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Adair Davis

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HOW COULD I NOT?

Born into a creative family with parents who belonged to a vibrant arts community, Adair Davis tells us that when she was born, Rita Angus, who lived with her family at the time, looked at her palm when she was born and proclaimed: “Adair will be an artist”. With this kind of background, it is not surprising that Adair has continued so successfully with her artistic journey.

Adair studied art at Whitireia New Zealand, previously called Whitireia Community Polytechnic and Parumoana Community College, in Porirua and claims her Mum was her mentor, teaching her to work in rich colour and three dimensional form. Her father was also instrumental in her influences, and actually made her an easel, which she still has and which is her favourite piece of equipment.

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Lizzy Dickie

lizzy-dickie-aotearoa-artistCELEBRATIONS OF LIFE

Born into a family of nine children, Lizzy Dickie has always been encouraged to pursue her creativity. Art is an important part of life and something her family celebrated. Lizzy was encouraged to go to university and study her passion, which at that time was sculpture. Having studied in the UK, achieving a BTEC Diploma pre-foundation at Mid Warwickshire College in 1996, a BTEC Diploma in art and design at St Martins College in London and finally receiving a BA Hons in Fine Art from Coventry University, she travelled extensively and volunteered in various parts of the world, creating murals and teaching.

She settled in Auckland and worked as the lead mural artist on ‘Storyfest’ for the Waitakere City Council for several years. “This gave me the confidence to create work for others, but honestly, Instagram has given me a real outlet to share my more personal work and to meet other creatives who inspire me daily. Instagram gives me the freedom to create what I want and gives me the confidence to call myself an artist.”

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Keeley Eastwood

keeley-eastwood-aotearoa-artistEASTWOOD MYTHOLOGY

Myths, legends and the other-worldly creatures that bring them to life have long caught the attention of young and old. Authors and illustrators alike have been caught in the web of tales spun across generations. The fantasy genre is one of the key elements that sparked something in Keeley Eastwood and became one of the core inspirations behind her works.
Photos by Brad Mosen Photography

“As a child I have memories of loving illustrated children’s and young adult’s books and televised stories featuring anthropomorphic animals, fairies, mermaids and other mythological creatures,” she says. “These included the Beatrix Potter series, Wind in the Willows, tales about Greek mythology, The Dark Crystal, The Chronicles of Narnia, The NeverEnding Story, The Borrowers, Labyrinth…” Keeley also describes human emotion / states of being, animals and her love for the natural world as other major influencers.

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Marc Mckinlay

 

Marc currently lives in Christchurch and has never had any formal training in art. He says his major interest in art stemmed from secondary school in Scotland, when he was selected to represent his school in regional art programmes.

“I like to experiment with colour and find inspiration everywhere. I don’t focus on other artists’ work but the vibrant art scene in Christchurch has inspired me to create more art in the last 24 months than I did over the last twenty years. Due to this, my art has evolved significantly in the past 18 months and I am now considered to have evolved a style.” 

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Lucia Laubscher-Fantail

Lucia Laubscher

Lucia Laubscher - Aotearoa Artist - The New Zealand Artist Magazine

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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Vanessa Pollen

featured-vanessa-pollen-aotearoa-artistINHERENT TALENT

Vanessa Pollen hails from sunny Whakatane in the Bay of Plenty – and like the name of the bay, she has plenty of artistic skill and drawing talent, which has been sharpened by hard mahi. She recently told us her story, and here we share it with you...

I guess I’ve been lucky whereby I have always been able to draw. It certainly runs in my family with my father, aunt & granny to name a few all being very good artists in different mediums. My passion would be drawing animals, both pets and wildlife. It gives me so much joy when I draw someone’s much loved pet who has passed on or is still around. When we immigrated to New Zealand in 2016 and I saw how much people here loved their pets, just as much as I do (we had to leave our pets in Zimbabwe which was heart breaking) so I decided to begin drawing again and took it up full time in December 2019.

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Debbie Cleland

debbie-cleland-aotearoa-artistA PROMISE MADE

Brought up around the Otago Harbour area of Dunedin, Debbie Cleland distinctly remembers being out on a walk one day as an 11-12 year old and coming across a gentleman who had set up his easel on the water’s edge at Carey’s Bay. She was very curious to see what he was painting, and crept up quietly to peer over his shoulder. Immediately fascinated at how the watercolour paint flowed from his brush on to the page, creating the most beautiful watery reflections, she promised herself, “One day I will paint with watercolours like this man.” Many years later she attended a weekend art class lead by Barrie White. This experience motivated her to finally start painting, fulfilling her promise, the results of which can be seen below. Debbie explains . . .

I feel like my career has just begun. Over the years there has been little time for me to pursue my passion for art, due to raising a large family of four, (and all that entails), so I have not been as productive as I would have liked. There has been no specific space for creating art, except for the kitchen table. However, I now have a designated room in our home where I can work in solitude. I will soon have a lot more time to pursue my creative side as I intend to retire in September this year. This is a huge motivating factor for me to really get stuck into producing more works.

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Coral Noel Yang - Aotearoa Artist - The New Zealand Artists Magazine

Coral Noel Yang

Professionally trained in film production, giving her a solid foundation in visual language, storytelling, colour theory, cinematography, and lighting amongst other skills, Coral Noel Yang’s predominant painting training comes from her mother who is a premier painter in Taiwan and also from various classes she took throughout the years including a Master of Fine Arts (Cinema-Television Production) at the University of Southern California, USA and Art History at the Whitman College, USA, amongst others. She tells us about herself: 

I was very fortunate to grow up in an artsy family – my Chinese dad was a professor and my Japanese mom is a painter so I grew up immersed in a strong love for arts and literature, which continues to develop. With a passion for storytelling and visual arts I chose my professional pathway as a filmmaker. After earning an MFA in Cinema-TV production from the University of Southern California I embarked on a rich creative journey involving living and traveling in different countries, directing and producing films, TV commercials and children’s television.

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Susannah Law - Aotearoa Artist - The New Zealand Artists Magazine

Susannah Law

Susannah-law-aotearoa-artistSince childhood, Susannah Law has been receiving awards for her artwork and it was always her dream to be an artist. With much encouragement from family and friends, she finally completed a Diploma in Fine Arts from Hungry Creek Art School in Puhoi.

My mother always supported me and organised private lessons for me during my teen years with my forever favourite art tutor (late) Kathleen Bartlett. Kathleen was so passionate about art and the history of art which she studied in London, she was always inspiring to me. I can remember her even now, vividly telling a story of her travels such as to murals in Greece and Turkey and other exhibits she visited, how Van Gogh’s originals move you in a way that prints never could and that paintings in their original form always have a better impact.

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Jenny Konz

jenny-konz-aotearoa-artistTHERAPEUTIC TALENT

The first time Jenny Konz picked up a pencil to draw with, was in 2009. She maintains there was never a 'plan’ to become an artist. She resorted to drawing to ease the ache in her heart from her daughter and granddaughter living so far away in America.

"I went over to America for the birth of my first grandchild as my son-in-law (GI Joe) was doing a tour in Iraq. It tore my heart in two when I had to leave this beautiful little bundle and come back home. His second tour was when she was two years old, and my daughter and granddaughter came to New Zealand for a holiday. I fell in love with this bundle of joy all over again and my heart seriously broke when they had to leave. I struggled to cope with the loss and decided to pick up a pencil and try to draw her from my favourite photo, thinking that it would be good therapy for me. I had my Aunt Margaret who lived in Christchurch who was an artist (Margaret Hudson-Ware) so I sent her my drawing for some feedback and this is what she said… "What a lovely drawing! You have caught the most important part of any drawing, which is the spirit of the work. Alex looks unsure, uncertain what is happening. Well done Jenny!!! The hair is very soft and babyish and wispy . . . good work here. Hands are a nightmare. These hands are very sweet and very young . . . good work again. (I think of them as a bunch of sausages). Lop-sided is real, too symmetrical often looks artificial - a bit of good work. Just keep going."

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