Reese Shuker
Above: Walk the coloured fields (Rothko) - 400x500mm - Acrylic Unlearning Perfection: The Art of Reese Shuker For Reese Shuker, the…
Caitlin Johnston 2
OCEANS OF TALENT Caitlin Johnston has been featured here before in 2021, and has come on in leaps and bounds since…
Leda Daniel
Above: Detail: Lotus Goddess UNSPOILED SPONTANEITY Having completed her diploma in Arts at the University of Fine Arts, La Plata in…
Tim Houghton
ABOVE: 'Old Garden Shed' - I was struck by the peace and silence of this old garden shed, as the light…
Jana Branca
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.”
Stephen Martyn Welch (Marty)
A PROFICIENT PAINTER
Stephen Martyn Welch, known as Marty, has had no formal training in painting and as such, the beginning of his career was very difficult. Not many galleries were interested in what he had to offer. “I am 100% self-taught, which I am proud of because I worked really hard to get where I am today.”
He failed his school certificate in art, so he joined the army and started doing sketches for his fellow comrades, “so they could go to the local tattooist, where they proceeded to ruin my drawings on someone’s skin.” After the army, Marty worked in an Irish pub in Auckland. “I started off sketching images on a big white beer fridge door that was like a white board. From there people used to come in and ask me to draw different things from actors to comic characters.”
Jennifer Stebbings
PROLIFIC DETAIL
Born in Motueka, New Zealand, Jennifer Stebbings didn’t have any formal fine-art training, however she did go to Christchurch Polytech for a year, doing visual Communications. “I have always loved painting and drawing from my first memory. I went into commercial art thinking fine arts wasn’t really an option for a ‘real job’ I always knew that art in some form would be my only path.”
She moved back to New Zealand, from England in 2014, and for the first time, circumstances allowed her to pursue painting full time. Her biggest obstacle was confidence: “I battled to have confidence in my product with no apologies. I had my first exhibition when I was about 18, and an art critic said my path is in design as I have no knowledge of colour. I probably didn’t, but I was gutted. Now I would think, well, that’s just your opinion which you are entitled to. Thats not to say I wouldn’t take criticism on board, but it wouldn’t bother me now.”
Kerri-Lee Gunter
Born in East London, South Africa, Kerri-Lee Günter has been in New Zealand since 2009, living in and enjoying the majesty…
Nancy Frazer
Nancy Frazer is a full-time self-taught artist who specialises in contemporary art, using acrylics on canvas with a strong emphasis on…
Rosanne Croucher
GENEROUS GIFT From a young age, Rosanne Croucher loved to make things. She won a few colouring in competitions as a…