
Annemarie works intuitively; aware, but not restrained by those who have gone before. She makes images to comment, to appreciate our world and to satisfy her heart and mind. She shares her work hoping that the images she makes will speak to others.
Her work makes up the world's second-largest collection of photogenic drawings.
In August 2017 Annemarie was diagnosed with a rare triple negative, aggressive form of breast cancer at the age of 49. She wants to tell people ''the positive stories of breast cancer', of ploughing through, taking on challenge and accepting the changes cancer can bring."
As Annemarie and her husband Eric Schusser are both photographers they are in the unique position of being able to work together and put on paper the journey many go through as sufferers and carers dealing with cancer.
It was a privilege to speak with Annemarie today. Her story of her unique photographic practice and creative process and how it is connected to her journey with breast cancer is inspirational and heartwarming.https://www.instagram.com/annemariemakesphotographs/ https://annemariehopecross.com About your host:
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communities
Erika Pearce is a multi-disciplinary artist born in Auckland Aotearoa NZ and now based in the beautiful Bay of Islands. She is well known for her large scale murals, vibrant artwork and strong female portraits. Her mural artwork can be found throughout New Zealand, from Northland to Bluff, as well as in Fiji, Australia, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand and the USA.
Erika is a dedicated ocean conservationist and is deeply motivated to inspire communities to care for and protect their coastlines and surrounding waters. The creation of her large scale ocean murals has a really positive impact by opening up conversations with people of all ages.
She is inspired by plants, animals, the ocean and our human connection to the natural world.
When she is not painting, she can be found out in the garden tending her dahlias, raiding the veggie patch or hanging out with her ducks.
Hear about Erika's varied art practice, the amazing process of creating a large scale mural, Erika's philosophies on working and living intuitively and living your best life, her passion for dressing up and the Burning Man festival and soo much more!
"Chase the magic | If it was meant for you it already was | your time will come".
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-erika-pearce
https://erikapearce.co.nz/
https://www.facebook.com/erikapearceartisthttps://www.instagram.com/erikapearce.artist
About your host:
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communities
Philippa Bentley is a multi-disciplinary artist inspired by nature, with ecology and environmental concerns at the heart of her work.
While primarily known as a painter and printmaker, Philippa incorporates a range of media and processes in her art practice. She is interested in the intersection of art, design, science and technology and the possibilities this brings."
"We are an island nation" explains Philippa - "New Zealand begins with the sea and ends with the sea - and we all have a relationship with the water. Listen to the sea, it has something to say to you."
It is not surprising that Philippa's work is so connected to and informed by the sea and reflects her careful observation and love of the natural world, overlaid with a layer of contemplation.
Philippa has become increasingly concerned with the global impact of environmental issues and this has been reflected in the development of her work over the last few years. Sea charts have become her symbol of navigating our way forward, plotting a course through these troubled, uncharted waters.
https://www.philippabentley.com/
https://www.instagram.com/philippabentley
About your host:
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
She worked for 4 years as an art educator at the Auckland Art Gallery - New Zealand's largest and finest gallery - designing and delivering visual arts programmes to primary, secondary and special needs children, as well as Professional Development courses for teachers.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Seven years on, Creative Matters has blossomed into a well known company with a team of passionate art educators and administrators. Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communities
Lucy Davidson is a contemporary landscape painter from the Tutukaka Coast in Northland NZ, currently living in Auckland. Her abstract paintings explore the notion that nature and human emotion are interconnected and affect each other.
To Lucy, Memories are inherent in our natural landscape and she uses colour to highlight the things we might miss in our daily encounters with natural elements.
Her experiences at Elam School of Fine Arts (Auckland NZ) and in the film, TV and design industries in twenties have informed her painting practice and she is now a full time artist at the age of 30. She has created a busy practice and an inspiring life for herself that allows for freedom, flexibility and creativity.
https://lucydavidson.nz/
https://www.facebook.com/lucydartist/
https://www.instagram.com/lucyd_art/?hl=en About your host:
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
She worked for 4 years as an art educator at the Auckland Art Gallery - New Zealand's largest and finest gallery - designing and delivering visual arts programmes to primary, secondary and special needs children, as well as Professional Development courses for teachers.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Seven years on, Creative Matters has blossomed into a well known company with a team of passionate art educators and administrators. Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communities
Jenny McLeod is a contemporary glass artist from West Auckland, NZ. She creates quality, original functional glassware, sculpture, garden art, installation and exhibition work and enjoys using glass for a modern environment in a non-fragile way. Her two 6 cubic foot kilns in her workshop at home give her the control required to fuse and slump cut and layered sheet glass.
Much of her work is mixed media , incorporating a variety of materials including concrete, resin beads, wood, pumice, shells, feathers and a NZ native fibre, Harakeke. Jenny enjoys working with all these materials and is inspired by their natural quality and the unlimited possibilities of combining them with glass.
Jenny's Whitianga farming upbringing on the Coromandel Peninsula in NZ, nature and the Pacific are constant reference points and inspiration for her work.
http://www.jmcleodglass.co.nz/
https://www.facebook.com/JennyMcLeodGlass
https://www.instagram.com/jennymcleodglass/
About your host:
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
She worked for 4 years as an art educator at the Auckland Art Gallery - New Zealand's largest and finest gallery - designing and delivering visual arts programmes to primary, secondary and special needs children, as well as Professional Development courses for teachers.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Seven years on, Creative Matters has blossomed into a well known company with a team of passionate art educators and administrators. Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communities
Rosemary Eagles is an established contemporary NZ artist living in Auckland. She has with a deep appreciation of nature and the beauty of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Her work captures vibrant impressions of native trees, plants and flowers and strata land formations with an unrestrained use of texture and colour, depicting her expressions of these different environments and the things within them, discovered on her walks and travels around NZ.
Rosemary’s recent works depict mānuka trees in Tāwharanui, “where rolling land meets the sea”. This regional park is a treasured place for Rosemary and the mānuka trees are a special source of inspiration.
"From the simplest form of a single flower bud" says Rosemary, "through to the wonderful rock formations on our coastal beaches, bursting Harakeke Flax flowers with chocolate brown pods, to the wild and free flowing Toi Toi on our West Coast beaches. Just stopping and taking another look opens up endless fresh painting inspirations"
Website https://rosemary.co.nz
Art by the Sea Gallery http://www.artbythesea.co.nz/Rosemaryeagles
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/rosemaryeaglesnzartist/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/rosemaryeagles/ About your host:
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
She worked for 4 years as an art educator at the Auckland Art Gallery - New Zealand's largest and finest gallery - designing and delivering visual arts programmes to primary, secondary and special needs children, as well as Professional Development courses for teachers.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Seven years on, Creative Matters has blossomed into a well known company with a team of passionate art educators and administrators. Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communities
John Botton is a fine art photographer and a digital giclée inkjet printer who holds a Fellowship from the Photographic Society of New Zealand. He's also an entrepreneur and self confessed 'Technical Geek' and is the founder and CEO of Print Art: Fine Art Imaging - a company well known and loved by many NZ artists.
John is a true supporter of artists and their process. He sees his fine art printing business as much as a printing business as an "enabling business" for artists and photographers. He's a people person and has created a community amongst NZ artists and his business is like part of the family for many New Zealand artists.
John speaks of his passion for Namibia, the dichotomy of desert environments, his small business learning curves, marrying the "technical geek" with the creative, his perception of failure, the importance of having a mentor, how the artists he works with inspire him and the strong community he has built with NZ artists - amongst many other things.
https://www.printart.co.nz/
https://www.johnbotton.com/
https://www.artcollective.co.nz/
About your host:
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
She worked for 4 years as an art educator at the Auckland Art Gallery - New Zealand's largest and finest gallery - designing and delivering visual arts programmes to primary, secondary and special needs children, as well as Professional Development courses for teachers.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Six years on, Creative Matters has blossomed into a well known company with a team of 15 passionate art educators and administrators. Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communities
EPISODE 32: Beatrice Carlson is an interdisciplinary artist, a visual artist, printmaker and contemporary jeweller. http://www.beatricecarlson.com
Born in France, she has been living and making in Devonport, Aotearoa NZ for the last 16 years. Beatrice has always been interested in shapes and textures in her interdisciplinary art practice - from visual art to costume design to printmaking and now to adornment jewellery.
Beatrice currently sees herself as a contemporary jewellery artist and silver is her latest preferred medium. Her work is influenced by the different media and techniques she used in her fashion design background and speaks of Aotearoa NZ and her French ancestry, and how precious the connection is between them both.
She has been a finalist in the World of Wearable Art Awards 10 times and a finalist in a number of art competitions, most recently in the Parkin Drawing prize.
Beatrice tells of the amazingly wide range of materials she likes to use in her work including silver, perspex, gold leaf, pounamu as well as less common medium such as scoria, chicken feet skin, beetle wings and salmon skin leather.
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-beatrice-carlson
About your host:
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
She worked for 4 years as an art educator at the Auckland Art Gallery - New Zealand's largest and finest gallery - designing and delivering visual arts programmes to primary, secondary and special needs children, as well as Professional Development courses for teachers.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Six years on, Creative Matters has blossomed into a well known company with a team of 15 passionate art educators and administrators. Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communities
Kathryn Wilson is NZ’s most successful shoe designer. She created her brand Kathryn Wilson at the age of 23 in 2003 with a dream to “make beautiful shoes for cool people” and go big. And that she certainly did!
Kathryn Wilson is now an internationally renowned footwear brand, a household name in NZ and one of NZ’s fastest-growing fashion brands
Kathryn hosted a New Zealand first, exclusive footwear runway show at New Zealand Fashion Week in 2010 and In 2011 she opened her first retail store in the form of a pop-up shoe box that travelled New Zealand, which was later joined by three stand-alone boutiques in Auckland and recently a fourth store in Wellington. She has a large, ever growing online presence and following through her website www.kathrynwilson.com and social media
https://www.instagram.com/kwfootwearhttps://www.facebook.com/KathrynWilsonFootwear
Kathryn is a well respected business woman leader, ambassador, entrepreneur and known for her generosity in sharing her knowledge, skills, time and acute business acumen.
Hear great stories of her life and creative journey including the shoe design competitions her and her sisters would have using the shoes bought for them by her Mum from Para Rubber; doing the ironing for Karen Walker as a teenager, hanging out with Jimmy Choo; her shoe preferences and favourite KW shoe of all time - and so much more!
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-kathryn-wilson
About your host:
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
She worked for 4 years as an art educator at the Auckland Art Gallery - New Zealand's largest and finest gallery - designing and delivering visual arts programmes to primary, secondary and special needs children, as well as Professional Development courses for teachers.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Six years on, Creative Matters has blossomed into a well known company with a team of 15 passionate art educators and administrators. Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communities
Describe your studio. What tricks or ideas do you have to make the space work well for you and your creative process?
In this episode NZ artists Terri-Ann Berry, Joss Hong, Robyn Kay, Moya Deacon Radley, Adele Dubarry, Amber Emm, Lynette Fisher, Rosanne Croucher and Tanya Blong answer this question from their point of view.
You can see images of the artists and their work on our blog
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
About your host:
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
She worked for 4 years as an art educator at the Auckland Art Gallery - New Zealand's largest and finest gallery - designing and delivering visual arts programmes to primary, secondary and special needs children, as well as Professional Development courses for teachers.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Six years on, Creative Matters has blossomed into a well known company with a team of 15 passionate art educators and administrators. Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communities
Michelle Reid is a painter living in Riverhead, Auckland. She graduated with a Bachelor of Textile Design from Massey University in 2001 and worked in the textile industry for 8 years in both NZ and London.
In 2019 she gained a Postgraduate Diploma from Elam School of Fine Arts with Distinction - at the same time as raising her 2 young children.
An eclectic mix of written, visual, and intuitive information, inform her painting practise. Michelle is currently working with Romantic art theories, ideas of regrowth in the post-human ‘novel’
landscape, and reconnecting with pattern in painting. Michelle also draws much of her inspiration from American abstract expressionist painter Helen Frankenthaler.
Michelle paints with oil on wood or reassembled canvas off-cuts, and watercolour on paper.
Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/michellereid.studio/
Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/michellereid._studio
About your host:
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
She worked for 4 years as an art educator at the Auckland Art Gallery - New Zealand's largest and finest gallery - designing and delivering visual arts programmes to primary, secondary and special needs children, as well as Professional Development courses for teachers.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Six years on, Creative Matters has blossomed into a well known company with a team of 15 passionate art educators and administrators. Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communities
What impact has your creative making had on your everyday life?
In this episode artists Marlon Hart, Tanya Blong, Gabriella Williams, Ingrid Boot, Guy Du Toit and Emma Springford-Gough (plus a little contribution from Mandy) answer this question from their point of view.
About your host:
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
She worked for 4 years as an art educator at the Auckland Art Gallery - New Zealand's largest and finest gallery - designing and delivering visual arts programmes to primary, secondary and special needs children, as well as Professional Development courses for teachers.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Six years on, Creative Matters has blossomed into a well known company with a team of 15 passionate art educators and administrators. Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communities
EPISODE 27: Judith Milner is a portrait and figurative painter living in Auckland NZ.
After studying law, psychology and art history at the University of Auckland, Judith worked as a commercial lawyer for 13 years before re-connecting with her love of painting while taking a break to focus on caring for her two young children.
Judith has always been drawn to the quiet contemplation of portraiture: the opportunity to read a face, to reflect on the sitter’s interior and, through the process of painting, to try to capture something of their essential character, something more than a superficial likeness. She seeks to combine a naturalistic, descriptive approach with a more painterly and expressive style.
Judith's figurative paintings are inspired by nostalgia for old, informal photographs, far removed from today’s highly doctored digital images that are immediately and continually available.
Judith tells a fascinating story of her creative journey and shares insights into the ways she explores stories of the past, relationships, personalities, connections, equality and inclusion through her beautiful paintings.
Website https://judithmilner.com/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/judithmilnerart
Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/judithmilnerart
About your host:
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
She worked for 4 years as an art educator at the Auckland Art Gallery - New Zealand's largest and finest gallery - designing and delivering visual arts programmes to primary, secondary and special needs children, as well as Professional Development courses for teachers.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Six years on, Creative Matters has blossomed into a well known company with a team of 15 passionate art educators and administrators. Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communities
Guy Du Toit is a wood artist living in Keri Keri NZ who creates unique and bespoke fine art pieces in rare native timbers.
His fine wood art includes sculptures, jewellery, wood turned art pieces and traditional wood turned objects. Guy was born in South Africa and emigrated to New Zealand in 2015.
From the first moment he put a gouge to wood Guy understood that the wood was taking him on a journey and a new passion had been discovered. He found himself instantly enamoured and fascinated by wood turning and discovered a natural talent.
This talent lead him to be accepted to study at Ecole Escoulen wood turning school in France in 2018, as one of only 11 students in the full time course.
"Like all crafts," says Guy, "wood art and wood turning is a continuous journey of learning and discovery. I am always learning more and I’m loving the journey!"
You can see Guy's beautiful work on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog-podcast and on his website https://guydutoit.com/
About your host:
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a teacher, with more than 30 years in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
She worked for 4 years as an art educator at the Auckland Art Gallery - New Zealand's largest and finest gallery - designing and delivering visual arts programmes to primary, secondary and special needs children, as well as Professional Development courses for teachers.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Six years on, Creative Matters has blossomed into a well known company with a team of 15 passionate art educators and administrators. Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communities
Vanessa is a young Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland artist who gained a fine arts degree at 20 years old and has worked in Art Galleries and art education since then. She is now 27 and celebrating ONE year in business selling her intricately handmade clay earrings through her Dewdrops brand, informed by her fine art practice in sculpture and installation and her love of painting.
Vanessa started making earrings during the first COVID lockdown in 2020 as a creative hobby and suddenly found herself obsessed with polymer clay.
Her website and first collection was launched in Spring 2020 and she received so much encouraging support, firstly from friends and family and then from further afield and she hasn’t looked back.
A year ago Vanessa never imagined she would be stocking her creations in gallery shops, promoting herself and her brand, running workshops, managing a creative business, creating look books and newsletters to customers and selling her creations to people all over NZ.
Vanessa’s story of her creative practice, process and business will be especially fascinating for young art students and people interested in starting a creative business, as well as creatives who love a good story and want to feel inspired.
You can see her beautiful earrings on our blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog-podcast and on her website https://www.dewdrops.co.nz/
About your host:
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a primary school teacher, with more than 30 years in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
She worked for 4 years as an art educator at the Auckland Art Gallery - New Zealand's largest and finest gallery - designing and delivering visual arts programmes to primary, secondary and special needs children, as well as Professional Development courses for teachers.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Six years on, Creative Matters has blossomed into a well known company with a team of 15 passionate art educators and administrators. Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communities
Introducing - Spirit: Conversations with Creative Women
https://www.thecreativecollectivespirit.co.nz/
https://www.instagram.com/conversationswithcreativewomen
IT ALL BEGAN WHEN….an idea was sparked between two friends, writer Jannine Wilkinson and photographer Ann Orman, to produce a book celebrating creative women in New Zealand. This week the result of this powerful union and vision comes to fruition, with the release of their book Spirit Conversations with Creative Women.
Jannine and Ann worked their way across New Zealand to talk to and photograph 34 creative women and learn the stories of their life, their work and the challenges they have faced when following their passion. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog-podcast
About your host:
Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educational opportunities to enrich the lives of our children, educators, artists and community. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/
She is a practising artist www.amandajakich.co.nz and a primary school teacher, with more than 30 years in various capacities at primary and intermediate schools across Auckland NZ.
She worked for 4 years as an art educator at the Auckland Art Gallery - New Zealand's largest and finest gallery - designing and delivering visual arts programmes to primary, secondary and special needs children, as well as Professional Development courses for teachers.
Mandy founded Creative Matters in response to an increasing need and demand for creative visual arts opportunities for children - both in and out of school - with a genuine belief in the value of a rich creative process and developing creative experiences and connections through art.
Six years on, Creative Matters has blossomed into a well known company with a team of 15 passionate art educators and administrators. Creative Matters facilitate Professional Development visual arts courses for primary teachers:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/professional-development
Visual art creative workshops and experiences for children:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-children
Public art projects and creative opportunities in the community
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/for-communities
Judy Darragh is a highly respected NZ artist renowned for her brightly coloured sculptural assemblages of recycled items, industrial materials and found objects, as well as video, collage, photography and poster art.
She has exhibited widely since the 1980’s and is well known for her ambitious works which alter public spaces in incredible ways. Her works are held in numerous public and private collections and In 2004 the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa featured a major retrospective of her work entitled 'Judy Darragh: So... you made it?'.
Judy lives and works in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, where she has played a significant role in the development of a number of artist-run spaces and has acted as mentor for a wide range of artists. She is also co-publisher of Femisphere, a long-term project interested in encouraging inclusivity and visibility of women's practices in the visual arts sector of Aotearoa.
Donna is an established full-time artist living and working in Riverhead, Auckland NZ. Her oil paintings are easily recognized for their vibrant crisp images and bold colours.
It never occurred to Donna that she could have a career as an artist. She left school to work in a bank where she stayed for twenty years and it wasn't until 2004 that she discovered "what she wanted to be when she grew up” and she hasn’t looked back since.
Donna’s love of New Zealand is evident in her painting. She is madly passionate about the outdoors, in particular, the ocean, and is always keen on an adventure. These activities take her to destinations around NZ that end up as motivation and inspiration for her paintings. Road trips are big on her agenda…she believes New Zealand has so many beautiful places to paint as well as the things she discovers in these landscapes such as old shacks, fishing boats, boat sheds and beehives.
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-episode-22-with-donna-massey
Ingrid is a painter influenced mainly by beauty as well as fashion history, fashion photography, movie icons and old things from the 20th century. Her paintings are all about style and elegance, portraying the beauty of the female form with a surreal, stylised realism.
Ingrid lives in Orewa, north of Auckland and emigrated to NZ from the UK in 2000.
Over the years Ingrid has explored other themes and subject areas that might seem unexpected. Ranging from classic cars to abstract works, they all share the same characteristic precision and attention to detail. Each work is the product of many stages of research, drawing, composition, creation and refinement. Often Ingrid will dream up the outfits worn on her ladies, placing great importance on every detail from the stitching on a dress to each jewel on a necklace.
As a final touch, there is a unique element in all her paintings. If you look hard enough you will find a signature camouflaged illustration tucked away in each of her paintings.
You can see her work on our Blog
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-episode-21-with-ingrid-boot
https://www.ingrid.co.nz/
https://www.instagram.com/ingrid_boot_artist/
https://www.facebook.com/IngridBoot
Gabriella is an artist living in Auckland NZ. She has a super interesting story which I’m sure will be really inspiring to many of you, as despite living amongst creative people, trying out creative ventures over the years and having a creative career in education, it’s only now in her 50s her passion for art has been unleashed and she has developed her own art practice and now finally thinks of herself as an artist..
Her paintings often respond to the sea, skies and land of a favourite place, Muriwai Beach, where she spent many happy time as a young adult. Gabriella's work also responds to the beautiful architecture, objects, shapes and patterns discovered on her travels and particularly in her birthplace of Sicily, Italy.
Hear about how she realised her own varied art practice, taught herself new techniques, had a solo exhibition after only 4 years of making and her dreams of opening up her own art studio to the public.
Gabriella Williams on the Creative Matters Blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-episode-20-with-gabriella-williams
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/gabriellawilliamsart/
Kumeu Arts Centre https://www.kumeuartscentre.co.nz
Muriwai Arts Group Show http://muriwaiarts.co.nz
Mandy is a contemporary jeweller from Westmere, Auckland NZ.
"Everything is on the point of decline" W.G. Sebald
"The aesthetics of decay and obsolescence along with the beauty of impermanence forms the impetus for my work. I take the traditional process of enamelling and seek to expand the preconceptions of a finished surface.
It is the inclination of time found on the commonplace urban object that I endeavour to express through both manipulation of metal and the indeterminate nature of enamel.
The alteration of the surface is intended to draw attention to the beauty found in decline. Through wear and tear each piece will expose itself wholly to the wearer. This unpredictability of process and material is what intrigues me."
Mandy talks about her immigration to NZ from the UK, her time as an artist with Fingers, an iconic NZ Contemporary Jewellery Gallery, her mentorship within the Handshake Project and the development of her practice and process - amongst many other things!
Fingers Contemporary Jewellery http://www.fingers.co.nz/exhibitors/mandy_flood.htm Photographs courtesy of Michael Couper
Mandy on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mandyflood2020/https://www.instagram.com/just_asking4/
The Handshake Mentoring Programme https://handshakeproject.com
Melbourne Contemporary Jewellery and Object Biennial http://www.radiantpavilion.com.au
Nelson Jewellery Week "Chains of Reaction" http://www.acn.org.nz/nelson-jewellery-week.html
Feeonaa Clifton (née Wall) is a multi-disciplinary artist and a mother of 3 children of Samoan, Swedish, German and English heritage, living at Muriwai Beach, North West of Auckland..
She has a Bachelor of Performing Arts (Pacific) / Diploma in Arts Administration, University of Auckland. Her work has explored indigenous histories and stories, her own identity, wellbeing, and environmental issues through the use of costume, body adornment, dance, poetry, ceremonial activations and more recently moving image.
Fee has been a long-standing member of ‘Pacific Sisters’ a fashion activist art collective of artists, performers, fashion designers, jewellers and musicians established in 1992.
Arwen is a New Zealand-born mixed media artist, raised in the beautiful ranges, forests, and beaches of the West Coast of Auckland.
Her recent artwork on canvas utilises a unique mix of media—dressmaking patterns, graphite, charcoal, metallic foil and paint. Through this unique multi-media approach Arwen references landscape and oceanic forms while exploring intersections, crossovers, and parallels between historical and modern European and Pacific Island culture and themes of identity, often from a feminine perspective.
To communicate the curiosity she has for the human motivation and experience of exploration, navigation and migration across the South Pacific, she uses the printed markings on dressmaking patterns as a reference to cartography.
Sourcing and using second-hand materials and creating poetry are part of her creative process and art-making ethos. The collages evolve naturally into combinations of craft and pattern which reflect her historical European ancestry and place of birth in the South Pacific.
Amber Emm is a full time artist from the North West of Auckland NZ, currently painting stunning photo realistic floral oil paintings that celebrate contrast, colour, detail and light.
Amber took up painting in 1990 purely for pleasure and became a full time artist in 1995. Then In 1998 positive feedback from a painting demonstration encouraged her to start teaching.
Her main inspiration has been boats, the seaside and the coastal fauna and flora of New Zealand. In the last 5 years she has turned her attention to the Garden and has rediscovered a driving passion to recreate the pockets of beauty which are in our own backyards.
Amber tells a fascinating story from her days as a sign writer after high school to becoming a well known, well respected NZ artist. She has great tips about showing work, teaching and entrepreneurship and gives us a wonderful tour through her creative process.
Sharon is a passionate quilt pattern designer and quilt maker from Auckland NZ. A self confessed lover of reproduction fabrics, her favourite thing to do is 'Appliqué' using pieced blocks to complete the quilt.
"I simply love to design and make quilts, for me it has been an absolute joy to share my patterns and my fondness of vintage and reproduction fabrics. Experimenting with this range of unique fabric styles allows me to add my own historical vision into my design work."
I've learnt so much about the quilting process from talking to Sharon and even feel inspired to try working with fabric and thread myself! From a feed dog and walking foot to Baltimore and antique quilts, Sharon unpacks her process, practice and business in a way that is very inspiring. I'm sure you'll enjoy hearing her story.
You can listen to CREATIVE MATTERS on your favourite podcast platform and subscribe to receive our weekly episodes with other NZ artists, or go to our blog/podcast page www.creativematters.co.nz
Emma is a writer, photographer, creative maker and meditation practitioner. Her work is all about emotion, and the life of the spirit. She brings this awareness to her work with photography, books and soul stones. Each of her pieces is designed to start a conversation with the heart of the viewer.
Emma writes her books and creates her soul stones at her studio overlooking Muriwai Beach and her writing and photography is inspired by the dynamic beauty that surrounds her. She gives thanks for the tangata whenua of Aotearoa and is grateful for the wisdom and guidance of Maoritanga in her country of birth. She draws strength from her rich Lebanese heritage as well as the Scottish determination and Celtic love for nature she inherited from her mum.
Emma is a businesswoman and author who is passionate about spreading a message of unity, empathy and understanding. Emma enjoys a good laugh, often at her own expense.
Kiri Abraham is an artist, mother, gardener, tramper and lover of nature who has lived and worked in Helensville (North West of Auckland NZ) for the past 15 years. She describes her art as ‘drawing’, although it includes painting, printing, stitch and more recently, cutting and burning.
Drawing can be both a very simple process, and a complex, multi layered practise, and it is this diversity that attracts Kiri to the medium as a way of expression through mark making. She works by building up a bigger story through repeated intricate marks, the process being as integral to the piece as the finished outcome. Her work is slow, meditative and often physically challenging, and requires her to have a fully worked out concept before she begins a piece.
Kiri’s work has themes of land and ecology at its core: Human connection to place through story and materials, and the reciprocity of care and protection between humans and the earth.
With over thirty years’ experience in the arts, as both a practitioner and curator, Anna Hanson strives to empower artists, champion the role of art in society, and transform widely-held perceptions of textile-based projects within the art arena.
As a practitioner, Hanson’s work embraces the codes of embroidery ,ropes and textiles. She believes in art as an essential part of a healthy community and, wherever possible, aims to remove the terms ‘traditional’, ‘craft’ and ‘female’ from the art world’s vernacular.
As a curator, Hanson sees her role as one of empowerment: providing artists with an environment and structure in which they are recognised, respected and fairly rewarded.
Through her unwavering personal and professional focus, Hanson hopes to give both art and artists the essential platform they desire and deserve.
Artist Emma Springford-Gough grew up in West Auckland NZ and has lived in Huapai for the last 11 years with her husband, 3 kids, dog, cat and a handful of fish.
Making art, drawing specifically, has always been a great part of Emma’s life. She loves drawing and finds it a raw and immediate form of expression. She uses drawing as a tool for documenting objects and interiors that surround her. Ink and brush is her fav medium, but really anything will do in her eyes.
Embroidery is another medium Emma embraces as a form of drawing. She finds working with fabric and stitched line such a raw and feminine way to explore an object or idea.
Emma has been working on painted ship portraits for the last few years, exploring the nostalgic relationships NZers have with sailing and shipping vessels.
Jago Neal is a mixed media artist, illustrator and photographer originally from London. He now resides in West Auckland New Zealand.
Jago has a small studio at home which also serves as a darkroom. He often incorporates photography into his practice or integrates it with other methods of drawing, collage or painting.
"I draw, paint and photograph the world as a form of expression, to help make sense of it, to stay calm and to feed my imagination and my soul. The work I create and the media I use depends on my mood, my environment, my time and what I want to achieve. I try not to pigeon hole myself into a box or category as that would limit my art and my enjoyment of it."
Amanda Jakich (Mandy) is a self taught abstract painter and the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters. She is the proud mother of 2 young adults (with a grand baby on the way) and lives with her husband George at Muriwai Beach, North West of Auckland.
Mandy's work responds to her surroundings, particularly to the seas, skies, land and nature of her home place Muriwai Beach NZ. She is drawn to simple form and design, colour and composition and enjoys experimenting with different materials, ideas and tools.
This podcast episode sees the tables turned - Mandy is the host of the Creative Matters podcast and is the one being interviewed this time, by our very first podcast guest and good friend artist Tanya Blong. Listen to this episode to hear about Mandy's life, business and art practice and other heartfelt little moments Tanya manages to dig up!
Marion Stutz is a painter living in Huapai, Auckland NZ.
In the last 5 years she has gone from being a creative interested in art with a great appreciation for all things arty and a love of making to a practising artist who already has her first solo show under her belt.
Marion's work is all about colour and form, explored through landscapes, portraiture and still life and inspired by artists such as Henri Matisse, Mark Chagall and Rita Angus.
- Join Mandy in a conversation with Marion Stutz. See our blog for relevant links and images of Marion's work.
Catrina is an abstract painter from Muriwai Beach, North West of Auckland, with a passion for interpreting the many layers of her natural environment.
Whenever she is outside in Muriwai she can't help but see endless paintings, endless textures, colours, lines, shapes, light and movement, and so much west coast energy.
She enjoys translating what she sees through exploring different techniques using paint, ink, dye, pastel, pen and pencil.
Marlon Hart is an illustrator/artist with a background in advertising and art direction. As well as animal wrangling, yoga, karate and acting! Go Marlon!
He has lived in Muriwai for 30 years. He spent his childhood growing up in Vancouver, Canada, which instilled in him a great love of nature, and culturally, left a lasting impression. Working in advertising as an art director and illustrator for more than three decades, Marlon has honed his fine art practice using a wide range of styles and artistic mediums.
Marlon is currently working on a series of graphic artworks inspired by his Canadian and NZ cultural connections as well as the animals he loves from both of these countries, from Grizzly Bears to Piwakawaka, Moose to Tui - all telling stories from Marlon's fascinating life.
See Marlon's work on our blog:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
And make sure you catch our other conversations with inspirational NZ new and experienced artists.
Liz Smith is an embroidery artist living in Muriwai Beach, Auckland NZ.
Her business The Stitchsmith NZ brings you fresh, new designs for needlepoint cushion/pillow kits, cross stitch and embroidery kits and patterns.
Most of Liz's designs are drawn from the wonderful scenery in New Zealand where she lives and she is constantly inspired by the local flora and fauna here. She loves birds and a lot of her designs feature the gorgeous native birds that live in her garden and in the forest nearby. at Muriwai Beach.
See her work on our blog:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
And make sure you catch our other conversations with inspirational NZ new and experienced artists.
Amanda is a long-term Muriwai Beach resident, a ceramicist and a painter. She specializes in hand-built sculpture, often in the form of jewellery and wall installations.
Amanda prefers natural, found or recycled materials and makes in traditional ways when possible, such as pit firing with combustibles collected from the beach.
See her work on our blog:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
And make sure you catch our other conversations with inspirational NZ new and experienced artists.
Immersive installations that almost "use sound as a new way of seeing," drawing inspiration from nature, sound vibrations and materials. Join us for a wonderfully therapeutic conversation with installation and textile artist Mette Hay.
See her work on our blog:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
And make sure you catch our other conversations with inspirational NZ new and experienced artists.
Kylie is a printmaker (lithography) and painter, inspired by the land, sea and skies of New Zealand. Hear her story from a farm in Hukerenui to Elam - a prestigious Art School in Auckland, her printmaking and painting process and her fascinating journey to becoming a full time artist.
See her work on our blog:
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/blog
And make sure you catch our other conversations with inspirational NZ artists.
Tanya is a full time artist and a mother of one, living at Muriwai Beach, North West of Auckland NZ.
Tanya shares many insightful thoughts and ideas and I'm quite sure you will find something in her story to inspire and inform your creative journey or your life in general. She discusses her childhood, her private inner world, her travel, her art studies, her sculpture and painting, her process and her art practice.
And she even has a big secret to share with us!
You can click on the link below to listen or subscribe and listen to CREATIVE MATTERS on your favourite podcast platform to receive our weekly episodes with other NZ artists.