Painter, published author, and printer - Don Wilkie does not set limits on his range of creative talents.
“Painting provides the space and relaxation in which I lose myself in creating,” he reveals, “one of my biggest joys is when the painting is completed and seeing what has been achieved from a blank canvas.”
When asked what motivates her, Pauline Gough says simply: “It is the love of it. It’s important for me to love the whole process – if it feels like work, I shouldn’t be doing it.”
Recalling her early years when the call of the artist flowed strongly in her heart, Pauline says she has always loved anything to do with art: “I wanted to do art at school, however my school in Wellsford, didn’t offer this as an option in those days. My mother looked into some individual lessons and the principal of Rodney College said he would try to arrange an art teacher; however this never amounted to anything. “Art as a career was what I desired, teaching is where I ended up,” she says wryly.
“Learn to organise your life, make time to do the things you dream of.”
Robyn Mitchell’s favourite sculptural medium is wood: “It is not until you start to shape and polish the wood, that the beauty of the grain and colour are revealed,” she says. “Because of the variants of grain, the type of wood and what part of the tree they come from, no two pieces will ever come out the same.”
Jane Pestell-Litten is a trans-Tasman fine artist working primarily in the traditional mediums of charcoal and watercolour, or oils on linen. Jane’s work is exclusively figurative (whole and portrait). Her charcoals are large and lively and strong in line and style.
She is driven to capture the brilliance of light and paints in the style of the Photorealist movement. Her work depicts the actuality of what the eye can see, yet allows for subject ambiguity to enable individual interpretation. Her work is held in numerous local and international private and public collections.
Kellie Edwards spends a lot of time outside her studio thinking and planning, and as a long distance runner she has plenty of time for thinking.
When she is not running, Kellie works part time-caring for children of local families. This time spent with children has been a good counter balance to her work in fine art, being the opposite of contemplative studio time. The transition back into almost full time art has helped her work past being the perfectionist, and having less studio time in the week has been great leverage to keep her fearlessly moving forward.
“Have a goal, have something to achieve and then go and fulfill it. It always a nice feeling to look back on the journey of how you realised your dreams.”
So says Tanya Short, who some may remember as Tanya Finlayson making and selling handmade jewellery and sewing children’s clothing at the Whangarei markets.
Throughout his life, Matt Diamond has had an interest in drawing, endeavouring to put to paper that which he saw, developing his talent through the years. He travelled Europe and the Middle East for four years, returning to New Zealand to train at Aucklands Freelance Animation Studio.
After working in 2 and 3 dimensional animation and spending time doing animation for Maori TV, he realised his creativity didn’t really flourish in an office environment and decided to start travelling again. Whilst in central America he spent time sketching people in cafés, without them knowing, and then presenting them with the drawing when they had finished their meal. Sometimes he just made a new friend, other times the unwitting model would buy him a meal or tip him. However, although this was entertaining, it did not satisfy his overwhelming urge to create huge artworks.
Born in New Plymouth and now living in Ngararatunua, Whangarei, Vicki Leeuwenburg took up her passion for art once her children had left the nest. Once she had the time to focus completely she became consumed with her art. She has never really had any formal training, apart from attending Aroha Paora’s art classes for three years at Reyburn House. We asked Vicki what she loved most about being an artist.
“When I look at a painting I like, I ask myself what it is about that painting which draws me to it. For me colour is a very important component and it tends to be a very emotional thing. I love bold vibrant colours, but the combination of colours is also important. The way the play on light is used to make contrasts between light and dark creates an impact, which also draws me to it."