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Rosanne Croucher

rosanne-croucher-aotearoa-artistGENEROUS GIFT

From a young age, Rosanne Croucher loved to make things. She won a few colouring in competitions as a child, which was very encouraging. “During high school I took art subjects, but I wasn’t sure how that would translate into a career, so I ended up moving to Auckland and beginning a Health Science degree.”

Two years on, she experienced some health issues and felt a deep need to re-establish creativity in her life. “The following year I did Bible college through my Church Equippers and it was there that I began to develop a vision for a career as an artist. I started up an art group at church and enrolled at Unitec to study a Bachelor of Design and Visual Arts. Looking back, I cringe at some of the work I made during my degree and Masters, but I made some great work as well and learnt so much.

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Art Capener

art-capener-aotearoa-artistArt Capener did a short amount of formal art training at UK Liverpool Art College way back in the early 60s but found he didn’t really like it, instead taking the long road of being self-taught. “Being taught how to do something is OK but the excitement of discovering it for yourself is much better, I feel. Quite often new techniques are discovered by what I call ‘happy accidents’ – that’s when you’re almost giving up and so you try again and again. Suddenly you find yourself standing back and saying, wow did I do that?”

“I have no idea what drove my interest in art, I do a lot of geneology research and have gone back over 1500 years, but amazingly I never found an ancestral artist. Having said that, I’m sure many of them would have drawn or painted at some point. I get all the inspiration I need from nature – not just the scenery but the vast array of colours, it’s also very theraputic as we all know colour can lift your spirits or have an opposite effect, adding beauty or drama to a picture. I admire the work of many artists such as Jonathan White, Tim Wilson and the works of 18th century Russian artists, such as Ivan Aivazovsky. 

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Jackie Krzyzowski

Jackie Krzyzowski-aotearoa-artist-the-nz-artist-magazine

DETAILED DELIGHT

Jackie Krzyzowski never had any formal training but always enjoyed drawing as a child. She used one private workshop and various online tutorials to get her started with pastels. She explains further:

I spent most of my adult life with horses and riding as a hobby and with family life, working full time and studying part time there was not much time for anything else. I always thought that one day I might come back to my art. Getting older, I was not fit enough to carry on with the horse riding and moved to breeding and showing miniature horses. This was successful for 10 years, but again, getting older, mobility issues were making this hobby more difficult and so I decided to retire from it. Then came COVID lockdown and I was looking for something to do and now I am on this new, amazing art journey.

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UK Artist Tony Feld

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Painting a variety of subjects from buildings to wildlife, keeps Tony Feld busy.

“But my method is very much the same no matter what I am painting,” he says. “I usually square up a picture, so draw a grid on a print of a photograph I am working from. I transfer that onto the surface I am working on and go from there. Quite often a complicated painting can take anything up to a month to draw out, even before I have started painting.” Tony’s painting of a leopard took a month to draw out and another five months to paint.

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Kim Mitchell

kim-mitchell-aotearoa-artistFREE SPIRIT

Rebelling 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.” 

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Dylan Keys

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CREATIVE INTUITION

Self-taught artist Dylan Keys has been creating since he was a small child. “I always wanted to be a full-time artist but it was an unexpected series of events that led to it actually becoming a reality. Unfortunately, I’ve been in poor health for a number of years and one of the ways I cope with the pain and unpleasant sensations is to distract myself by drawing and painting.”

“A few years ago, I did a realistic charcoal drawing which caught the attention of leading motivational speaker Craig Harper, who is also a writer and educator in the areas of health, high performance and personal development. He shared my work with his online audience and I soon had a few commission enquiries coming in for charcoal portraits. Although my preferred style has always been a very loose and expressive one rather than realism, I decided to make the most of that momentum. I launched my website and social media pages soon after and I’m lucky enough to have been a full-time artist since.”

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Alison Gilmour

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VISUAL STORIES

Alison Gilmour has always been a visual person and able to draw. Part of her job as a graphic designer was illustrating and visualising with art markers. In 2001 she did some night classes at Mairangi Arts as a fun thing to do with a friend. “In one of the classes I started doing some still life drawings in coloured pencil. They were pretty good so I decided to go out and buy some acrylic paints, canvas and brushes and give it go. They were good, so I carried on and the rest is history.”

Alison finds inspiration is everywhere. How the light falls on an object or vista, how colours change with the light. Marvelling at nature’s detail and beauty, especially flora and the sea, she loves to note how weather affects them. “I thoroughly enjoy being able to express myself on the canvas and use my talent to create beauty, painting detail and sculpting my subject matter through light and depth to make the beholder overjoyed.” 

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Carina Sim-Smith

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CARINA CREATES

Born in Singapore, Carina Sim-Smith is a marine biologist by profession and a very talented artist in her free time. She taught herself how to paint by attending art classes and workshops by various tutors at her local arts centre, and by hours of practice.

“I’ve always enjoyed art but could never afford any of the pieces in art galleries that I liked, so I decided to learn how to paint so that I’d have something to hang on my walls. I enrolled in a beginner’s art class and found that I really enjoyed painting.” She feels the pressure of having to earn a full-time income from her art would ruin her enjoyment of creating. “For me, art is an activity that I do for pleasure.”

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Carl Cockill

Carl_Cockill - Aotearoa Artist - The New Zealand Artists Magazine

AN INNER GLOW

As an Architectural Technician, Carl Cockill works a 40 hour week in Dunedin and is currently raising three children with his wife Cheryl. As such, his time for painting is limited to night times and weekends. He has no formal training in oil painting so his natural talent is a joy to behold.

The inconsistent revenue stream from being a full time artist is the only thing that’s holding him back from enjoying his talent on a permanent basis. “Once the financial burdens have lessened and my lovely children have flown the nest, I feel retirement would be the best time for me to pursue this path on a full-time basis. In the meantime I am happy pursuing my art as a (slightly out of hand) hobby. I am always pleased to sell the odd piece of work and have one of my paintings go to a new home.” The privilege of raising his children saw a necessary ceasing of his artistic pursuits for a time. “I’m not complaining, my wife and family come first, always. I am loving every minute of my family, and wouldn’t change a thing.”

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Rochelle Thomas

AUTO ART

Taking the time to use her observational skills, Rochelle Thomas has always been fascinated with paintings. At Cafe’s, offices, anywhere art hangs, Rochelle studies the work to fathom how it has been done. One day she decided to try this out for herself, and purchased paint, brushes, paper and books of scenic New Zealand. After completing her first painting she was hooked.

Rochelle completed a correspondence course with The Learning Connection, earning a Level 5 Diploma in Art & Creativity in 2014. Working full time, and a single Mum of three, Rochelle juggled her work and art for a couple of years until an unfortunate accident, which resulted in a broken leg, left her at home for six months, where she concentrated daily on her painting. She decided not to return to work, but rather became self-employed, concentrating on commissions to paint vehicles.

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