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Drawing

Drawing is a visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface.

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WAKE (Alex Tikaram)

WAKE Alex Tikaram The NZ Artist

ESOTERIC CANDOUR

“I want to say I had formal art training at school, but what did school teach anyone apart from how to prepare yourself to be short on cash. Art was something that I always did that cost me next to nothing that I could learn alone and in my own way, so no, no formal training.”

It’s hard for Wake to pinpoint how he ended up being an artist. “Anyone who does anything slightly creative is an artist to me, but to define it to something more specific, I started to take it seriously when a friend of mine made a social media page for me around the end of 2020, to exhibit and possibly sell some pieces. A couple of years ago, I would never have dreamed of people wanting to pay actual money for the things I draw. However, I sold a piece to a guy all the way in the USA which I’m pretty proud of, it’s very humbling.”

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Roxanne Milson

THE MAGIC WEAVER

We introduce you to Roxanne Milson, an artist formerly of Australia, now living in Tauranga. Roxanne tells us her story:

I haven’t had any formal art training. My education was based in Graphic Design since I was predominantly a digital artist until two years ago. When I was pursuing education, graphic design was all that was offered for digital artists but it turns out it was not what I wanted! I wanted to illustrate, to draw, to create. So the internet and books were the things that educated me. If I wanted to know how to do something, I looked it up.

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Monique Tichborne

ARTISTIC ESCAPE

Diagnosed in 2018 with Fibromyalgia and FND (Functional neurological disorder) Monique Tichborne bravely started to use art as a means of therapy, a distraction from the pain. She explains further . . . 

My health and requiring home based work were the motivations for me to become an artist. I gain inspiration from all around me. I don’t think my creative head ever switches off. I’m always capturing photos to add to my ideas folder. At the end of 2019 I was struggling with my drawing so to test myself I turned my page around which oddly was easier. I have been drawing all my portrait work upside down since. I have only begun painting this year. My canvas doesn’t remain stationery here either and I don’t work on an easel. Art therapy has been one consistent ‘healer’ while I manage daily pain. This year I officially classify my occupation as an artist. 

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UK ARTIST Danny Mooney

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When drawing people you would think it might help to actually remember their faces… What if you can’t remember them? British artist Danny Mooney suffers from facial blindness but finds that he can overcome this obstacle by focussing on other aspects of a person’s character, an approach that lends itself to caricatures.

“I can draw recognisable people with just a few lines without any real trouble,” he reveals. “I’ve been doing political cartoons. They’re an expression of my annoyance.  Cartoons are caricatures really. Say I’m doing a cartoon of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson… I can do the shape and the way he stands without too much effort. I look at a couple of other people’s cartoons of him and see that they all have little piggy eyes and droopy eyelids. For me the thing that makes Boris look like Boris is the hair, the round face, the fat body and the shabby suit. It doesn’t really need any additional features. That cartoon could be Donald trump or Boris Johnson. In order to produce political cartoons you have to stay abreast of the news but in order to stay sane you have to not stay abreast of the news! It’s a difficult tight rope to walk. I have always recognised people by their shape, the way they move, the way they walk, rather than by their faces. If I’m painting someone then those are the characteristics that are most important to me.”

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Estefania Mondaca

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Born in Chile, South America, Estefania Mondaca is just starting on her artistic journey and we are pleased to introduce her work to you.

Estefania is currently studying for a Bachelors degree in Architectural Studies at ARA Canterbury. She has learned that all ways of creating achieve the same point, which is to create, whatever name you call it. Inspired by life itself, the things she sees that make her think or suprise her; she finds that in Chile the focus was on people, the human figure and a totally different landscape to New Zealand. Here she is inspired by the remarkable beauty of New Zealand’s terrain. “I normally go out and take photos, for example, the Heaphy Track on the West Coast, which was the first awakening for me to this beautiful country. I started to draw and paint what I saw. I think walking is a big inspiration for me, giving me an understanding of my feelings and perception of what I see.”

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Dylan Keys

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CREATIVE INTUITION

Self-taught artist Dylan Keys has been creating since he was a small child. “I always wanted to be a full-time artist but it was an unexpected series of events that led to it actually becoming a reality. Unfortunately, I’ve been in poor health for a number of years and one of the ways I cope with the pain and unpleasant sensations is to distract myself by drawing and painting.”

“A few years ago, I did a realistic charcoal drawing which caught the attention of leading motivational speaker Craig Harper, who is also a writer and educator in the areas of health, high performance and personal development. He shared my work with his online audience and I soon had a few commission enquiries coming in for charcoal portraits. Although my preferred style has always been a very loose and expressive one rather than realism, I decided to make the most of that momentum. I launched my website and social media pages soon after and I’m lucky enough to have been a full-time artist since.”

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UK ARTIST Amanda Bates

Amanda Bates - Aotearoa Artist - The New Zealand Artists Magazine

Trees prompted Amanda Bates’ move from palette knives and oil paint to pen and ink. “A particular group of beech trees at Avebury were responsible for this switch,” says British artist Amanda, who grew up in a house called Haere  Mai, which she understands to mean ‘Welcome’ in Maori.

By Tim Saunders

“Growing on top of the henge (earthen bank), their intertwined roots have been exposed by soil erosion, caused by a combination of weathering and visitors feet. The resultant lattice is fascinatingly ornate and well beyond the scope of my knife work. Brushes didn’t seem to hold the answer either; the magic that I was reaching for didn’t seem to be present in a realistic depiction. I tried several approaches, including a diversion into a stylised use of colour that took on a life of its own for a while but it wasn’t until I reached back in time for my pen and its promise of crisply rendered detail, that I realised that colour itself might be the problem. It seems to be well known among photographers that a sharp monochrome photograph will show detail better than any colour photograph could. The reason for this has nothing to do with any inherent superiority of black and white film over colour; it holds true in digital photography. It is simply that colour distracts the eye from detail and it seems that our brains can only cope with so much visual information at a time.

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UK ARTIST James Lester

Successful British designer and art director James Lester left his fast paced life in London and became a full-time artist in tranquil Devon. After initial study James established a career in advertising and publishing, when he worked on many national advertising campaigns and magazines. It was throughout this time that his paintings were exhibited in various London exhibitions, including the Royal Academy and the Royal Society of British Artists. 

Born in Dover, Kent, James spent much of his early life among the chalk Downs and picturesque Weald of Kent. For hundreds of years this county has been referred to as The Garden of England with its gentle hills, fertile farmland, orchards and cultivated country estates such as Penshurst Place, Sissinghurst Castle and Hall Place Gardens. Historically the coastal houses here were used as a location to dry hops for the brewing process. Perhaps unsurprisingly the county is home to Britain’s oldest brewer, Shepherd Neame, whose brewery was established in 1698 but “there is clear evidence that its heritage pre-dates even this period” according to the brewer. Today award winning English wines are produced here, too. Magnificent coastal views and the world-renowned White Cliffs of Dover together with Kent’s rolling green hills and beautiful scenery provide an artist with plenty of inspiration. 

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Lizzy Dickie

lizzy-dickie-aotearoa-artistCELEBRATIONS OF LIFE

Born into a family of nine children, Lizzy Dickie has always been encouraged to pursue her creativity. Art is an important part of life and something her family celebrated. Lizzy was encouraged to go to university and study her passion, which at that time was sculpture. Having studied in the UK, achieving a BTEC Diploma pre-foundation at Mid Warwickshire College in 1996, a BTEC Diploma in art and design at St Martins College in London and finally receiving a BA Hons in Fine Art from Coventry University, she travelled extensively and volunteered in various parts of the world, creating murals and teaching.

She settled in Auckland and worked as the lead mural artist on ‘Storyfest’ for the Waitakere City Council for several years. “This gave me the confidence to create work for others, but honestly, Instagram has given me a real outlet to share my more personal work and to meet other creatives who inspire me daily. Instagram gives me the freedom to create what I want and gives me the confidence to call myself an artist.”

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