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Cherol Filbee

Cherol Filbee - aotearoa artist

A PORTABLE OCCUPATION

Cherol Filbee has been heading in the arts direction her whole life. She loves being an artist. “I am never bored and my work is portable. My husband Peter, a top croquet player, enters tournaments all over NZ and likes me to accompany him. He knows I am lost without a project, so the deal is that I take my art work with me. When he played the world champs in London, I enrolled in a five day portraiture class at the Heatherly School Of Fine Art.”

Qualifying from The Learning Connection with honours in art and creativity, Cherol studied part-time, starting in 2010.
Awarded a scholarship for every year but one, she explains that simply drawing has become the basis of all her work. “I love faces and like to portray them as portraits or caricature in 2D and 3D. Cats have also featured quite a lot in my work. I like to challenge myself and work from life rather than a photo reference.”

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Beverly Reid

Beverly Reid - Aotearoa Artist

THE JOURNEY

Californian-born Beverly Reid has had a passion for art since childhood. “When I received my first set of Crayola crayons and a colouring book, I loved the exciting hues of colours I could create with them, which led me to drawing different things on my own. My very first memories of drawing were that of a sailing ship, Black Beauty and a ballerina. I was so excited with all the details I could put into my drawings making them ‘come alive’, I wanted to do more! This began my art journey into enjoying realism which still continues today!” .

Apart from a short college course in 3-Dimensional Art in 1994-5, Beverly is a self-taught artist with no formal training, but dedicated to perfecting her craft, and developing her own unique style. “I love being an artist, because I can communicate a feeling or capture a moment in time through my work, and share it with other people. There’s nothing more gratifying to me, when I receive feedback that my art made someone stop, stare at it and keep looking at it!

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Janet Marshall

Janet Marshall - Aotearoa Artist

DREAM CHASER

English-born Kiwi, Janet Marshall has exhibited and sold her work as far afield as England, Japan, USA, Canada, Australia, Italy and China and designed stamps for NZ Post and NZ Fish and Game.

Janet is a founding member of Nature in Art, Gloucestor, England and has work in numerous collections including Nature in Art England, NZ Milk Board USA, NZ Post, NZ Treasury, Puki Ariki Museum Taranaki, and Birds in Art, Wisconsin, USA. She has also written and had published five illustrated children’s books as well as an illustrated garden diary of her former home Te Popo Gardens in Taranaki, called ‘Images of a Garden’.

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Vinny Thompson

Vinny Thompson - Aotearoa Artist

THE PASSION THAT SURROUNDS

When a fine artist was introduced to ceramics the resultant mix was an evocative blend of genres and bold colours recalling another side to what makes New Zealand what it is. Vinny Thompson talks about her life, work and her passion for clay.

My introduction into ceramics came about while I was attending night classes at Archibald’s ‘The Art Place’, in Upper Hutt where I was learning portraiture painting with Mary Archibald. I booked in for a weekend class doing clay sculpture with Wellington sculptor Di Conway who was teaching us how to make ‘roly poly’ women. In the first 10 minutes of having my hands on the clay, I thought, “Oh I can do this! I like this!”

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Julia Henderson

Julia Henderson - Aotearoa Artist

THE DISTINCTIVE VOICE

Growing up and being schooled in the United Kingdom, Julia Henderson attended a very conservative grammar school, where art was not considered an appropriate career choice. She studied Biological Sciences and went on to do a BSc and PhD in Ecology. She still felt the urge to get involved with the arts though and after immigrating to New Zealand 25 years ago, she obsessively studied art, taking numerous classes and workshops covering all aspects of art – drawing, painting in all media, print-making, colour theory and art history including Maori and Pacific art.

After deciding to take the next step and try to make a career out of art, she began entering competitions, experiencing some success. Finally a friend convinced her to approach a gallery with her work, and to her delight and beyond her wildest dreams, Julia was offered a solo exhibition. The sell-out show, held nearly 20 years ago, cemented Julia’s ambition and she has prospered ever since.

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Bari Duncan

Bari Duncan - Aotearoa Artist

A DRIVING FORCE

After trying various work prospects, such as clerical, retail,
bank and so on, Bari Duncan finally decided to follow her
lifelong passion. “Right from pre-school,” she reflects, “my mother couldn’t keep up with my lust for colouring-in books. I have always longed to follow my heart and get focused on my painting. I just kept pushing, struggling, learning and trying until the time was right.”

Having been dealt a number of blows on her journey, Bari reflects, “My art is everything to me, it’s who I am, a driving force. I love that it has helped me through the hardest, roughest times in my life and when it seemed everything around was crumbling, it kept me focused and positive.” On the subject of education, she has not attended art school or university.

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Amanda Brett

Amanda Brett - aotearia artist

THE COLOURS OF WATER

“All my life I had always wanted to be an artist,” Amanda says, “but it got lost amongst a business career, and that of being a wife and mother.” Continuing she adds that High School was a big waste of time for her.

“I had many ideas for my future but I am sad to say my school would not support any of them. I wanted to become an architect, but I wasn’t allowed to study any of the foundation courses. I was even told by the school career counsellor “not to worry about art or music school as I was just going to get pregnant, so why bother?”

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Kerry Fenton-Johns - aotearoa artist

Kerry Fenton-Johns

Kerry Fenton-Johns - aotearoa artist

KERRY'S WORLD

“Slow down, let the art touch you inside,” poignant words indeed from well known artist Kerry Fenton-Johns.With her very busy mind she is finding inspiration everywhere she looks, be it a building or a plant in the garden

Those who are familiar with this work marvel at the photographic realism. TNZAM first came across her pohutukawa paintings for an exhibition at the Dunedin International Airport 2010. Kerry was one of the instigators behind the ‘Artist in the Terminal idea.’

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Jacky Pearson - Aotearoa Artist

Jacky Pearson

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ABSORBING WATERCOLOUR

“I have gradually become absorbed by the need to paint and draw all the time. It is really what I have always done from a very young age.” 

You might have come across this talented lady’s work in a book or magazine or even a calendar. Although no one in Jacky Pearson’s family painted, she was encouraged to do so because she was so passionate about drawing and painting which she took to A level standard in high school.

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