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Colin Hoare

Colin Hoare - aotearoa artist

FAMILY PORTRAIT

Colin Hoare enjoys painting portraits. Family members, friends and better-known faces are all fair game for this self-taught artist.

Colin likes to work from photographs, saying he does not really like doing pictures of people posing or pulling a big smile. “I like it when they are relaxed and acting naturally. I think that it is a privilege to paint a portrait of someone and try to be honest,” he says. “I draw using a light pencil and then paint with a brush. I prefer painting in oil because the paint takes longer to dry than acrylic paint; this means that I don’t have to keep remixing my paint in order to make the same colour.

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Fiona Hayward

Studio Pic - Fiona Hayward - aotearoa-artist

GOING SOLO

Fiona Hayward was highly rated in two prestigious New Zealand art awards. Her works can be found as far afield as the USA and Australia. She is currently working on a new series of paintings of endangered species from around the world which, she says, will enable her to host her first solo exhibition.

Whilst a deep and profound love of nature lies at the core of her inspiration, it is a peaceful inner feeling of freedom and joy in creating a new artwork that drives and motivates Fiona to paint and draw. Although she has had no formal art training, Auckland born Fiona says her capacity to draw and paint stems from her mother, a talented artist in her own right, who encouraged Fiona from a young age to pursue her artistic bent.

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Geoffrey Cox

Geoffrey Cox - aotearoa artist

FROM PLASTICINE TO POLYMER

Geoffrey Cox has been drawing and modelling all his life. In addition to illustrating books on wildlife and natural history Geoffrey has produced a myriad of work for museums, galleries and individual collectors.

While Geoffrey recalls making plasticine models when he was 11 years old. Things became a little more serious, while he was studying for a degree in zoology, when he was asked to make models for a prehistoric reptile display at the Auckland Museum. After this he was asked to illustrate ‘Collins Guide to the Sea Fishes of New Zealand,’ which was how Geoffrey’s career as a professional artist really started.

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Mehrdad Tahan

Mehrdad Tahan - aotearoa artist

KNOW YOURSELF

From an early age Mehrdad Tahan had an interest in drawing and studied techniques used by the Old Masters. By the age of twenty, he had established his first studio where he taught drawing and calligraphy as well as exhibiting his own works.

In 1990 Mehrdad left Iran for New Zealand, which resulted in a pause in art while he improved his English and learnt about our culture. Family reasons dictated a move to Sweden, and a new culture and language to learn. 1999 saw Mehrdad return to New Zealand and settle in Christchurch.

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John Hodgson - Aotearoa Artist

John Hodgson

John Hodgson - aotearoa artist

THE LIVING ARTIST

After many years of working in the corporate world, John Hodgson completed a long transition to full time artist with his first solo exhibition at the Depot ArtSpace in Devonport in April this year. Representing seven years of work, a good number of the pieces on show sold over the two weeks of the exhibition which also saw some 600 visitors to the gallery.

Whangarei-born, John, whose very first painting was a self-portrait completed back in 1977, has had a long interest in art but says he ‘played around’ for years while in ‘corporate career mode’ here in New Zealand and in the USA. On returning to NZ in 2003 he says he became really serious about his own art while beginning with partner Mary, a modest collection of work by New Zealand artists.

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Carol Laubscher - Aotearoa Artist

Carol Laubscher

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SHADES OF CLAY

Clay is a very sensual medium with which to work. Once you get involved, it takes on a life of its own. It is you, your hands and the clay working together, creating, moulding, curving. The end result is a marriage of both of you.

So says Naenae-based sculptor Carol Ann Laubscher who admits to being more than a little enamoured by the human form: “I love to try and emulate the beauty of the female form,” she says.

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Ron Stenberg- Aotearoa Artist

Ron Stenberg

Ron Stenberg- aotearoa artist

Award winning professional artist Jacky Pearson, speaks to one of New Zealand’s most enduring artists, Ron Stenberg, who marks his 95th birthday this month with a new solo exhibition at the Remuera Gallery in Auckland.

Ron is a former senior lecturer and head of department at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee, was a council member of the Auckland Society of Arts, a painter for the Black Watch Battalion during their last days in Germany, and during the Cold War, and boasts a painting in the Queen’s private collection.

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Monika Welch - Aotearoa Artist

Monika Welch

Monika Welch - aotearoa artist

LET US BE ARTISTS!

It was the love of art and an inherent creativity that paved the way for Monika Welch, a former musician, to become a full time artist.

“I never had any formal are training and just blundered and blustered my way through,” she quips, adding that she did not enter the world of ‘art’ until she was 35: “It was New Year’s and my friend Julie asked what shall we do this year? Seeing as we’d both dabbled in writing and music I replied: ‘let’s be artists, and that was that.”

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Jo Chester - Aotearoa Artist

Jo Chester

Jo Chester - aotearoa artist

HOLD ON TIGHT

“Art enables us to find and lose ourselves at the same time” Thomas Merton.

“Ever since I can remember I have always been drawing and creating images,” Jo Chester explains when asked about her entry in the world of art, “I had a very supportive teacher at Rotorua Girl’s High who encouraged my talent and insisted that I apply to Wellington Polytechnic to study graphic design.”

This ultimately resulted in a career with art as the baseline. “I have worked as a Graphic designer, Textile designer, even designing jeans at one stage as well as drawing up fashion shots for a retail outlet.

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Brian Looker - Aotearoa Artist

Brian Looker

Brian Looker - aotearoa artist

AN OPPORTUNITY FOR REFLECTION

When Brian Looker returned to New Zealand after an absence of twenty years living in Australia, it was like coming to an unknown country. It was the catalyst he needed to become a full time artist. “It seemed a fitting time, to follow my dream and make a commitment to pursue my art on a deeper level,” he says.

“It seemed a fitting time, to follow my dream and make a commitment to pursue my art on a deeper level,” he says. “For many years my wife and I had visited artists in their studios in many countries around the world, each time thinking what a perfect lifestyle they had. Truthfully the only difference between dreaming and having is that first step of doing.”

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