Alan Williams
OUTLAW ARTIST There has always been something indefinable about motorcycling and motorbikes. Perhaps it is the independent nature of man and…
Geoff Noble
FREEDOM AND MOVEMENT
There is a lot of paint and colour, lots of colour. Bright, vibrant and even startling. And movement, always movement, large bold images leap out demanding attention, captured but seemingly not, on the cusp of rising and falling but nowhere near frozen.
There are paintings all over the place when entering a very cluttered Tahuna Studios in Nelson. Some are complete, overs still in that moment of creation. New and old it is an eclectic mix. Added to this are posters, surfboards, skateboards, and all manner of tools.
Fiona Hayward
GOING SOLO
Fiona Hayward was highly rated in two prestigious New Zealand art awards. Her works can be found as far afield as the USA and Australia. She is currently working on a new series of paintings of endangered species from around the world which, she says, will enable her to host her first solo exhibition.
Whilst a deep and profound love of nature lies at the core of her inspiration, it is a peaceful inner feeling of freedom and joy in creating a new artwork that drives and motivates Fiona to paint and draw. Although she has had no formal art training, Auckland born Fiona says her capacity to draw and paint stems from her mother, a talented artist in her own right, who encouraged Fiona from a young age to pursue her artistic bent.
Geoffrey Cox
FROM PLASTICINE TO POLYMER
Geoffrey Cox has been drawing and modelling all his life. In addition to illustrating books on wildlife and natural history Geoffrey has produced a myriad of work for museums, galleries and individual collectors.
While Geoffrey recalls making plasticine models when he was 11 years old. Things became a little more serious, while he was studying for a degree in zoology, when he was asked to make models for a prehistoric reptile display at the Auckland Museum. After this he was asked to illustrate ‘Collins Guide to the Sea Fishes of New Zealand,’ which was how Geoffrey’s career as a professional artist really started.
Mehrdad Tahan
KNOW YOURSELF
From an early age Mehrdad Tahan had an interest in drawing and studied techniques used by the Old Masters. By the age of twenty, he had established his first studio where he taught drawing and calligraphy as well as exhibiting his own works.
In 1990 Mehrdad left Iran for New Zealand, which resulted in a pause in art while he improved his English and learnt about our culture. Family reasons dictated a move to Sweden, and a new culture and language to learn. 1999 saw Mehrdad return to New Zealand and settle in Christchurch.
David Foley
A LINEAR PERSPECTIVE
For much of his life David Foley worked in commercial interior design and only took up serious watercolour painting on retiring, attending various workshops in New Zealand, Italy and Australia.
“While I took an interest in drawing from a very early age I did not have any formal art training at all,” he says. He did however attend the Brixton School of Building and Architecture in the UK from 1949 - 1952 and completed a five year apprenticeship in Display and Signwriting in Hamilton.
Pauline Allomes
THE FINER DETAIL
A strong interest in art as a child did not hold much sway in the early 1960s when women did not go to art school and were expected to become nurses or secretaries, get married young and stay at home to look after the children.
Pauline Allomes was 50 before she was free to follow a desire that had been with her all her life and enrol at art school. “Through the years of raising children I had a strong interest in fibre and on entering art school thought I would become a fibre artist,” Pauline says, “this changed the minute I discovered paint, pastel, pen and ink.”
John Hodgson
THE LIVING ARTIST
After many years of working in the corporate world, John Hodgson completed a long transition to full time artist with his first solo exhibition at the Depot ArtSpace in Devonport in April this year. Representing seven years of work, a good number of the pieces on show sold over the two weeks of the exhibition which also saw some 600 visitors to the gallery.
Whangarei-born, John, whose very first painting was a self-portrait completed back in 1977, has had a long interest in art but says he ‘played around’ for years while in ‘corporate career mode’ here in New Zealand and in the USA. On returning to NZ in 2003 he says he became really serious about his own art while beginning with partner Mary, a modest collection of work by New Zealand artists.
Ron Stenberg
Award winning professional artist Jacky Pearson, speaks to one of New Zealand’s most enduring artists, Ron Stenberg, who marks his 95th birthday this month with a new solo exhibition at the Remuera Gallery in Auckland.
Ron is a former senior lecturer and head of department at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee, was a council member of the Auckland Society of Arts, a painter for the Black Watch Battalion during their last days in Germany, and during the Cold War, and boasts a painting in the Queen’s private collection.
Tonal Values
GETTING YOUR TONAL VALUES RIGHT “Tonal values are critical. The lights and darks contribute more to the success of a painting’s…