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Katie Mines - Aotearoa Artist

Katie Mines

Katie Mines - Aotearoa Artist

MEDITATIVE ART

An intense academic by nature, and artist in heart and soul, Katie Mines spent much of her life studying for a series of degrees and teaching at university before engaging her childhood dream of being full-time professional artist in her own right, and on her own terms.

Prior to 2012, Katie spent 10 years travelling through Asia, Africa and America and seven years teaching at a Confucian University in Seoul, South Korea. She returned to Hawkes Bay at the end of 2012, to raise her daughter and try her hand at painting, which remained a life long dream, “I always knew that art would become a big part of my life, I just wasn’t sure in what capacity until I started painting full time,” she reflects. After years of travelling, Katie was ready for what Hawkes Bay has to offer, “the space to slow life down, have a garden, bring up my daughter, and paint.”

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Ira Mitchell

Ira Mitchell-Kirk - Aotearoa Artist

IN THE ZONE

The 2010 Christchurch earthquake irrevocably changed Ira Mitchell’s life. In this article she tells of how she faced the formidable challenges of depression and post traumatic stress and found a new direction and purpose through her art.

I was in a high-rise building in Christchurch when the earthquake struck. That, and the ensuing aftershocks, traumatized me to the extent I still suffer from PTS. I was teaching part time at that point and it made me rethink my life and what I wanted to do with it.

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John Burns

John Burns - Aotearoa Artist

THE INVENTOR

John Burns, husband, father, grandfather, and artist, born in Wellington “many years ago” does not see himself as an artist but describes himself as an ‘inventor’ who makes ‘stuff’, something he has been doing very successfully for the last 30 years, selling most of the work he has produced. This is John’s story and a collection of his works over the years.

“I admire and am inspired in my art by people such as Pablo Picasso, Petrus van der Velden, Colin McCahon, Marc Chagall and many others. To me their art was different from the ‘norm’ (whatever that was). Some have taken flack for their style of art; Colin McCahon is an example of this. I think art is a long term activity where one can become bolder over time something I certainly feel applies to me.

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Jason King

Jason King - Aotearoa Artist

MAGICAL INGREDIENT

Award winning landscape artist Jason King, a part-time fire engineer with penchant for making and flying model gliders, had always envied people who could draw or paint realistic pictures and never imagined he would be able to do it himself until one day he decided to give it a try. In this article he charts his course from the sketchpad to the winners podium.

When I first tried my hand at drawing I discovered that drawing ability is not necessarily an innate skill or ability, but rather something that can be learned. I found that there are techniques that can be used to create an image and, for me, the most important skill was developing an eye for what looks good.

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Gavin Chai - Aotearoa Artist

Gavin Chai

Gavin Chai - Aotearoa Artist

Self-portrait


THE PRODIGY

At the relatively young age of 17 years, Malaysian-born portrait artist Gavin Chai will hold his first solo exhibition at the Estuary Arts Centre in Orewa in May this year. This follows outstanding achievements in winning both KG Fraser award (best in show) and the gold medal (most successful artist of the show) at the 2014 Royal Easter Show. Gavin also had a painting selected as a finalist in the 2014 Adam Portraiture Award and placed with the nation-wide touring exhibition. In this article Gavin tells how the work of the old masters inspired him to create and pursue a career as a professional artist.

I started drawing and painting when I was 12 years old and trained under an artist in Malaysia where many materials such as oil paints and acrylics are in short supply. I was only taught how to use pencil, watercolour and oil pastels.

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Bruce Mortimer

Bruce-Mortimer-aotearoa-artistGRAPHIC DETAIL

A life-long artist with no formal art training, graphite photo-realist, Bruce Mortimer, whose work has been sold all over the world, describes himself as a ‘self-learner’. He takes his art very seriously, committing himself to learning with a passion and working to a plan. This applies equally from his art and photography, to learning languages or sport. In this article he writes at length about his life as an artist and his quest to find peace and a sense of value in an increasingly frenetic global village.

My interest in art began at school, and I have practiced it in one form or another ever since. Although I enjoyed art at school and was competent even at that stage with pencil drawing, I developed a genuine love of photography in my early teens that I still have. Even then I approached my photography as an artist, in that I photographed subject matter in my own way and which had meaning for me.

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Geoff Noble

Geoff Noble - Aotearoa Artist

FREEDOM AND MOVEMENT

There is a lot of paint and colour, lots of colour. Bright, vibrant and even startling. And movement, always movement, large bold images leap out demanding attention, captured but seemingly not, on the cusp of rising and falling but nowhere near frozen.

There are paintings all over the place when entering a very cluttered Tahuna Studios in Nelson. Some are complete, overs still in that moment of creation. New and old it is an eclectic mix. Added to this are posters, surfboards, skateboards, and all manner of tools.

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Ben Timmins - Aotearoa Artist

Ben Timmins

Ben Timmins - Aotearoa Artist

THE NATURAL

Three time winner of the ‘People’s Choice’ award at the NZ Art Show, Ben Timmins is a well-known ‘natural artist’ working out of his studio in Parapara, Golden Bay. In this article he talks about his life, work and penchant for ‘un-learning’.

Ben Timmins paints with oils on wooden panels. He says the painting process and materials used are deliberately employed to engage the viewer on many experiential levels. There is an underlying resonance throughout these paintings, nature as a subject matter is painted upon nature itself, the wood grain is integrated into the compositions with both paint and subject.

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Charles Lyle

aotearoa-artist-charles-lyleA PROLIFIC TALENT

Born in Rotorua, Charles Lyle is a straight-up, 'look-you-the-eye-and tell-you-like-it-is' type of man. It’s all good. This multi-award winning Kerikeri-based artists reflections on a bygone era of cars, tractors and motorbikes takes one back to a time when things were somehow more simple and direct, quieter with none of the frenetic rush of the times in which are living right now.

Of course, there is a harsher reality Charles’ work, particularly in his interpretations of aeroplanes and ships from both World Wars and which have proved immensely popular to collectors of this genre.

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Jodie Marlow

Jodie Marlow - Aotearoa Artist

VIBRANT COLOUR

“When I am happy the people in my life are happy.” says landscape artist Jodie Marlow. Whangarei-born Jodie is happiest when she is painting. “I love how it makes me feel so alive, it gives me the ability to express who I am as a person.”

Jodie has been painting and drawing her entire life, attending many after-school art classes and achieving a cracking 98 percent for her final school art certificate. From 1990-1993 she studied for a diploma in fashion design in her hometown of Whangarei.

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