Meg McIsaac, Author at Aotearoa Artist

Monika Welch

1 May 2014
Abstract, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Birdlife, Featured Artists, Figures, Mixed Media, Nature, Oils, Painting, Pop Art

LET US BE ARTISTS!

It was the love of art and an inherent creativity that paved the way for Monika Welch, a former musician, to become a full time artist.

“I never had any formal are training and just blundered and blustered my way through,” she quips, adding that she did not enter the world of ‘art’ until she was 35: “It was New Year’s and my friend Julie asked what shall we do this year? Seeing as we’d both dabbled in writing and music I replied: ‘let’s be artists, and that was that.”

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Lynn Sinclair-Taylor

1 May 2014
Acrylic, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Expressionism, Featured Artists, Illustration, Impressionism, Landscape, Mixed Media, Nature, Painting, Pastels, Portraits, Resin, Seascape

MY OWN ART JOURNEY

"I have made my own art journey by putting into practice what I have read and learning from my mistakes."

“My jobs were always art related and it was always in the back of my mind that one day I would take my art more seriously. That day came when our youngest son started school and before long I was tutoring adults and children and painting most of the week. Drawing peoples’ portraits came naturally to me and I thought I might become a portrait artist.

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Jo Chester

1 May 2014
Abstract, Animals, Artists, Featured Artists, Figures, Oils, Painting, Portraits, Realism, Still-life, Surrealism

HOLD ON TIGHT

“Art enables us to find and lose ourselves at the same time” Thomas Merton.

“Ever since I can remember I have always been drawing and creating images,” Jo Chester explains when asked about her entry in the world of art, “I had a very supportive teacher at Rotorua Girl’s High who encouraged my talent and insisted that I apply to Wellington Polytechnic to study graphic design.”

This ultimately resulted in a career with art as the baseline. “I have worked as a Graphic designer, Textile designer, even designing jeans at one stage as well as drawing up fashion shots for a retail outlet.

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Jan Thomson

1 May 2014
Animals, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Featured Artists, Impressionism, Landscape, Nature, Oils, Painting, Seascape, Watercolour

BREAKING THE RULES

Recollecting how she first picked up a brush in her mid-forties after recovering from an encounter with the big ‘C’, Jan Thomson says “My journey into the world of painting began late. It was then that I decided that life is far too short to delay doing what you love, so I gave up my house painting job of 17 years and took up slightly smaller brushes.”

With a number of artists in the family, Jan says art was always in her blood. Why she avoided it for 47 years she didn’t say but once she started she was instantly and totally hooked. “I started with watercolours and then moved onto oils,” she reveals. “I learnt to paint by going out to Wellington’s (sometimes wild) south coast, wrestling with the elements and trying to put down on paper what was in front of me.”

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Greg Maddox

1 May 2014
Animals, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Birdlife, Driftwood, Featured Artists, Impressionism, Installation, Nature, Sculpture

DRIFTING WITH PASSION

Trained as a signwriter, Greg Maddox’s five year apprenticeship taught him a range of disciplines in engineering, carpentry and the art of hand rendering signs using brush and airbrush, something he loves with a passion.

And if you think signwriting is mundane, Greg’s skills have taken him all over the world, including Europe and the USA. He was involved in creating 3D apples for the ‘Big Apple Campaign’ that now adorn the streets of New York City and another project in South Street, Seaport. “Moving to Europe was great, as the culture was a pleasure to immerse yourself into. I spent many hours in the English Garden, Munich rendering pastels of the human form. It was bliss. “I thought making money as a portrait artist was me for the rest of my life.”

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Brian Looker

1 May 2014
Animals, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Birdlife, Featured Artists, Figures, Oils, Painting, Surrealism

AN OPPORTUNITY FOR REFLECTION

When Brian Looker returned to New Zealand after an absence of twenty years living in Australia, it was like coming to an unknown country. It was the catalyst he needed to become a full time artist. “It seemed a fitting time, to follow my dream and make a commitment to pursue my art on a deeper level,” he says.

“It seemed a fitting time, to follow my dream and make a commitment to pursue my art on a deeper level,” he says. “For many years my wife and I had visited artists in their studios in many countries around the world, each time thinking what a perfect lifestyle they had. Truthfully the only difference between dreaming and having is that first step of doing.”

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Perspective in Composition

1 March 2014
Composition, Educational

GETTING A HANDLE ON PERSPECTIVE by Morgan Riekert In this article on drawing basics we will be dealing with one of…

Watercolor_Texture_Stock_1_by_ekoh_stock-aotearoa-artist

Stretching Watercolour Paper

1 March 2014
Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Educational, Watercolour

STEP BY STEP - STRETCHING WATERCOLOUR PAPER If you have ever painted on a sheet of well-stretched watercolour paper, you will…

Amanda Brett

1 March 2014
Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Featured Artists, Floral, Impressionism, Landscape, Painting, Still-life, Watercolour

THE COLOURS OF WATER

“All my life I had always wanted to be an artist,” Amanda says, “but it got lost amongst a business career, and that of being a wife and mother.” Continuing she adds that High School was a big waste of time for her.

“I had many ideas for my future but I am sad to say my school would not support any of them. I wanted to become an architect, but I wasn’t allowed to study any of the foundation courses. I was even told by the school career counsellor “not to worry about art or music school as I was just going to get pregnant, so why bother?”

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Geoff Popham

1 March 2014
Abstract, Acrylic, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Digital, Featured Artists, Ink, Maori, Nature, Painting, Watercolour

EXPLORING NEW DIRECTIONS

Born in Kawakawa, Bay of Islands, New Zealand, art has always been a part of Geoff Popham’s life. From when he was a child growing up in the Far North, he was surrounded by what he describes as 'amazing artwork'.

“Spending time at our whanau marae, and being taught by my elders about the carvings, paintings and weaving was my first education in art,” he reveals. “Seeing the intricacies of the skilled work and the meaning and pride associated with them, inspired me to want to do the same.”

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