Abstract Archives - Page 5 of 6

Claudia Recorean

1 May 2015
Abstract, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Contemporary Art, Europe, Featured Artists, Mixed Media, Nature, Painting

CONTEMPORARY EXHIBITIONIST

Claudia Recorean has been exhibiting her contemporary artwork in far-flung locations such as Germany and Mongolia and more recently right here in New Zealand. Here she tracks her career from the start.

The start of my artist career was marked, when I was ten years old and my grandfather sent me out to burn the rubbish. Watching the flames melt plastic into fluids and turning objects into new shapes initiated along lasting fascination with material transformation and the wish to spin straw into gold.

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John Unasa

1 March 2015
Abstract, Acrylic, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Birdlife, Expressionism, Featured Artists, Figures, Maori, Nature, Oils, Painting

CONSUMED BY PASSION

After many years of focusing on various career paths John Unasa recalls that it was becoming quite apparent his desire to create from a very young age was still very much alive and something had to be done about it. Now, at 35, full of life experience, qualifications and a range of skills, he says he feels the time is right for him to put his full focus into his creative passion.

“My inspirations emanate from my feelings about my physical and social environment, my mood, my imagination, my culture, pop culture and my education,” he says.

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Karen Vernon

1 January 2015
Abstract, Artists, Contemporary Art, Featured Artists, Mixed Media, Nature, Painting

UNDER A BENIGN SPIRIT

“My art doesn’t stand on words. What is on my canvas I sometimes can’t explain away with clever talk. It is not an intellectual process, my paintings are intuitive, and, I feel, painted under the tutelage of a benign spirit.” So says Karen Vernon whose journey into the art world began in 1993 while attending American Folk Art classes in Auckland.

Largely self-taught and without any formal art training Karen says she has been fortunate to have had the guidance of a number of “wonderful” art tutors to get to the level she is at today. “I was a student of Jayne Sprott, and attended her watercolour class for three years. It was at this point I developed a passion for art and began trying other mediums, but staying in the realms of more traditional realistic painting.

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Keith Grinter

1 January 2015
Abstract, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Expressionism, Featured Artists, Glass, Kiwiana, Nature, Sculpture

EXTREME ART

It is not every day one meets an artist who ‘renounced’ the relatively calm aura of oil paints and easel for the fiery inferno of glassblowing, but it was enough to make Whangarei-based glass-artist Keith Grinter an irresistible subject for The New Zealand Artist Magazine. Photographs by Diana Rees.

Keith Grinter started work in his own glass blowing studio in Whangarei in September 2013. He recalls: “I had been discussing moving to Whangarei and working with Keith Mahy, (one of the founding fathers of art glass in New Zealand), when he unfortunately passed away.”

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Jan Huijbers

1 January 2015
Abstract, Acrylic, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Contemporary Art, Featured Artists, Installation, Nature, Painting, Sculpture

THE CREATIVE MIND

A history buff, a fascination for new inventions and a keen gardener. During his life-long journey to establish himself as a full-time practicing artist, Jan Huijbers has been exposed to a myriad of different styles and influences. In the article below he talks about his life long journey as an artist.

I had no formal training but was involved in art at an early age. At age 16, I was a member of an art design team creating flower structure parades, a yearly event in Zundert Holland for many years.

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Vjekoslav Nemesh

1 November 2014
Abstract, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Featured Artists, Figures, Nature, Oils, Painting, Palette Knife

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.

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DeAnne Lawford-Smith

1 November 2014
Abstract, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Carving, Ceramics, Featured Artists, Figures, Impressionism, Installation, Maori, Portraits, Sculpture

FOR LOVE OR MONEY

Born in Levin, DeAnne Lawford Smith has been artistically inclined from birth. Growing up in a large family which included many foster children, the easiest and most economical means of entertainment was with paper and pencils. With enthusiastic encouragement from her family, DeAnne has blossomed into a full time professional artist.

Married with three children, DeAnne travelled between Rotorua and Taupo over a four year period to complete her Diploma of Visual Art (Fine Art) in 2000 at the Waiariki Institute of Technology. Armed with this accomplishment, she managed to overcome her shyness and was able to present her work to galleries and buyers, resulting in her first solo exhibition in Tauranga and achieved first place in the prestigious Portage Ceramic Award in 2007.

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John Hodgson

1 July 2014
Abstract, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Drawing, Enamel, Featured Artists, Figures, Impressionism, Oils, Painting

THE LIVING ARTIST

After many years of working in the corporate world, John Hodgson completed a long transition to full time artist with his first solo exhibition at the Depot ArtSpace in Devonport in April this year. Representing seven years of work, a good number of the pieces on show sold over the two weeks of the exhibition which also saw some 600 visitors to the gallery.

Whangarei-born, John, whose very first painting was a self-portrait completed back in 1977, has had a long interest in art but says he ‘played around’ for years while in ‘corporate career mode’ here in New Zealand and in the USA. On returning to NZ in 2003 he says he became really serious about his own art while beginning with partner Mary, a modest collection of work by New Zealand artists.

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Karen Panton

1 July 2014
Abstract, Acrylic, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Birdlife, Expressionism, Featured Artists, Illustration, Nature, Painting, Portraits, Still-life, Surrealism

THE ART OF HUMOUR

Karen Rosaline Panton is one of those exceptional, largely self taught artists who has developed a sense of style and presentation all of her own. Reading her comments in this article and perusing through some of her paintings it is evident that Karen lives her art; each painting has a voice and meaning, each one a soul.

Apart from the odd day class, Karen, who currently hails from Napier, says she has enjoyed several short courses with the likes of Krispin Korschen, Rua Longley, Marianne Muggeridge, Megan Schmidt, among others. “All fabulous artists,” she enthuses, “who have stretched my mind sideways, up and down and inside out, that is when they could catch up with my own train of thoughts.”

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Monika Welch

1 May 2014
Abstract, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Birdlife, Featured Artists, Figures, Mixed Media, Nature, Oils, Painting, Pop Art

LET US BE ARTISTS!

It was the love of art and an inherent creativity that paved the way for Monika Welch, a former musician, to become a full time artist.

“I never had any formal are training and just blundered and blustered my way through,” she quips, adding that she did not enter the world of ‘art’ until she was 35: “It was New Year’s and my friend Julie asked what shall we do this year? Seeing as we’d both dabbled in writing and music I replied: ‘let’s be artists, and that was that.”

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Chris Dews
DEWSY ART Chris Dews was born in the Isle of Wight, UK, and is the…
Jamie Harkins
ABOVE: Jamie creating his work on Mount Maunganui Beach, Tauranga THREE DIMENSIONAL PERSPECTIVE Always wanting…
Joanne Luker
ABOVE: Rangitoto Porcelain SHARDS OF JOY Born in the UK, Joanne Luker loved art at…
Sonja Walker
ABOVE: Sonja with her Tasman National Art Award Merit Award painting - 'Everything but the…
Jill Richards
Above: Golden Days COLLAGE AND STITCH Jill Richards’ family originated from the UK, then moved…