Why Print?
WHY PRINT? By John Botton You push your chair back from your workstation and admire your handiwork. “Another masterpiece and in…
Camera Obscura
CAMERA OBSCURA Artists using photographic references have long been accused of laziness, or even worse, excelling in technical capability while lacking…
Andrew Carter
CHALLENGING COLOUR
CHALLENGING COLOUROil pastel artist Andrew Carter learned he was colour blind at the age of nine when he argued with his teacher over his choice of selecting yellow instead of green for the grass and red for the bark on the trees in a school painting.
It certainly didn’t put him off painting and drawing and why should it have? Some famous artists such as Constable, Picasso and van Gogh are thought to have been colour blind and they did well. It is, after all, a simple matter of perception, not skill or technique.
Helen Dynes
HOLDING ON TO THE VISION
When she was a child, all Helen Dynes wanted to be was an artist. “Art was always my passion,” she says, “there was never any other consideration.” Born in Ireland and completing her higher education in England where studied Graphic Design to Masters Level, this Napier-based artist and tutor took the long route to fulfill her inner passion.
I was one of four daughters and we lived in semi rural Ireland, in picturesque countryside. I remember a couple of faded prints on our living room wall. They were of ballet dancers, and I used to gaze at them and wonder at the delicate tutus and gracious poses. I spent hours drawing dancers. My favourite birthday or Christmas gift would be colouring books, crayons and paints.
Sue Lund
FINDING THE RYTHM
Sue Lund, an elected artist of the Academy of Art in Wellington, is well-known for her striking work on the walls of the buildings at the Learning Connexion where she studied for an Advanced Diploma in Formless Art between 2003 and 2004, she already had a degree in Fine Arts from NAS in Sydney.
Sue is inspired by life: “Living and the crazy things that send you to places you either never want to go again or where the intrigue is too enormous to resist,” she says adding: “I did quite a bit of travel in my twenties and those times showed me a fairly full spectrum of what life is all about.”
Katie Mines
MEDITATIVE ART
An intense academic by nature, and artist in heart and soul, Katie Mines spent much of her life studying for a series of degrees and teaching at university before engaging her childhood dream of being full-time professional artist in her own right, and on her own terms.
Prior to 2012, Katie spent 10 years travelling through Asia, Africa and America and seven years teaching at a Confucian University in Seoul, South Korea. She returned to Hawkes Bay at the end of 2012, to raise her daughter and try her hand at painting, which remained a life long dream, “I always knew that art would become a big part of my life, I just wasn’t sure in what capacity until I started painting full time,” she reflects. After years of travelling, Katie was ready for what Hawkes Bay has to offer, “the space to slow life down, have a garden, bring up my daughter, and paint.”
Indigo Wise
PROCEED BEYOND
Well known for her paintings and drawings of New Zealand native birds; including the Native New Zealand Falcon, Fantail, Kea and Tui, Indigo Wise found her passion for art after overcoming long-term health issues and enrolling in an 18 month Visual Arts course at the Golden Bay Work centre.
That was in 2010-2011 and it was not her first study of the arts. Prior to this, in 1988, Indigo completed a diploma of Interior Design, which included life drawing, graphic design, art history and technical drawing at Whitecliffe Art School. As a distance delivery student in Golden Bay, Indigo studied through The Learning Connexion from 2012 – 2014 coming out with a diploma of Art & Creativity and Diploma of Art & Creativity (honours).
Andrew Moon
OUT OF THE DARKNESS
“It’s the urge to create. The outlet for ideas and creativity and to stand back at the end of a completed painting with satisfaction and to say to yourself, ‘You know, that’s not crap.”
So says Andrew Moon who adds that much of his inspirations grow out of darkness. “In my mind I’ll get the sense of a glimpse of light and colour amid the shadows, then watch to see what develops around that. So most of my work is set against a dark background with a harsh chiaroscuro contrast that scratches my artistic itch.
Beverly Reid
THE JOURNEY
Californian-born Beverly Reid has had a passion for art since childhood. “When I received my first set of Crayola crayons and a colouring book, I loved the exciting hues of colours I could create with them, which led me to drawing different things on my own. My very first memories of drawing were that of a sailing ship, Black Beauty and a ballerina. I was so excited with all the details I could put into my drawings making them ‘come alive’, I wanted to do more! This began my art journey into enjoying realism which still continues today!” .
Apart from a short college course in 3-Dimensional Art in 1994-5, Beverly is a self-taught artist with no formal training, but dedicated to perfecting her craft, and developing her own unique style. “I love being an artist, because I can communicate a feeling or capture a moment in time through my work, and share it with other people. There’s nothing more gratifying to me, when I receive feedback that my art made someone stop, stare at it and keep looking at it!
Te Kowhai Print Trust
TE KOWHAI PRINT TRUST
TE KOWHAI PRINT TRUSTOver the last three decades Te Kowhai Print Trust has built up a significant and unique lithography facility with two presses and over twenty of the oldest etching stones in New Zealand.
Based at the Quarry Arts centre in Whangarei, the Kowhai Print Trust is a charitable organisation which works to teach, advance and preserve the practice of fine art printmaking.