Magda van der Walt
IRONING IT OUT Mixed media artwork embraces so many mediums, differing creative processes and ways of getting to that all-important final…
Sarah Kolver
BLUE PUDDLE REFLECTIONS Sarah Kolver’s beginnings are like many young people who fall in love with art, wielding a paintbrush and…
Lorraine Bailey
HAPPY HEART, HAPPY ART Moving from one place to the next can be a drag. Boxing up your life in the…
Keeley Eastwood
EASTWOOD MYTHOLOGY Myths, legends and the other-worldly creatures that bring them to life have long caught the attention of young and…
Judith Milner
COMPOSITIONS OF LIFE By Matt Mortimer Many artists will shy away from portraiture. If the symmetry and, attention to detail aren’t…
Cindy Woest
HONEST ABANDON While visiting Dougie Chowns one Sunday, I met a neighbour of his, Cindy Woest. Cindy is a very talented…
Caitlin Johnston
SELF-TAUGHT BY THE SEA By Matt Mortimer It is said that if you make a job out of what you love,…
Monisha Gallage
WAX ON - WAX OFF
WAX ON - WAX OFFBorn in Sri Lanka, and the daughter of a well recognised newspaper artist, Monisha Gallage did a bachelor’s degree in Fashion and LifeStyle design at the University of Moratuwa. During this course, she did a module of batik in 2012 and completed another course in batik at teachers training college in 2018. She has excelled in this laborious but rewarding discipline in art.
“Soon after I completed university, I started working in apparel manufacturing and worked as a junior fashion designer for several leading apparel manufacturing companies who provide design-to-delivery solutions for some of the world’s most recognized brands such as Calvin Klein, Versace and Superdry Japan. This was a highly competitive and fast-moving environment which I didn’t enjoy as much as I thought I would. I grew up in an arty background as my father was a well recognized newspaper artist in Sri Lanka. He also worked as an Art Advisor for the Ministry of Education and I had the opportunity to get his guidance towards art from an early age.
Marc Mckinlay
Marc currently lives in Christchurch and has never had any formal training in art. He says his major interest in art stemmed from secondary school in Scotland, when he was selected to represent his school in regional art programmes.
Marc currently lives in Christchurch and has never had any formal training in art. He says his major interest in art stemmed from secondary school in Scotland, when he was selected to represent his school in regional art programmes.“I like to experiment with colour and find inspiration everywhere. I don’t focus on other artists’ work but the vibrant art scene in Christchurch has inspired me to create more art in the last 24 months than I did over the last twenty years. Due to this, my art has evolved significantly in the past 18 months and I am now considered to have evolved a style.”
Madison Rogers
SACRED GEOMETRY
SACRED GEOMETRYHaving always enjoyed working with her hands and anything to do with crafts, by the time Madison Rogers entered high school, she knew she wanted to pursue a career that would allow her to develop and explore her creative skills. With her favourite subject at school being metalwork, she investigated career options that would embrace both her artistic side and her love of working with metal.
“It was around this time that I learned a friend of mine’s father was a jeweller and gem setter. This sounded like the perfect option for me and I pursued this with vigour.” She went straight from high school to study at Hungry Creek Art and Craft School, graduating after four years with a Level 7 Advanced Diploma in Jewellery. “The biggest motivating factor for me to become a jeweller was the overwhelming need to create. To have the skills and knowledge to turn raw materials and a concept into a functional, wearable, beautiful piece of jewellery that is not only meaningful to me, but also becomes something special and cherished by others. I love contributing to the meaningful moments in people’s lives - engagements, weddings, birthdays, graduations or anniversaries etc.”