Caitlin Johnston
SELF-TAUGHT BY THE SEA By Matt Mortimer It is said that if you make a job out of what you love,…
Tony McNeight
I loved being creative and being able to express myself from an early age, as well as communicating my ideas through creativity, with pen and paint. Art came easier to me than more academic subjects so when my art teacher at school showed belief in me and what I might be able to achieve, this motivated me to pursue creativity as a chosen career, coupled with a love of art in history. My formal art training was at AUT Graphic Art and Design, both as a student, graduate and tutor.
My inspiration comes from within. There have been periods of self-doubt, but now I feel I am in a wonderful creative zone of self confidence and belief where anything is possible – when I am open to pursuing it. I just love the joy of release and reward of the ongoing journey. That, for me, is the real enjoyment of being an artist. Degas is the artist who inspired me the most and I especially admire his little ballet dancer, a perfectly superb and complete sculpture. I love the classics (Art) and find inspiration in the inquisition of contemporary works. I have ambitions to explore other mediums and to keep on giving others joy and opportunity for artistic expression through my teaching and art installations. In five years time I see my art reaching a more global audience, touching others. As a teacher I see more students coming through my classes, plus I see myself travelling, sketching , working overseas and collaborating with others. I am presently working on taking two potentially huge projects offshore as a result of the success of the Giant Poppy Art Project. I am as enthusiastic as I was the first day I came up with the concept for the poppy (see pages 10-11 in Series 4, Volume 5, Issue no 23 of The New Zealand Artist Magazine) ”To change or move one person is to change the world entire” quoted from Oscar Schindler. I first exhibited publicly in a gallery in Margaret River and I have also had an exhibition at the Depot Art Space in Devonport. Obviously I am very proud of the Giant Poppy in 2015 in the Auckland Domain. In 2017 I was invited to France to co-create an installation which the President of France and the PM of Canada attended. The big projects I have worked on have had professional and personal obstacles that needed to be overcome, such as getting my work through councils and local government, in the face of ‘nay-sayers’ and bureaucratic red tape. This taught me that I just have to keep pushing for what I believe in!
Learn more about Tony and see more of his work here: Tony McNeight
Carmen Owen
Recently graduating from The Learning Connexion (Wellington) and receiving her Diploma of Art and Creativity (with Honours) through distance study, Carmen Owen has otherwise taught herself since high school by trial and error. She has suffered from depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder since the sudden death of her partner in 1999 and the birth of her son two days later.
“I’ve always been known for my ability to draw since primary school. In 1994 after a relationship breakup and moving house I had hit a real low both financially and emotionally. It was suggested to me that, as I hadn’t created anything or exhibited anything for some time, I create some artwork and enter it in a local exhibition. With this in mind, I sat down at the kitchen table with my pastels and wondered what subject I could try. It was at that moment that my sweet collie came up to me and put her head on my lap and looked at me with reassurance. I then created a portrait of her, which won a commended artist award and from then on I had people asking me to do portraits of their own pets. This was the point where I realized I could be a professional artist and was no longer creating art for just my own personal enjoyment but making other people happy as well. Catch up with Carmen on FaceBook: Wild At HeART Creations.
Birgitt Shannon
Birgitt Shannon has a lasting love of cooking, gardening, travelling and spending time with her husband and friends. More than that though, she is driven by her creative soul. Born in Geelong, Australia, she spent eleven years at the Geelong Fine Arts School – run by two artists.
She attended classes two nights a week during these eleven years, where she studied everything from art history to etching to life drawing. “We also had excursions to galleries in Melbourne and other towns twice a year and regular weekend workshops where we did things like sculpting and creating masks to wear at the end of year exhibition. I ended up attending for so long because the teachers kept coming up with such interesting things to create and I loved being with people who loved art as much as I did.”
Having drawn and painted since she was a young girl her dream was to be an artist. She exhibited a lot while she was at art school. However, as so often happens, family life and work began encroaching on her creative time until she stopped, for a long, dry thirteen years. She really believes that those thirteen years were the biggest mistake she made in her artistic career and is now totally focused on her artwork. “All of the years I wasn’t painting, there was an empty hole inside me and I couldn’t explain why. Now that I am painting full time I know it was the creative part of me that was unhappy.
See more about Birgitt here.
Samantha Knightbridge
The freedom to express, the rush of amazement she gets when her hands manage to physically recreate a vision she had in her mind is the indescribable thing Samantha Knightbridge loves most about being an artist.
I have always held an interest in Art, however, it wasn’t until my daughter was born in late 2012 that I started to truly engage in creating art. While being a stay at home mum, I picked up a pencil and just started drawing, it was the only time I would use for myself – which every new mum would know is rare, but so important. In every aspect, everything changed when I became a mother as did my perspective and creative mind. When my baby was about one and a half, I started to show my work and had a surprising response. I loved drawing, and the feedback I received seemed like I wasn’t that bad at it either. After that growth of confidence, I decided to apply for University and I am currently in my final year studying a Bachelor of Design and Visual Art at Unitec Institute of Technology.
Most feel inspired when they look at something, see something inspiring to them. This happens to me too but rather than being inspired by what I see, I’m inspired mostly by how I feel. Most of my artistic concepts were results from what I was feeling or passionate about at the time I create them. Being self-expressive is what drives my creative soul. Whether it be feelings of curiosity, concern, heartbreak, my mixed cultural identity, my purpose and struggles as a woman and a mother – they all somehow end up relating to one another. Art is my therapy and my sanity, so it’s safe to say that my artistic inspiration is indeed – me.
I adore many artists throughout history, Da Vinci, Gustav Klimt, and most definitely Salvador Dalí. My favourite style/movement is Surrealism, such as Dalí and René Magritte. I admire their use of contrast, juxtaposition and simply taking subjects out of context - it provokes the mind. In my opinion, any artwork that makes the viewer look twice and question it - is a masterpiece. Some of these artists, like Dalí also use a lot of subtle symbology, which I’m obsessed with.
See more about Samantha here: www.samy.co.nz.
Lesley Alexander
Lesley Alexander fondly remembers receiving a book from her Aunt Betty for her 9th birthday titled ‘How to draw flowers’. She poured over the pencil drawings and thoroughly enjoyed following the step-by-step instructions. This is probably the spark that started her on her very creative journey.
"I have always loved ‘creating’, whether it be knitting, card or jewellery making, mosaic or painting but it was the chance visit to an exhibition of botanical art back in the 90s in London that set me on the path to where I am today.
In 1987, after deciding nursing wasn’t for me, I took an Art Foundation Course at Chelsea School of Art, London, and followed that with a First Class Honours BA in Graphics (Scientific Illustration) from Middlesex University in the UK. I began a career as a freelance medical illustrator but I soon became disillusioned when computer generated illustration started to take over scientific illustration. My watercolour skills were becoming obsolete in the medical field. My first foray into botanical art was when the editor of the UK Clematis Society asked me to paint a Clematis of my choice for the cover of their journal and write an article describing the process. This happened in the middle of our UK winter, and with great excitement I naively went to buy a Clematis from the local garden centre. Of course they were just bare twigs, having been pruned weeks before. I bought one anyway and somehow I managed to nurse and sweet talk this poor ‘Nelly Moser’ specimen into thinking it was spring. It eventually obliged by producing a few leaves and eventually a flower! They titled the article ‘The Illustrator’s Challenge’ - rather an understatement I thought. However, I was asked to paint another one so I must have done something right".
See Lesley's work here: Lesley Alexander - Artist.
Gillian Receveur
THE FASCINATION LIES IN THE DETAIL
THE FASCINATION LIES IN THE DETAILGillian Receveur has always loved art. She studied it in school and at teachers college but it wasn’t until she retired from teaching that she could truly commit to her passion of art. A keen interest and love of plants and gardens led her to botanical painting. Gillian explains:
Plants fascinate me, they inspire me by their form, habits, colour and composition. I enjoy looking at plants, the fine details. I love observation and getting completely absorbed in the piece I am working on. Something I have always wanted to do is to paint one plant through all the four seasons as well as do a series of plants of one particular species.
Tessa Ralston
INSPIRED ILLUSTRATION
INSPIRED ILLUSTRATIONI’ve come to find that art seems to always niggle it’s way back into my life, even, perhaps, when I’m trying to distance myself from it. I have no true recollection of ‘getting into art’, but like most children inherently are, I was drawn to painting and visual expression.
With my mother being a graphic designer, I was fortunate enough that she fostered my artistic energy and patiently encouraged my creativity – and amusingly, she simultaneously firmly discouraged my entering the graphic design world. I believe there is a subtle divergence that happens when artists are ‘made’, and that is when they keep drawing, painting and playing after they are no longer children.
Rochelle Boult
FREE SPIRIT
Watching unlimited possibilities unfold onto paper, Rochelle Boult’s free spirit finds itself at the tip of a sharpened pencil. Finding peace and relaxation within her mark making, she builds her line and tone gently, observing her drawing as it gradually grows in depth and detail using shading and clever use of the different softnesses of her medium.
Rochelle creates works with Faber-Castell thick Graphite on Bockingford Drawing paper. Starting with an HB which she uses to sketch the outline, she then moves through from a 2B for shading to a 6B and an 8B for final depth. Rochelle also does some printmaking including etching and woodcuts, which she has successfully sold in a Marlborough exhibition.
Terry Fergusson
THE BUSHMANS SON ©
From a young age Terry Fergusson would sketch portraits and received an Art award at school. Then with everyday life and becoming a solo Dad he just never had time to pursue it further. Now, as an empty nester, he has felt the urge to pick up the brush and concentrate on painting people, their faces, their emotions. Terry tells us about his passion.
The results of picking up the brush again have been inspiring and well accepted. My passion has evolved beyond what I ever could have imagined. Creating a legacy of work that I can leave behind that speaks my name and my brand, along with the subject and the emotion shown was all inspiring to me. I want people to see what I see, remember what I remember and enjoy it long after I’m not here to paint anymore. Looks, emotions, stories and faces inspire me, and the ability to capture them through a mix of photography and acrylic excites me every time I start or have the idea to start a new piece.