Stretching Watercolour Paper
STEP BY STEP - STRETCHING WATERCOLOUR PAPER If you have ever painted on a sheet of well-stretched watercolour paper, you will…
History of the Paint Tube
JOHN GOFFE RAND'S INCREDIBLE INVENTION “A metallic vessel so constructed, as to collapse with slight pressure and thus force out the…
Watercolour Paper
CHOOSING YOUR WATERCOLOUR PAPER By Charlene McGill Choosing your watercolour paper is more important than you think, and can definitely affect…
Tanya Finlayson
CARVING A NEW FASHION
“Have a goal, have something to achieve and then go and fulfill it. It always a nice feeling to look back on the journey of how you realised your dreams.”
So says Tanya Short, who some may remember as Tanya Finlayson making and selling handmade jewellery and sewing children’s clothing at the Whangarei markets.
Mark Jones
DOODLEWOOD
“I call my work doodlewood because that’s what it is, literally doodling with wood”
Mark Jones’s organic sculptures are shaped by the wood he is working with: “I enjoy having the gift of being able to see an ordinary piece of wood and visualise it being a piece of art.”
Mark started at the Stevenson Brothers Rocking Horse Makers, UK, assembling wooden horses in the factory for a year when the opportunity to learn how to carve the horses arose.
Reading Oil Paint Labels
ARTIST QUALITY PAINTS Every pigment has a unique Colour Index Name, consisting of two letters and some numbers. It’s not a…
Watching Oil Paint Dry
UNDERSTANDING THE DRYING TIMES FOR OIL PAINT Traditional oil paints are bound with drying oils. This is what gives them their…
Matt Diamond
MATT DIAMOND EXPRESSIVE
Throughout his life, Matt Diamond has had an interest in drawing, endeavouring to put to paper that which he saw, developing his talent through the years. He travelled Europe and the Middle East for four years, returning to New Zealand to train at Aucklands Freelance Animation Studio.
After working in 2 and 3 dimensional animation and spending time doing animation for Maori TV, he realised his creativity didn’t really flourish in an office environment and decided to start travelling again. Whilst in central America he spent time sketching people in cafés, without them knowing, and then presenting them with the drawing when they had finished their meal. Sometimes he just made a new friend, other times the unwitting model would buy him a meal or tip him. However, although this was entertaining, it did not satisfy his overwhelming urge to create huge artworks.
Kim Kerr
STORY TELLING
Kim Kerr has enjoyed drawing and painting from an early age and expressed a keen interest in studying further. When her art teacher at high school tried to discourage her saying she couldn’t do Fine Arts Prelim in Form 7, she decided to prove him wrong, and enrolled at Art School.
She spent three years at Otago Polytechnic where she obtained a Distinction in a Fine & Applied Arts Diploma. After completing this diploma, Kim went on to study at Teachers College. She spent several years as Head of Art Departments at various secondary schools, teaching art, design and history of art.
Karen Neal
SCRATCHING THE SURFACE
Karen Neal is a self-taught artist who, on leaving school, intended studying a fine arts or graphics course, but instead opted to work in the newspaper industry. She spent three years travelling to countries such as Africa, Japan, Switzerland and the UK, returning to New Zealand to work in a variety of administration and graphics roles.
It was in 2009, in her early 40’s, when Karen was stressing over a leaky home, that she picked up a pencil and drew a giraffe. A stress relief perhaps, but one that began a four year evolution, and now she is a full time artist. “I love all aspects of being an artist, it’s a dream come true to finally take it up full-time. I still pinch myself. I knew this was my passion, I finally found my niche, although it took a while to have the confidence to put myself out there and call myself an artist.”