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John White

John White - Aotearoa Artist

WILD PASSION

“Don’t be afraid, all the great painters had to start somewhere. You will make many mistakes so go ahead and start making them”. Adeptly using the time honoured mediums of oil and watercolour, John White portrays his love of wildlife through richly built paintings, softly painted, revealing the passion he has for his subject. Having built his skills over a lifetime he continues to create, advise and exhibit in New Zealand and overseas.

You know the first thing people ask me when they see my art is “how long have you been painting”? My answer is that I have always painted. I was brought up in a small place called Macandrew Bay on the Otago Peninsula with my three brothers and one sister. One of my brothers is my identical twin who is also an artist. We are the only ones in our family who do art, so my parents really did not understand what it was all about but they did encourage us. In my late teens I used to come home after playing rugby on a Saturday and paint watercolours on our kitchen table. If we had any visitors my mother would bring out my paintings and show them.

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Carla McKnight

carla-mcknight-aotearoa-artistCarla McKnight ‘s favourite subjects are equestrian and aviation (warbirds). She works mainly in acrylic but has been known to play around with other mediums. “I’ve learned what works and doesn’t work by giving it a go and taking risks.” She finds the use of a ‘white-light’ lamp essential and uses a variety of brushes, sponges, scrapers, an airbrush and a spraygun. Carla tells us about herself . . .

I was born in Holland and my family immigrated to New Zealand when I was nine years old. I’ve always loved seeing artwork of horses from a very early age. Around 14 years old I started trying to draw horses but found it frustrating as I didn’t like the results. I was always on my horse, Misty, with my best friend Leeanne on her horse, Kelly. We used to ride all over the place and on wet days we watched cowboy movies and tried our hand at art, and that’s where it all started. My parents were very creative, so I guess that gave me a boost, but they didn’t ride horses or make art.

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Terry Fergusson

Terry Fergusson - Aotearoa Artist

THE BUSHMANS SON ©

From a young age Terry Fergusson would sketch portraits and received an Art award at school. Then with everyday life and becoming a solo Dad he just never had time to pursue it further. Now, as an empty nester, he has felt the urge to pick up the brush and concentrate on painting people, their faces, their emotions. Terry tells us about his passion.

The results of picking up the brush again have been inspiring and well accepted. My passion has evolved beyond what I ever could have imagined. Creating a legacy of work that I can leave behind that speaks my name and my brand, along with the subject and the emotion shown was all inspiring to me. I want people to see what I see, remember what I remember and enjoy it long after I’m not here to paint anymore. Looks, emotions, stories and faces inspire me, and the ability to capture them through a mix of photography and acrylic excites me every time I start or have the idea to start a new piece. 

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Kristin Ivill

Kristin Ivill

JOINING THE DOTS

Written and photographed by John Botton.

I first met Kristin Ivill when she breezed into my studio clutching a portfolio folder full of artworks she wanted to get copied and printed. While pouring over her work, it took me some time to realise that the exquisite images were made of thousands of dots, dots of all shapes, dots of all sizes, dots of all hues. My only point of reference was to imagine that the dots were like pixels in a photograph. I went along to Kristin’s studio to see if she was indeed going dotty.

JB: “Give me a little background to your beginnings in art and your training?”

“I’ve always loved art. My mother was arty and my grandmother was quite crafty. She spun wool. She dyed wool and wove fabrics. My grandmother would take me around the farm and we’d go hunting for birds and bugs and look at the trees and she would tell me all about the native fauna and flora. So that’s where my love of birds and nature stems from. I did art at school until year eleven when my art teacher told me to give it up. She said I had no talent. So I stopped doing it and focused on art history in year twelve which I loved. That’s where I was exposed to Seurat who did pointillism. But that was the end of that so I left art and got married and had children. When my daughter was born I did a bit of painting again because we needed some art to fill the walls. I got some canvases and paint and just started painting and it went from there.”

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Jamie Mackman - Aotearoa Artist

Jamie Mackman

 

mug-shot-catherine-dunn-aotearoa-artistFIGURATIVELY SPEAKING

“I guess the galaxy just aligned for me that night in 1989 when I was born,” is why Jamie Mackman thinks she became an artist. She is a young Wellington artist who just loves the human form. We think it’s her undeniable talent as well.

I have always been the kid who made ridiculous clothes for their dolls, or vehicles with too many flashing lights for their action figures. When I wasn’t running about outside like a crazed animal with my sister I was hiding away inside a blanket tent talking to myself about some amazing idea for building something. Being an artist I guess is just a certain way of thinking and using your brain. I am a problem solver, I get a kick out of thinking far outside the square and trying to find solutions to the questions that need a creative mind to solve them. Finding what visually or verbally stimulates you to stay sane in a world that bears so much beauty and consequently constant destruction of that beauty. 

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Julie Freeman

Julie Freeman - aotearoa artist

A self-taught artist, Julie Freeman has always loved art as a hobby. When she moved overseas after marriage in 1980, she was able to pursue her art while her husband Michael was completing a Masters in Product Design at the University of Illinois. She began doing animal portraits and some figurative work, which gradually progressed from black and white to colour. After living in the USA for eight years they transferred to the UK. Life was pretty busy with two young children but she persevered, mainly doing commissioned animal portraits, which became popular through word of mouth. Julie tells us of her journey from then through to winning the 2016 Unison Colour Cup at the PANZ ‘Purely Pastel’ National Awards in Mapua.

We returned to New Zealand at the end of 1993, and my primary focus was on the children, the home and part-time work in a local art shop. As the children got older I had a little more free time and started to focus on pastel as my preferred medium. My first exhibition was with two other professional artists, Merle Bishop and Joan Taylor, at A Fine Line Gallery in Matakana in December 2009 which was a turning point for me as an artist. My work for this exhibition covered a range of subjects, focusing on what I thought would be popular with the local residents and I successfully sold the majority of my work.

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Alfred Memelink

Alfred Memelink - aotearoa artist

Within the delicate touch of watercolour, Alfred Memelink’s love and admiration of the sea is clearly visible. His joy and wonder in the environments he portrays are clear in the lightness and pleasure of his colour range and composition which emits a sense of satisfaction and contentment. With an easy brushstroke, one gets a feeling of comfort almost giving us permission to forgive nature its dark side with its wondrous and supple beauty. Even his stormy works have a feeling of softness and fragility, yet evoke inspiration.

Self taught, while at sea, his work was developed whilst sailing between New Zealand and Japan, working as a marine engineer. Giving credit to the Pacific Ocean and King Neptune, he began an artistic journey alongside the one he was already on. Having already had an early introduction with a childhood flavoured with artistic parents and wanting a hobby during his voyaging, watercolour was the practical decision to begin his artistic endeavours. A leisurely diversion from the practicalities of living, these early exercises and a book, ‘Feel the fear and do it anyway’ led to the decision in 1994 to leave the sea to paint full time and get ready for his first solo exhibition in a local cafe.

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Roger Shanks

Roger Shanks - aotearoa artist

HARNESSING THE BEAUTY

When Roger Shanks retired from a full time career in sheep and cattle farming, he became an artist, gaining knowledge from reading books and magazines and attending workshops with prominent Australian and New Zealand artists.

Having had no formal training, art filled a need to keep himself occupied during his retirement with the biggest motivating factor being the sense of achievement that comes from creating beautiful paintings. Roger retired at age 54. Eighteen years later, Roger is very proud of having had a private exhibition in Napier, two exhibitions in Gisborne and being a finalist in the Australian Artist magazine competition, Volume 203. He intends to continue on his artistic journey indefinitel

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Ashley McDonald

ashley-mcdonald-aotearoa-artistARTISTIC NATURE

I am a 16 year old that was born and raised in Hawera, a small town located in South Taranaki. As a child, I grew up loving nature and animals alike. I have a huge interest in the environment around me - particularly trying to make a difference in the conservation efforts around New Zealand. My favorite hobbies include photography, fishkeeping and of course, art. 

My journey as an artist began around 8 months ago, when I was 15 years old. I had done a small painting, inspired by my pet Siamese Fighting Fish. I posted this painting in a few of the worldwide tropical fishkeeping forums that I am a part of, not really expecting anything from it. My notifications exploded almost immediately with people commenting on how much they enjoyed the piece. 

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Tony Clarke

Tony Clarke - aotearoa artist

CORNERSTONE SKILL

With luscious, almost glowing colour pouring out from the canvas, Tony Clarke’s work emits a sense of vibrancy making his art feel alive. The intricate texture conveys the feeling that you could reach out and touch the feather or fur.

Tony’s father was a very accomplished hobby painter and encouraged him from an early age. “He gave me a book at age 13 of Raymond Ching’s book of British Birds and took me out drawing over the weekends. I copied paintings from that book and studied originals at the International Art Centre.”

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