UK Artist Jennifer Evans
A ROYAL COMMISSION
Jennifer Evans received a commission to paint HM the late Queen’s corgis for her Silver Jubilee.
“I taught my husband on the train how to use the second camera: I set it on Green and continuous, my usual mode. We went to Windsor Castle, and met the Queen’s Diary Secretary and the Footman, who was OC Dogs during her absence. Thank goodness the Queen was not actually there that day, I don’t think I could have managed the social area and the unaccustomed nuances and curtseying requirements while concentrating on photographing each of the seven dogs.
Rebecca Mathews
MY SOUL DREAM
MY SOUL DREAM“When you find something that makes you happy then the pursuit to better yourself comes naturally”, says Rebecca Mathews, whose mantra is, whatever is good for your soul, do that. “After I found my love for painting, I started showing my work to friends and colleagues who loved it. I sold many pieces and picked up a few commissions.”
Rebecca is a self-taught artist. She loves learning and the challenge of trying new things. “My first painting on canvas was in my 20s. I bought a paint-by-number and loved it. However, it didn't look real enough for me so I started researching; reading books and watching tutorials.”
Ninette Kruger
PROCESS AND PURPOSE
Born in South Africa, Ninette Kruger has always enjoyed being creative and explored different mediums until she discovered pewter embossing in 2004.
She taught herself the basics from an instructional book, and later attended a more advanced techniques workshop at a pewter studio in Johannesburg. Since then , she has been focused on refining her technique and thoroughly enjoying metal embossing as a hobby. “I started out with a career in the food and hotel industry, which I absolutely loved, and completed my MBA in 2006. I quickly realised the corporate world was not for me, and set out to carve out a creative career for myself. I immigrated to New Zealand with my family in 2016 and during lockdown 2020, I attended an online artist masterclass that changed my world.”
Jo Rankin
ABSTRACT BALANCE
ABSTRACT BALANCEFormal training began for Jo Rankin when she graduated from the two year Nanette Cameron Interior Design School Auckland in 2008. Included in the training subjects were colour harmony, balance, styling and art history which also sparked her interest in painting and becoming an artist.
Moving to Kinloch in 2010, Jo joined a watercolour group in her local community. At the same time she joined Active Arts Taupō where she went every week to paint. “I had a great time there, being encouraged by other artists and making new friends.” Semi-retirement allowed her the time to explore her artistic dreams. “Loving colour and design led me to begin my journey as an artist. I have always been a voracious reader and love my collection of art books where I constantly find inspiration. Also our beautiful country and scenery fires my creative soul each day.”
James Price
SOOTHING INSPIRATION
James Price had done some photography previously but in 2021 completed the Level 4 New Zealand Certificate in Creativity through The Learning Connexion. In 2022 James completed the Level 5 Diploma with them, and is already working through Level 6 and loving every moment of his study.
“I love being behind a camera, and whilst commercial work might pay the bills, I like spending time working on a single image that might not come together otherwise. Art for me is when you share a bit of your soul with what you do.” Art has carried him through his three very different careers, becoming the defining part of his character: “In my first career, I looked at art. In my second career, art was a learning experience, and in my third career, art was part of the creative process. Art has taught me, soothed me, and inspired me. Now I continue my journey with art, as an artist. It’s pretty cool.”
Jackie Krzyzowski
DETAILED DELIGHT
Jackie Krzyzowski never had any formal training but always enjoyed drawing as a child. She used one private workshop and various online tutorials to get her started with pastels. She explains further:
I spent most of my adult life with horses and riding as a hobby and with family life, working full time and studying part time there was not much time for anything else. I always thought that one day I might come back to my art. Getting older, I was not fit enough to carry on with the horse riding and moved to breeding and showing miniature horses. This was successful for 10 years, but again, getting older, mobility issues were making this hobby more difficult and so I decided to retire from it. Then came COVID lockdown and I was looking for something to do and now I am on this new, amazing art journey.
Bec Robertson
AVIAN AFFINITY
AVIAN AFFINITYBec Robertson’s grandmother and her grandmother’s sister were painters in their retirement. Bec’s grandmother also wrote and illustrated poems and stories, “As a kid I also wrote and illustrated A LOT of ‘newspapers’. I would make up fanciful news stories and pictures then sell ‘the paper’ to my dad for lolly money. I soon learnt that I could resell the same articles to my other family members for more money for lollies! I loved showing them new pictures and ideas and getting their feedback.”
She tells us more: “I have loved being creative for as long as I can remember. As a young child I had a cupboard in the kitchen under the bench where I kept all my treasures, little bottles of crayon sharpenings, paper cut outs of anything which took my fancy, matchboxes full of strange found objects - I think a few unfortunate forgotten lady bugs and a caterpillar died as a result of my match box obsession.”
UK Artist Tony Feld
Painting a variety of subjects from buildings to wildlife, keeps Tony Feld busy.
“But my method is very much the same no matter what I am painting,” he says. “I usually square up a picture, so draw a grid on a print of a photograph I am working from. I transfer that onto the surface I am working on and go from there. Quite often a complicated painting can take anything up to a month to draw out, even before I have started painting.” Tony’s painting of a leopard took a month to draw out and another five months to paint.
UK ARTIST Russ Chester
Sheep shearing doesn’t rank highly among the topics that typically capture an artist’s attention. But it caught Russ Chester’s eye. The artist, who relocated from the north of England to Wales, has produced a series of paintings celebrating the craft.
“When I first moved to Wales I got involved with shearing on the farm where I was living,” recalls the successful oil painter. “I was gathering and wrapping the wool - I didn’t actually do the shearing because it takes quite a lot of skill to do that. It’s a yearly event. New Zealanders and Māori’s used to come over. It was a good cultural exchange. Local shearers used to have a circuit where they would start off in Wales, then go to Canada and on to New Zealand, returning to Wales. They would just do a circuit round the world, shearing. You would see these guys stripped to the waist absolutely dripping in sweat and crikey they’d get through some sheep. They’d have a counter that they’d click when they’d done one. Half the time they were just wrestling sheep. The sheep weren’t taking too kindly to it especially when there were rams.”
