Paper for print
SELECTING PRINT PAPER By Randal Scott, the proprietor of Fine Art Papers, importers and suppliers of fine art and conservation papers…
Janet Marshall
DREAM CHASER
English-born Kiwi, Janet Marshall has exhibited and sold her work as far afield as England, Japan, USA, Canada, Australia, Italy and China and designed stamps for NZ Post and NZ Fish and Game.
Janet is a founding member of Nature in Art, Gloucestor, England and has work in numerous collections including Nature in Art England, NZ Milk Board USA, NZ Post, NZ Treasury, Puki Ariki Museum Taranaki, and Birds in Art, Wisconsin, USA. She has also written and had published five illustrated children’s books as well as an illustrated garden diary of her former home Te Popo Gardens in Taranaki, called ‘Images of a Garden’.
Reina Cottier
THE INNER ARTIST
After learning the basics of art at high school Reina Cottier spent much of her life running a series of businesses and raising a family. About seven years ago she took a course dubbed ‘Awaken the Artist Within’, which, she says, “was not so much about learning how to paint, but more about expressing yourself from within and finding inspiration”.
Needless to say the artist within Reina was re-ignited. Not that it was ever that far away. With a theatre wardrobe mistress for a mother Reina had an unconventional upbringing, surrounded by art and craft and everything that went with it.
Ira Mitchell
IN THE ZONE
The 2010 Christchurch earthquake irrevocably changed Ira Mitchell’s life. In this article she tells of how she faced the formidable challenges of depression and post traumatic stress and found a new direction and purpose through her art.
I was in a high-rise building in Christchurch when the earthquake struck. That, and the ensuing aftershocks, traumatized me to the extent I still suffer from PTS. I was teaching part time at that point and it made me rethink my life and what I wanted to do with it.
John Burns
THE INVENTOR
John Burns, husband, father, grandfather, and artist, born in Wellington “many years ago” does not see himself as an artist but describes himself as an ‘inventor’ who makes ‘stuff’, something he has been doing very successfully for the last 30 years, selling most of the work he has produced. This is John’s story and a collection of his works over the years.
“I admire and am inspired in my art by people such as Pablo Picasso, Petrus van der Velden, Colin McCahon, Marc Chagall and many others. To me their art was different from the ‘norm’ (whatever that was). Some have taken flack for their style of art; Colin McCahon is an example of this. I think art is a long term activity where one can become bolder over time something I certainly feel applies to me.
Gareth Barlow
A SENSE OF BEING
Accompanied by family and friends, well-known Lower-Hutt-born New Zealand carver and painter Gareth Barlow describes his first major solo show at the Kura Gallery in Wellington earlier this year as “a very proud moment and a wonderful experience.”
The show was a great success to further represent Gareths work, as well as his future exhibitions in New Zealand and Australia including a show scheduled for Queenstown this month (July). In this article Gareth writes about his insights and the thought processes that brought his exhibition ‘From the Land’ to fruition.
Gesso
GESSO Noun - def: gypsum or plaster of Paris spread on a surface to make it suitable for painting or gilding…
Reka Norman
REKA NORMAN
REKA NORMANStraight ‘A’ student, sixteen year-old Reka Norman has always enjoyed drawing, ever since childhood, for her it is a hobby.
Reka takes her hobbies seriously and to end her high school year with a 95% pass rate for her final International Cambridge Art Exam is a notable demonstration of this.
Honor Hamlet
HONOR HAMLET
HONOR HAMLETHonor Hamlet, a student at Haunui College, Whangarei, completed her high-school career by achieving the best marks in the world while her friend and fellow art student Reka Norman came in with an outstanding 95% pass.
Honor, (17) who only took up art seriously in her last two years of high school, is now a full-time student at Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland.
Jason King
MAGICAL INGREDIENT
Award winning landscape artist Jason King, a part-time fire engineer with penchant for making and flying model gliders, had always envied people who could draw or paint realistic pictures and never imagined he would be able to do it himself until one day he decided to give it a try. In this article he charts his course from the sketchpad to the winners podium.
When I first tried my hand at drawing I discovered that drawing ability is not necessarily an innate skill or ability, but rather something that can be learned. I found that there are techniques that can be used to create an image and, for me, the most important skill was developing an eye for what looks good.