Africa Archives - Aotearoa Artist

Jana Branca

12 July 2024
Africa, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Expressionism, Featured Artists, Figures, Impressionism, Oils, Painting, Portraits, Realism

AN EXCITING VOCATION

Jana Branca hails from South Africa, where she obtained a BA in Fine Arts from the University of Pretoria. “I remember a very pivotal moment at high school where my art teacher made a comment that she thought I could go on to be an artist. It was just a little thing she said in conversation, but it had a massively encouraging and life altering effect on me.”

Making, creating and re-creating has always been a very big part of her life and she says she couldn’t imagine a more exciting vocation. Having always been a ‘deep’ child, Jana loves having a vehicle for investigating and engaging with meaningful and weighty concepts. “Most of the things I like thinking about seem just out of my reach, and further wrestling with them through my art practice seems to make them just a little bit more graspable.”

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Kerri-Lee Gunter

11 January 2024
Africa, Animals, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Featured Artists, Figures, Hyper Realism, Painting, Pastels, Portraits, Realism

Born in East London, South Africa, Kerri-Lee Günter has been in New Zealand since 2009, living in and enjoying the majesty of Invercargill. She gets her passion and talent from her mother’s side of the family – mum, grandfather and great grandmother. “As a child I was given books with blank pages and encouraged to express my creativity in them. At the age of nine my mum realised I had a passion for art and decided to send me to art lessons after school and at 18
I decided to pursue my passion further.”

Starting with an Art & Design Certificate – 2007-2008 – at Buffalo City College in East London, Kerri-Lee went on to qualify with a Level 5 Diploma in Painting – 2010-2011 – at Aoraki Polytechnic in Ashburton, and also gained a Bachelor in Applied Media Arts – 2012-2014 at the Southern Institute of Technology in Invercargill.

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Carla Sclanders

29 November 2023
Africa, Animals, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Coloured Pencils, Drawing, Featured Artists, Pencil, Portraits, Realism, Watercolour

BLESSED INSPIRATION

Born in South Africa and immigrating to New Zealand in 2020, Carla Sclanders is inspired by God. “He has blessed me with a gift and I am driven to portray a glimse of His Glory in all that I am able to create.”

She began with a pencil portrait of her daughter and was so pleased with the result that she began to do more family portraits. “My passion for art grew with every artwork I created especially once I started experimenting with colour pencils. Posting pictures of my artwork on Facebook lead to people contacting me for commissions and so my hobby turned into a part time job.”

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Audrey Anderson

29 November 2023
Africa, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Featured Artists, Impressionism, Ink, Landscape, Painting

ALWAYS AN ARTIST

Audrey Anderson grew up in a home where both her parents would draw and practice art. “When visiting my grandfather, he would show me how to harmoniously work with water and colour. It was a normal part of life I suppose, like eating or sleeping.”

“I have always been an artist; I don't think there was a time in my life where I ended up doing it. I have just always done it. It's my career, it's my livelihood. The funny thing is there have been times in my life I have thought about changing my career path, but then something from the arts industry would call me back again, and I would cancel my plans and just continue being an artist again.”

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Guy duToit

12 September 2023
Abstract, Africa, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Carving, Featured Artists, Nature, Sculpture, Stylized, Woodturning

JOYOUS ARTISAN

Born in South Africa and now a proud New Zealand citizen, Gideon (Guy) du Toit tried woodturning as a hobby and discovered a real passion and natural talent for it. He took his passion to France, where he studied at Ecole Escoulen, a woodturning school that was created in 2012 on the will of the municipality of Aiguines to promote the unique know-how of woodturners, knowledge which is deeply embedded in the cultural heritage of the territory. Guy qualified from here as a professional production and artistic woodturner.

“Giving up everything to go to France to study full-time was very hard. Not being able to speak French and having to be immersed in the school and classes full-time was exceptionally hard.”

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Lorraine Bailey

1 December 2021
Acrylic, Africa, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Drawing, Featured Artists, Floral, Impressionism, Landscape, Mixed Media, Oils, Painting, Pastels, Still-life

HAPPY HEART, HAPPY ART

Moving from one place to the next can be a drag. Boxing up your life in the hope of finding your happy place; eventually realizing this is more than just a location it also becomes your state of mind too. For Lorraine Bailey this has happened a few times, after a stint in Auckland, she settled in a new happy place – Matamata in the Waikato – however all this came about from her beginnings in Rhodesia, Africa where her love of the environment there spurred her creative desire.

“My environment plays a pivotal role in my creativity. In fact, I can’t imagine what my art would look like without it. I believe, that it’s your surroundings that trigger all the senses to influence your heart and soul, which you then interpret onto canvas/paper. I particularly enjoy capturing that moment when light bounces or reveals something on the subject causing the viewer to pause in reflection. When I lived in Rhodesia and then in South Africa it was the wild life that influenced my work. My father was a Scoutmaster, and so from a very young age I became very aware of my natural surroundings,” she says.

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Cindy Woest

1 December 2021
Africa, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Figures, Impressionism, Nature, Oils, Painting, Realism, Seascape

HONEST ABANDON

While visiting Dougie Chowns one Sunday, I met a neighbour of his, Cindy Woest. Cindy is a very talented woman with a pioneering spirit and endless ‘get up and go.’ She has the ability to tramp into a spot she enjoys, with her canvas and paint, and just - in a couple of hours - produce a painting so true to the view, yet with a loose, pleasing technique. Cindy also writes for this magazine as well as others and is indeed, multi-talented. She tells us her story

I love being outside – the sights, sounds and physical connection with everything outdoors makes me somehow feel part of a larger whole. Being in nature, as a specific part of the ‘outside’, leaves me with a sense of generic wellbeing that travels with me when I return to my ‘inside’ and very average life. The uplifting impact of this residual feeling (which can last for days) has drawn me into capturing that ‘happiness essence’ so that I can use it to stir up good memories for myself and hopefully others viewing my work.

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Lucia Laubscher

1 October 2021
Acrylic, Africa, Animals, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Birdlife, Digital, Fantasy, Featured Artists, Kiwiana, Landscape, Murals, Oils, Painting, Portraits, Symbolism

Lucia Laubscher was born in South Africa and carved an impressive career there around her painting. She immigrated to New Zealand in 2017, and battled with the adjustment of living in a new country with a different culture and set of rules. She started building her career from scratch again and has done exceptionally well in those four years. She tells us her story

When I was five years old, my first grade teacher looked at a cartoon elephant I drew and exclaimed “You are an artist!” This stuck with me throughout my life and my love for creating grew stronger with every passing year. When I was 12 years old my parents ordered me my first oil painting kit in the mail and it arrived with four small canvasses and instructions on how to paint four different artworks – trees, buildings, still-life etc. I enjoyed drawing and experimenting with paint and have always been creative and would find myself doodling all the time.

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Andrea Choonoo

1 August 2021
Abstract, Acrylic, Africa, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Featured Artists, Impressionism, Landscape, Nature, Painting, Realism

Photo Credit Ruslana Semenyshena

MULTI-TALENTED SAILOR

Born in South Africa, multi-talented Andrea Choonoo immigrated to New Zealand in 2000. Here she graduated with a Fine Art and Graphic Design Degree from Whitecliffe College of Art and Design in Auckland. She went on to study honours in Screen and Media Studies at the Waikato University and worked as a graphic designer in Sydney, Australia for seven years.

After working in Australia, Andrea went on to sail around the world, capturing the beauty of life through photography and making video documentaries. “I love the outdoors, especially nature and this can be seen through my artwork. Fine art has always been a strong passion and this next venture is a huge undertaking, but also an exciting adventure.”

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Judy Woods
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