Sonja Walker
ABOVE: Sonja with her Tasman National Art Award Merit Award painting - 'Everything but the bowl' GOOD FOR THE SOUL “Oil…
Donna Lee
INNER CREATIVE DESIRE
I’ve always dabbled with art whether it being sewing, painting, jewellery and so on but it stepped up a gear when my mother, Janice Corbishley, purchased the Red Peach Gallery in Ahuriri, Napier. I began creating jewellery from fine bone china and created a brand ‘China Horse’ which I sell in there. After meeting Brent Redding through the gallery I took up painting lessons and started to put in the long hours of practice behind the scenes while still selling the jewellery. Then in 2013 I held my first solo exhibition and since then have focused on painting.
I paint and create because of a great inner desire to do so. When I paint I feel happy, free and connected! It allows me to choose a lifestyle of freedom, expression, travel and happiness which I cherish above all. The motivation comes from many avenues but is mainly an internal drive to achieve the very best I can be and to attain this lifestyle I have created for myself.
Dawn Brown Meehan
ARTISTIC INTERPRETATION
Drawing was the only thing I enjoyed but from the perspective of my parents, heading into the arts was ‘fickle with no security’ - as opposed to a ‘good government department job’ where I inevitably ended up.
It wasn’t until I was older with a young family, that I took up painting seriously. I began in watercolour and painted scene after scene - ‘stiffies’ I called them, painting exactly what I saw, with little fluidity or deviation from what lay in front of me.
Vjekoslav Nemesh
UNIVERSAL LOVE
Inspired by nature and the outer reaches of the human soul, award winning artist Vjekoslav Nemesh says the overriding subject matter of all his work is quite simply universal love.
Born in Petrovaradin in the former Yugoslavia, Vjekoslav Nemesh has been a professional working artist since 1984, participating in over 150 group and 30 solo exhibitions.