Artists

From the balmy California sun to tropical Hawaii and then here to New Zealand’s Saint Heliers, Kristen Olson Stone has explored and painted her way throughout the Pacific rim. It all started back there, in the west of America, with Kristen’s emotional connection to her first art tutor. “My first art teacher was my grandmother, who lived in the Sierra foothills of Northern California. She was a wonderful artist and we were very close, with us taking our first three artist workshops together, which was a wonderful experience.

“She gifted me professional artist supplies and ‘how to’ art books for every birthday and holiday. She also encouraged me to paint and draw as much as possible and we shared a love of nature and wildlife. When I got to spend time with her she would take me out to hike and we sketched and painted along the way. I never needed any encouragement to paint, the desire to paint and draw well was always a part of me.” This early exposure to the art world and the exciting and endless possibilities was just the beginning. Kristen’s studies led her into art in a somewhat different and yet complimentary way, despite this early foundational time with her grandmother. “I have a BA in Geography from the University Of Maryland, which has been useful, giving me an in-depth understanding of the geology and geography of the landscapes that I love to visit and paint. After university, I attended art school. First at The Art Students League in New York with a full scholarship, then in Southern California where I attended The California Art Institute and Otis Parsons in Los Angeles. I also studied architectural rendering – this taught me perspective from the inside out! I learned the traditional methods of portraiture, figurative art, design, composition and impressionist landscape painting. Beyond art school I’ve taken a few professional artist workshops including those by Rose Frantzen, Don Putman, Neil Boyle and Michael Albrechtsen. I think that the best teacher is nature itself; nature provides all the answers if you are keenly observant and know the right questions to ask.” Kristen Olson Stone

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From a very early age I have always been creating in some way, you could say it’s just part of my soul, part of who I am. It has always been a dream of mine to become an artist. Not all people get to live their dream as I am now. I have never had any formal training in drawing or painting. What I do now has come through trial and error and a lot of hours; some days I find myself still painting in the wee small hours having not noticed the time.
“I loved exploring creativity since I was very small. I began experimenting with resene testpots while I was living in Wellington, creating abstract works on canvas occasionally, but I never felt happy with my finished works because I didn’t develop a definitive style or find it to be a very accurate tool of self expression at that point in time. I didn’t feel emotionally connected to my works, I just enjoyed the process of creating.” Take the girl out of Auckland and she ends up in Singapore or, initially at least, Indonesia. It’s amazing how a move can change your thinking process or style. In Jennifer’s case, this is when some passion and inspiration really started to take flight. “It wasn’t until I moved to Jakarta, Indonesia with two young children for my husband’s job that I began to develop an interest in learning realistic oil portraits. I think it was a reaction to the chaotic environment I found myself living in, with bomb threats, flooding, protests and snipers hanging out on rooftops, the list goes on… “The environment I was living in in Jakarta was chaotic, messy and sometimes frightening, so I needed an antithesis to the life that was happening outside, inside my studio.” From the somewhat chaotic existence of Indonesia to the more refined areas of Singapore, this feeling and the motivation behind her works started to evolve and take shape, with inspiration coming from many different quarters. The change of atmospheres, melded together many different environments, created varying points of inspiration.
Jennifer Chalklen

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For artist John McCormack, a.k.a. JR, the deep South of the South Island is home. Born in Wyndham and now residing in Queenstown, JR’s road to becoming an artist was more about bringing out what was already within him.
“I popped into this world with a wicked imagination, so it was just a matter of time before it was used in an artistic sense. The term ‘artist’ to me means the use of one’s personal energy in whatever direction you choose and for me that included athletic pursuits and even a stint at poetry. I used to walk about with a sketchbook and pencil for a couple of years at one stage, drawing anything and everything, which introduced me to the murky world of shadows and light.” Formally a white water rafting instructor, medical ski patroller and action photographer, this lover of the outdoors dropped the paddle, skis and camera and traded them in for canvas and brushes. “Eventually my other careers ebbed away. I came from a pretty intense work environment with 30 years wearing a crash helmet as a professional white water river guide and tandem paragliding pilot. I became more and more obsessed with the art world. Those previous careers still influence the way I think and work to some degree.” This change introduced JR to a wider landscape of work, using an instinctive gazing ability to find inspiration from many different areas, some of which may come as a surprise to some.
John McCormack

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Gathering inspiration from the world around her – landscapes, birds and people – Debbie Anderson began painting professionally after the birth of her daughter in 2016. She has always been an artist, right from childhood, and finds huge motivation from her daughter. “I want her to grow up with a strong female role model – a mother who followed her dreams and succeeded.”
Art is a huge part of Debbie’s life, as necessary as breathing: “I am lucky enough to have a partner who believes in me and my talent and supports me while I pursue my love of art. I also need to paint to keep me on the level mentally. Painting regularly is therapeutic for me; if I haven’t painted in a week my family notice a bit of a dip in my mood.” As an emerging artist, Debbie is very proud of the successes and sales she has achieved through ArtEx in Napier and in the Pinehaven Arts and Crafts Fair. Most of her work is through commissions: “I love working with a client to create an artwork with meaning and soul for them. There is no prouder moment that seeing the joy on someone’s face when your artwork is just what they had envisioned or better.”
“After seeing Jenny’s demonstration, I ‘googled’ large flower paintings and eventually came across Birgit O’Connor of California, USA, and her online workshops.
Off I went, starting with her White Flowers online workshop. Later, I bought some of Tauranga artist Susan Harrison Tustain’s DVD’s, and learnt so much about watercolour painting and how to achieve the colours I wanted such as in leaves and skin tones. I watched many more training sessions by Birgit and others on You Tube throughout the nearly two years I have been painting. It is such a great way to learn – just like having a private tutor.
Debbie Anderson

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Amatuer genealogist and novice artist, Christine Mottram (née Lovett), has always found beauty and inspiration in her environment. From her surroundings, she has coaxed colours of various hues and pedigrees to synchronize and unite in a bright display to celebrate the diverse nature of realism in portraiture and landscape. A resident of the highly creative community in Christchurch, Christine details her journey of realising her passions and chasing her dreams after retirement.
Born in 1941 in the historic Naval town of Harwich, UK, during the height of World War II, after the death of her father, Christine and her mother immigrated to New Zealand in 1950 to escape the aftermath of one of the world’s most horrific wars. On entering Aotearoa, the Lovett family stayed in Pigeon Bay, Banks Peninsula, before relocating and settling in Papanui, a shining example of why Christchurch has been dubbed ‘The Garden City’. The decision to move to New Zealand proved its worth from the beginning, and this fact was soon confirmed when Christine entered Papanui High School, where she was encouraged to explore her budding creativity in art classes taught by renown New Zealand artist John Coley. “An artist’s job is to communicate directly to the audience in a visual representation of ideas that cannot be communicated or explained in any other way”, said John Coley in a RNZ interview.
Christine Mottram

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In 1996 Marcia Soanes attended some day time classes at ArtStation Ponsonby which included life drawing and painting, as well as beginner painting and drawing with Matthew Browne. Having been diagnosed with fibromyalgia at age 37, she left work and began to paint. She started with hardboard, which she undercoated and started using oil paints – copying pictures, or just painting what she saw out of the window. She wanted to learn more and began reading, learning and trying new styles and ideas. For Marcia, painting has turned out to be very good for her mind, her well-being and as a form of meditation.

Taking a break from painting during the early 2000s, due to studying and moving around a lot, she returned to Eden Terrace in 2011 and has been painting ever since. In 2018, she returned to ArtStation where she did two terms of portrait painting in oils with Alvin Xiong, who specialises in old masters painting techniques. “In this class have learnt new skills as I found it difficult in the past to learn portrait painting from books. Also I enjoy the social aspect of a class situation and meeting other fellow artists.”
Marcia’s inspiration comes from the old buildings which remain in Auckland, the way they have managed to survive the modernisation of the inner city. “I like to put people into most of my streetscapes, behind windows or caught at that particular moment in time. I love to put my personality into my work, making them slightly quirky rather than just photographic copies of a scene.” Vincent Van Gogh inspires her to try to express her emotions as he did by the use of colour, complementary and contrasting colours and his use of pure colour straight from the tube to canvas. “I love his bold brush strokes, and how his paintings disturb the viewer and make you think this is not just a ‘pretty picture’. This I like.”
See more about Marcia here.

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