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Ninette Kruger

Ninette Kruger-aotearoa-artist-the-nz-artist-magazine

PROCESS AND PURPOSE

Born in South Africa, Ninette Kruger has always enjoyed being creative and explored different mediums until she discovered pewter embossing in 2004.

She taught herself the basics from an instructional book, and later attended a more advanced  techniques workshop at a pewter studio  in Johannesburg. Since then , she has been focused on refining her technique and thoroughly enjoying metal embossing as a hobby. “I started out with a career in the food and hotel industry, which I absolutely loved, and completed my MBA in 2006. I quickly realised the corporate world was not for me, and set out to carve out a creative career for myself. I immigrated to New Zealand with my family in 2016 and during lockdown 2020, I attended an online artist masterclass that changed my world.”

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Robert van der Touw

robert-van-der-touw-aotearoa-artistTHE PASSION IN PATTERN

Robert van der Touw arrived in New Zealand in 1990 after graduating from the School of Natural medicine in Holland. He always had a strong love for the beauty of nature, even as a four year old boy when he used to wander the Dutch forest and steal flowers and plants out of people’s gardens to put in his own. The police were not amused but were very surprised at his age! “Is that Robert van der Touw” one of them laughed as he entered the room! Roger tells us more of his interest in nature and accomplishing his mission.

Shortly after my arrival here I fell in love (literally) with the native forests of New Zealand. As a practitioner of natural medicine, nature was my ‘playing ground’ and New Zealand’s pristine ancient forests could not provide for a better one. I developed a sincere desire to explore all these beautiful ‘new medicines’. As a trained classical homeopath I was lucky. Homeopathy offers effective research methods to let you explore these.

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3D Illustration With An Art Gallery

The Business of Art – John Botton

johnbotton_camera-aotearoa-artistDuring my recent visit to Sydney I popped into one of my favourite hangouts, the Art Gallery of NSW and headed straight down to the photographic exhibitions (why do galleries always bury photography exhibits in the basement?). I was surprised to find a number of pieces by Andreas Gursky, whose name didn’t mean much to me until a few years back when one of his photographs sold for over three million dollars. 

While contemplating the huge print of “Chicago, Mercantile Exchange” (it was estimated to sell for over five hundred thousand Euros), I got to thinking about the first time I presented my photography to the owner of the Red Square Gallery in Cape Town, South Africa. I now cringe at the thought of how naive I was; I just arrived at the gallery without an appointment, my work was very poorly presented and was very higgledy-piggledy to say the least with no structure or cohesive theme. The gallery owner was very polite in rejecting me but it took me ages to come to terms with it. So how do you go from aspiring artist to commercial success? 

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Drew Hill

CONTEMPORARY VIEWPOINT

'Meat on Meat'

Using his camera to tell the stories of those who fall through the cracks, Drew Hill ventures to highlight political, social and cultural injustices and issues. He has been passionate about art from an early age and began by using painting as a medium to express his world view.

Drew loves art history and the biographies on artists - how they lived and worked. In 1999 he graduated from Ilam School of Fine Arts, Canterbury and now draws inspiration from current issues, producing thought provoking images through his recently favoured medium, photography, “...because a picture tells a thousand words and it enables you to capture the perfect moment in time that will never be seen again.”

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Expose Yourself

johnbotton_camera-aotearoa-artistBy John Botton

I’m not sure about you but I always feel a bit self-conscious when exposing myself to other people, especially in public. What I have found over many years though, is that it pays to ensure you are presenting yourself in the best possible light. OK, so maybe you think I’m a bit of a pervert... but what I’m actually talking about is showing my fine art photography (so who has the dirty mind now ;-). 

After labouring long and hard over your masterpiece it’s worth making the effort to present it with the same care and attention you took over its creation. After all, it’s often the packaging that intimates at the value of the artwork; much like a Michelin star chef who presents his fine cuisine, not as yummy food but as a work of culinary art. 

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Ken Clark - Aotearoa Artist

Ken Clark

Ken Clark - aotearoa artist

THE INDIVIDUAL ART OF MOVING IMAGES

Ken Clarke, an intelligently creative cinemetographer has always considered film and television an art form. Here he brings his vision to us, and considering his tremendously varied artistic background, we are privileged to include Ken in our pages, bringing all aspects of art into your home.  Ken tells us his fascinating story.

I have a BFA(Hons) in Film from Canterbury University. I started it in 1980 and didn’t finish until last year. I have spent most of my life up till now working in the film and television industry; first as a make-up artist, then a stop-motion animator where I sculpted puppets and props and then in post-production and digital effects.

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Confessions of a Couch Photographer

johnbotton_camera-aotearoa-artist10 WAYS TO GET YOUR FOJO WORKING

By John Botton

As I staggered to the summit of North Ridge on my daily dog walk (OK, it was a hill that felt really steep) dragging two puffing bullmastiffs behind me, I fixated on the stunning cumulus clouds billowing upward into the heavens above the Auckland skyline to the South, the late afternoon light describing the subtle curves and nuances of every shade of white.

In my minds eye I could visualise the framing and exposure settings of my photograph. I could even imagine the final print hanging on the entrance wall being admired by visitors. Alas, I had no camera with me and the truth be known, I was in a photographic slump. It was the equivalent of writers block or a bad case of stage fright. I had lost my Foto-Mojo or Fojo for short. This got me thinking about ways to get my camera out and re-discover all the things that motivated me when I bought my first digital camera. Here are a few ideas that I hope will re-ignite your photographic fuse.

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Before you push the button

PRINTING BETTER LANDSCAPE IMAGES

Many photographers I print for often ask for tips on how best to prepare their landscape images for printing. In reality, good prints start before you even hit the shutter button. A solid landscape capture workflow is essential but, unlike the simplicity of good old film process, digital photography comprises a myriad of interdependent systems and settings to achieve the desired output.

Let’s begin with the origination - your digital camera (this may also apply to smart phone cameras in the future), go into the menu settings for the camera and find the reference to ‘colour space’. You should have at least two options here, sRGB and Adobe RGB. Make sure you have Adobe RGB selected. 

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Ross Anderson

ross-anderson-aotearoa-artistPHOTOGRAPHIC SURREALISM

Ross Anderson, a 17 year old photographer born in Northern Ireland, raised in the Northern Rivers of Australia and attended ACG Senior College in Auckland for the last two years, just completed his high school studies with a cracking 92% for his photographic art. This is his story.

I opted for photography due to lack of other options as despite being a high scoring student, my almost illegible hand writing caused me to achieve less than favourable scores in classical studies.

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Camera Obscura

CAMERA OBSCURA

Artists using photographic references have long been accused of laziness, or even worse, excelling in technical capability while lacking in creativity. Others feel that it is a legitimate method of reference. We investigated.

While there are those who say nothing can substitute experiencing a subject in real life: being able to touch it, smell it, walk around it, inspect it, and all the rest of it, almost all artists will photo-reference at some point; not in their daily work but as part of their training to improve their artistic eye.

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