Meg McIsaac

Born Jacqueline Lourie in June 1931, in the rolling farming country around Hunterville in the Rangitikei, she was the only girl among five children. Her father used to take her riding and she found her best friends were horses. With an abiding natural talent for drawing, Jackie began at the age of four. When she wasn’t riding the horses, she was drawing them.
Although her life was very busy with work on the farm and raising six boys, Jackie continued to draw and paint whenever she got the chance, on scraps of paper and the back of cigarette boxes.
Howard made Jackie a studio in the old dairy and washhouse behind the cottage and that’s when she started her night-time painting sessions. “How wonderful it was to be able to walk out of the studio and back down the path to the house, knowing that all the boys would be tucked up and Howard would be sound asleep too.” Howard decided Jackie needed a manager and her original studio was superseded in 1978 with a larger Quin’s car-shed-cum-studio. She produced many commissioned works here for friends and race-horse owners but she did find the deadlines stressful and would thankfully return to the freedom of her sketches.
See more about Jackie Williamson HERE.

Subscribe Today

During the late 70s, Colin Unkovich and a friend started a business manufacturing surfboards. During this period the ability to turn customer’s ideas into personalised artworks on their new boards was an important part of the business and set them apart from a lot of the competition. The most efficient and effective method of applying colour to the boards was via an airbrush. He found that he really liked the process to the extent that he would sometimes be working on a customer’s request into the small hours of the morning. Over the next 30 years, as well as utilising airbrushing intensively on the boards, he also painted wall paintings in his spare time.

“I paint because that is what I want to do. I was part of a perfectly good business; surviving very well, but I wasn’t getting any time to paint. It just felt like there was a hole in me that needed to be filled. My art does that. I am an outdoors person at heart. I grew up on the land and I think that my upbringing cemented that aspect in me; as a result I tend to look to the natural world for my muse. In New Zealand we have such diversity, not only of the physical landscape but equally importantly of light and colour. I sometimes feel that I am a bit spoiled for choice. Mostly I work on commissioned pieces. I think that I enjoy the challenge of interpreting what it is that someone desires. I always really appreciate it when somebody comes to me out of all of the artists out there. It is so nice to know that what you do is valued and that people have confidence in your abilities. I know that some artists find it too constraining to work with someone else’s expectations, but I find it very rewarding. Most of my commissions are of a meaningful nature to my clients and I have a file of thank you notes from clients for whom I have done work. I keep them all because it is nice to know that I have been able to interpret what they wanted in a meaningful way and that with any luck it has provided them with something to enjoy for years to come. As a counter-balance to working on commissions, I like to paint a few surrealist pieces because there is no right or wrong, there are no rules; it is good to let your imagination go.”
See more of Colins work HERE

Subscribe Today

I have always had an interest and love of art, particularly painting. I remember vividly as a child, forever with a sketch book in my hand. My parents were always replacing my felt tip pens, pencils and eventually buying watercolour paints and loads of paint by number sets. I left school at 18 years old and then worked in an office for four years. I married at 22 and went on to have our children. Not long after I realised I missed the creative side of my life and still needed to have a pencil or paint brush in my hand. It almost just feels a part of you. So with a six month old baby in my arms, I set out to buy my first set of oil paints, table easel and a lovely little canvas pad. Seven years later, in 2004, I had my website developed, which was also the year I had my first solo exhibition. Living in a rural area near Rotorua and Taupo, there is always natural beauty all around me. Therefore this is where I focus on my subject matter. It is very inspiring to live surrounded in such beauty. I particularly love the end of the day – twilight – for taking photos. The warm light is just beautiful and intensifies the colours of the flora and fauna so much. I have learnt from many artist’s over the years, many different things about painting, whether it be a new colour mixture, or a way to look at a painting differently, even how to approach a subject. One of my great loves is Bouguereau, a well known 19th century amazing French artist. I fell in love with his paintings of women and children, his execution of painting fabrics, the attention to detail is fascinating. See Vicki’s work HERE.

Artists don’t have to work full time in their studio to be an ‘artist’. Tammie says she believes she has artist etched into her bones, as if she is working on the weekend or too busy during the week to get into the studio, she is like a bear with a sore head, and we know what they do. When the question, ‘What are your hobbies in your spare time’ came up Tammie really struggled to answer this, she says it took her a very long time to come up with a response, as her only true hobby is being in the studio, art is her life. Tammie was home schooled from the age of three, it was not until her parents suggested in 2009 that she should enrol in classes held by the Feilding District Art Society, a class that had eight other students, her being the youngest. This is where Rita Easther introduced her to the influences of Braque and the style of Cubism. Rita was a well-known artist for her renditions of Rangitikei cliffs and landscapes and dislocated birds using cubism. She took Tammie under her wing and passed on a wealth of knowledge and continued to work closely with Tammie after the classes had finished. She encouraged her to join the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, as the next step to be taken and to make sure that she continued to regularly submit work. Rita was Tammie’s main inspiration and she relates how she loves how her work stands out from across the room in galleries. This creates a bit of uncertainty in her as sometimes she worries her work is too different, but Tammie has learned different is good, her work is distinctive. See Tammie's work HERE.

Subscribe Today

Sarah Kane-Matete was born in Pasig Manila, Philippines and was raised in Nuhaka & Mahia, found on the east coastline of the North Island of NZ. Sarah says, “I was born from a bloodline of creatives”. She lived and breathed art at home and at school, always knowing she would be an artist right from a very young age. Growing up in the countryside surrounded by nature allowed a simpler life, encouraging her creative mind to flow. When Sarah was in high school, her passion for drawing and painting continued which lead her into her tertiary years where she graduated in 2009 with a BA in Contemporary Maori Visual art and Design. While working towards her BA, Sarah was also busy growing a wonderful family with her husband Vaughan becoming a busy lady flitting between her two passions in life. 2016 became her year to focus more on her career in art. Sarah’s children had developed more independence which allowed her more time to grow her small business at her home studio in Gisborne, working as a multimedia artist in ta moko, Filipino tattoo and painting. The wonderful thing about living in a beautiful place such as Gisborne, is you truly appreciate the simple living, which she also says is her paradise. Family is most important to Sarah, she says her young family are lucky to share their living space with their matriarch who is Vaughan’s 95 year old Nan Elsie. Content with living and appreciating the things so many take for granted; Fresh air, water, clean food, sun and the love of doing the things they are passionate about through their creative practices. Sarah explains how life doesn’t have to be complicated, just making a living and living itself is special.

See Sarah's work HERE

Subscribe Today

I consider myself an illustrator. For me visual artists are in two main categories: artists with a capital ‘A’, being those who are brave, clever, and who attempt to change the way we look at things: artists such as the impressionists and avant-garde abstract artists. Some turn out some extraordinary work which is beyond me. The other category are the small ‘a’s who are really illustrators, like me. I just don’t have the courage to produce abstract or experimental art and I would feel dishonest if I did. It is enough of a challenge just to capture the moods of the sea and ships on canvas. Excepting genuine primitive artists, I believe that any competent artist must have mastered representation before attempting abstract work and I do not consider myself there yet. Marine painting has its own demands. A bit like specializing in representing horses, one gets hauled over the coals if you get something wrong. Painting all ships, and particularly sailing ships demands a thorough technical knowledge which, I think I have. My technical expertise is inclusive of historical vessels as I specialise in maritime history and have published four books on the subject. A glance at the galleries on my website will show that the majority of my work is historical.
See Roger's work HERE

Subscribe Today