Bernadette Ballantyne
WINDOWS TO THE SOUL Gaining her Bachelor of Fine Art at Whanganui Quay School of the Arts (now Whanganui UCOL) between…
Rebecca Mathews
MY SOUL DREAM
MY SOUL DREAM“When you find something that makes you happy then the pursuit to better yourself comes naturally”, says Rebecca Mathews, whose mantra is, whatever is good for your soul, do that. “After I found my love for painting, I started showing my work to friends and colleagues who loved it. I sold many pieces and picked up a few commissions.”
Rebecca is a self-taught artist. She loves learning and the challenge of trying new things. “My first painting on canvas was in my 20s. I bought a paint-by-number and loved it. However, it didn't look real enough for me so I started researching; reading books and watching tutorials.”
Ninette Kruger
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.”
Jo Rankin
ABSTRACT BALANCE
ABSTRACT BALANCEFormal training began for Jo Rankin when she graduated from the two year Nanette Cameron Interior Design School Auckland in 2008. Included in the training subjects were colour harmony, balance, styling and art history which also sparked her interest in painting and becoming an artist.
Moving to Kinloch in 2010, Jo joined a watercolour group in her local community. At the same time she joined Active Arts Taupō where she went every week to paint. “I had a great time there, being encouraged by other artists and making new friends.” Semi-retirement allowed her the time to explore her artistic dreams. “Loving colour and design led me to begin my journey as an artist. I have always been a voracious reader and love my collection of art books where I constantly find inspiration. Also our beautiful country and scenery fires my creative soul each day.”
James Price
SOOTHING INSPIRATION
James Price had done some photography previously but in 2021 completed the Level 4 New Zealand Certificate in Creativity through The Learning Connexion. In 2022 James completed the Level 5 Diploma with them, and is already working through Level 6 and loving every moment of his study.
“I love being behind a camera, and whilst commercial work might pay the bills, I like spending time working on a single image that might not come together otherwise. Art for me is when you share a bit of your soul with what you do.” Art has carried him through his three very different careers, becoming the defining part of his character: “In my first career, I looked at art. In my second career, art was a learning experience, and in my third career, art was part of the creative process. Art has taught me, soothed me, and inspired me. Now I continue my journey with art, as an artist. It’s pretty cool.”
Jackie Krzyzowski
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.
Bec Robertson
AVIAN AFFINITY
AVIAN AFFINITYBec Robertson’s grandmother and her grandmother’s sister were painters in their retirement. Bec’s grandmother also wrote and illustrated poems and stories, “As a kid I also wrote and illustrated A LOT of ‘newspapers’. I would make up fanciful news stories and pictures then sell ‘the paper’ to my dad for lolly money. I soon learnt that I could resell the same articles to my other family members for more money for lollies! I loved showing them new pictures and ideas and getting their feedback.”
She tells us more: “I have loved being creative for as long as I can remember. As a young child I had a cupboard in the kitchen under the bench where I kept all my treasures, little bottles of crayon sharpenings, paper cut outs of anything which took my fancy, matchboxes full of strange found objects - I think a few unfortunate forgotten lady bugs and a caterpillar died as a result of my match box obsession.”
Michaela Voigt
MICHAELA JANE VOIGT
Always a very creative person, when the decision came in year 13 to decide what was next for Michaela Voigt, it was either going to be something along the lines of Sports and Nutrition or something creative and she chose an Applied Arts Degree - a Bachelor of Applied Media Art at the Southern Institute of Technology which she completed in 2013.
“I did focus a lot on the digital side whilst studying but my favourite class, looking back, was definitely life drawing. Since graduating I have mostly been a full time Graphic Designer putting work into the odd exhibition but in the last couple of years I have really started pursuing my love of drawing again in particular flowers and botanicals.”
She finds inspiration in all that surrounds her. “I draw things I have seen that are memorable to me and it’s usually the little things.
Lacey Middleton
SYMBOLIC DETAIL
With a diploma in Creative technologies from WelTec, Lacey Middleton began painting seriously when her twins were babies
as a way to earn extra cash while looking after her three young children.
“Art was something I was naturally good at, and it brought in extra income. My realistic paintings seemed to sell as fast as I could make them, and word of mouth sales meant I began to have commissions come in. I also studied art history for seven years, and adore the renaissance and impressionism styles. The work of great artists, like Monet, never ages.”
Kaleb Smith
BLADESMITH
BLADESMITHKaleb Smith has had no formal training and is completely selftaught, drawing all his information from trial and error and also from the internet. “I’m a builder by trade and was just playing at making things, and then these things started selling faster than I could make them! I decided I may as well give it a shot and with the support of my partner, left my carpentry job and never looked back.”
The freedom to enjoy his hobbies and live a lifestyle worth living, rather than working himself into the ground doing a job he wasn’t happy with, has made everything worthwhile. He is not sure what drives his creative streak as an artist but likes just doing things and making things that are hard to achieve and hopefully haven’t been done before.