Andrea Robinson 2022
Drawn to painting native birds and flowers from a young age, Andrea Robinson’s first sale was as a teenager when a friend bought one of her drawings for a few dollars. “I started to sell my drawings and designs on pillowcases, tablecloths, and tee-shirts. As an adult I continued to paint and draw around my office job and family. I started selling professionally in 2015 and I now sell my artwork through galleries and art shows.” Featured in The New Zealand Artist Magazine before, in 2017, Andrea has caught up with us and tells us where she is now.
Creating artwork is as important to me as the air that I breathe. It is the language I use to tell my story, to celebrate nature, and to raise awareness of environmental issues. This has always been my biggest motivating factor. Three exhibitions I am particularly proud of include exhibiting work in The Garzoni Challenge, curated by the Uffizi Gallery in Italy; receiving two excellence awards through Manhattan Arts International, New York, and receiving a Special Recognition Award in ‘All Women’ Art Exhibition 2022, in Santa Fe.
Sue Laursen
TURNING THE LIGHT ON
As the first thing Sue Laursen thinks about when she wakes up and the last thing she thinks about when she falls asleep, the urge to create has always been very strong for her. “I very quickly realised art was connected to my mental wellbeing and as I was brought up in a generation where I was not allowed to show my thoughts or emotions, by the age of 16, I was using my art to tell my story.”
When she was 16 she was a member of and had her work accepted at the NZ Academy of Fine Arts. “This, I recall, some people seemed to be a little amazed about. At the time I didn’t really appreciate the significance of it, but I do now. As the years went on, my style of painting changed and I drifted away from the NZ Academy of Fine Arts, and did my own thing, as the academy no longer liked what I did. Such is life.”
Monique Tichborne
ARTISTIC ESCAPE
ARTISTIC ESCAPEDiagnosed in 2018 with Fibromyalgia and FND (Functional neurological disorder) Monique Tichborne bravely started to use art as a means of therapy, a distraction from the pain. She explains further . . .
My health and requiring home based work were the motivations for me to become an artist. I gain inspiration from all around me. I don’t think my creative head ever switches off. I’m always capturing photos to add to my ideas folder. At the end of 2019 I was struggling with my drawing so to test myself I turned my page around which oddly was easier. I have been drawing all my portrait work upside down since. I have only begun painting this year. My canvas doesn’t remain stationery here either and I don’t work on an easel. Art therapy has been one consistent ‘healer’ while I manage daily pain. This year I officially classify my occupation as an artist.
Livia Dias
CLASSIC BEAUTY
Livia Dias is an artist who enjoys painting nature, gardens and people. Livia grew up in an environment surrounded by art. At the age of 13, she began learning drawing and painting from her uncle, Gilberto Dias, who is a professional artist and art tutor in her home country Brazil. Her passion for art has never stopped since then. She’s been working as a full-time artist and art tutor since 2000.
She had a classical training based on the Old Masters teachings and glazing techniques which she is very grateful for, because she says that it taught her the importance of developing the skill set to create the illusion of form and depth on a flat surface that is crucial for her art. Her uncle was her first inspiration. She was amazed at what he could create with a brush! He introduced her to many other artists in a variety of styles which contributed to shaping her artistic journey.
Kim Mitchell
FREE SPIRIT
FREE SPIRITRebelling about being told what and how to paint, and being a free spirit, travelling from place to place for extended periods of time, Kim Mitchell never really pursued her talent. “It wasn’t until around the first lockdown in 2020 that I admitted to myself I wasn’t happy with my current situation and wanted a change. In the last year I have found myself more driven and motivated to paint, committed to making a change for myself and wildlife, my enduring interest.”
Kim’s biggest motivation is the plight of wildlife in the world today. “If I can use my skills to raise awareness about endangered animals then I feel like it would be a waste to not at least try. People talk about finding their purpose in life and up until now I’ve never really known what I want to do. I have studied geology, geography, cartography and journalism, with fleeting aspirations of using these to map wildlife habitats. One day I may combine all of this but for now I believe my biggest impact is creating realistic paintings. These can hopefully have a global reach and not only bring joy to people’s homes but also help raise awareness of our beautiful wildlife.”
Jordan Turner
TRUE CALLING
TRUE CALLINGAt the age of 13, Jordan Turner’s foray into the fine art world was cut short by her family’s relocation from their home town of Cromwell to another country town. She’d only managed to have two private lessons. “My tutor handed me four pieces of paper and directed me to paint four faces without my brush leaving the paper. I feel like ever since that time, I have been mastering faces. He must have known that I was drawn to faces, as it’s exactly what I am drawn to now. The face and body and capturing the emotion, it’s just fascinating to me.”
She claims her biggest inspiring factor to becoming an artist was when she was 16: “My Mum took my brother and I to the New Zealand Body Art Awards, in Auckland. That event left a lasting imprint and inspired me to research and then sign up and get accepted into studying makeup and film production, at the Design and Art College of New Zealand.” Jordan completed this certificate at the age of 20. From that point she furthered her skills by travelling and sketching her way around Australia and the UK, finally settling in Melbourne. “During this time I really started to focus on developing my creative craft. This involved leading various creative events, teaching workshops and displaying my artworks in galleries and art shows, throughout Melbourne.”
Siobhan Demeester
MY HAPPY PLACE
MY HAPPY PLACEFrom the moment Siobhan Demeester opens her eyes in the morning and sees the sun hit the top of the gum trees outside her window, she just wants to put those colours onto canvas. “Everything I see I convert it into a painting. I take my camera with me everywhere I go and am constantly taking photos to paint. Then when I go to bed at night, I dream about painting…quite obsessive really.” Obsessive or not, the positive feedback she receives from people and the fact that when she paints, she is in a very happy place, motivates her as well as winning prizes, being commissioned and selling her work.
Born in England and sharing her time between Australia and New Zealand, Siobhan completed two years at Gold Coast Art School between 2011 and 2013. When she moved to Russell Island, she saw a notice on the board at the ferry terminal, advertising a workshop with New Zealand Master Pastelist, Maxine Thompson, which she promptly signed up for and has never regretted.
UK ARTIST Danny Mooney
When drawing people you would think it might help to actually remember their faces… What if you can’t remember them? British artist Danny Mooney suffers from facial blindness but finds that he can overcome this obstacle by focussing on other aspects of a person’s character, an approach that lends itself to caricatures.
“I can draw recognisable people with just a few lines without any real trouble,” he reveals. “I’ve been doing political cartoons. They’re an expression of my annoyance. Cartoons are caricatures really. Say I’m doing a cartoon of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson… I can do the shape and the way he stands without too much effort. I look at a couple of other people’s cartoons of him and see that they all have little piggy eyes and droopy eyelids. For me the thing that makes Boris look like Boris is the hair, the round face, the fat body and the shabby suit. It doesn’t really need any additional features. That cartoon could be Donald trump or Boris Johnson. In order to produce political cartoons you have to stay abreast of the news but in order to stay sane you have to not stay abreast of the news! It’s a difficult tight rope to walk. I have always recognised people by their shape, the way they move, the way they walk, rather than by their faces. If I’m painting someone then those are the characteristics that are most important to me.”
Ken Tanner
ROOM TO MOVE
Brought up in the London suburbs and having studied art as a school subject, an enthusiastic teacher encouraged Ken Tanner to maintain his interest in art, which he has done for over 30 years. Training as an engineer and then working in construction management, Ken found there was not much room for creativity in his daytime work, so art as a hobby became a welcome respite, giving his creative mind room to move. He moved to New Zealand in 1974 but busy with his wife and children, and his work, he only really started to paint in the 1990s. Since then painting has become a large part of his life.
Ken’s inspiration, he says, is mostly to do with the creation of an image, rather than trying to convey some political message. “I really enjoy the realism but I did an abstract course some years ago and I now also enjoy developing the realistic image into a more abstract form. I have entered some of these paintings into the Howick Art Group’s annual competition and they have taken 1st prize. One of the judges, Evan Woodruff, said that the work was more abstractionism than pure abstract.”
