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John Unasa

John Unasa - Aotearoa Artist

CONSUMED BY PASSION

After many years of focusing on various career paths John Unasa recalls that it was becoming quite apparent his desire to create from a very young age was still very much alive and something had to be done about it. Now, at 35, full of life experience, qualifications and a range of skills, he says he feels the time is right for him to put his full focus into his creative passion.

“My inspirations emanate from my feelings about my physical and social environment, my mood, my imagination, my culture, pop culture and my education,” he says.

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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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Adam Styles - Aotearoa Artist

Adam Styles

Adam Styles - Aotearoa Artist

ETHEREAL DIMENSIONS

Inspired by dreams and images from another time and place and forged with fire and passion, the steel warriors, dragons and other mythological beings that emerge from the Nelson-based workshop of Adam Styles are real and definable but their earthly shell has been removed to reveal a core of what is normally hidden, the unseen.

Adam’s work has taken on a life of its own. It is more than simply ethereal, it is otherworldly. His fish swim in from somewhere we haven’t seen, a parallel dimension perhaps. Steel warriors stand vigilant, swords readied, steel angels look on, observing. Of course it is all fantasy such creatures simply don’t exist, not on this earth at any rate, do they?

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Michael Angelo Burke

aotearoa-artist-michael-angelo-bourkeHERITAGE ART

A carver and painter of murals and pictures, portraying an individual style unique in New Zealand, Michael Angelo Burke’s inspiration comes from the spiritual aspects of nature.

The themes of his work reflect a childhood spent playing among native trees, observing wildlife in the Coromandel native bush and extensive travel to National Parks of the world, including USA, Canada, Alaska, Australia and UK.
“I express this inspiration by combining the disciplines of drawing, carving and painting. I don’t plan my artworks - they just flow from my life experiences.” Michael Angelo says.

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Karen Vernon

Karen Vernon - Aotearoa Artist

UNDER A BENIGN SPIRIT

“My art doesn’t stand on words. What is on my canvas I sometimes can’t explain away with clever talk. It is not an intellectual process, my paintings are intuitive, and, I feel, painted under the tutelage of a benign spirit.” So says Karen Vernon whose journey into the art world began in 1993 while attending American Folk Art classes in Auckland.

Largely self-taught and without any formal art training Karen says she has been fortunate to have had the guidance of a number of “wonderful” art tutors to get to the level she is at today. “I was a student of Jayne Sprott, and attended her watercolour class for three years. It was at this point I developed a passion for art and began trying other mediums, but staying in the realms of more traditional realistic painting.

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Keith Grinter

aotearoa-artist-keith-grinterEXTREME ART

It is not every day one meets an artist who ‘renounced’ the relatively calm aura of oil paints and easel for the fiery inferno of glassblowing, but it was enough to make Whangarei-based glass-artist Keith Grinter an irresistible subject for The New Zealand Artist Magazine. Photographs by Diana Rees.

Keith Grinter started work in his own glass blowing studio in Whangarei in September 2013. He recalls: “I had been discussing moving to Whangarei and working with Keith Mahy, (one of the founding fathers of art glass in New Zealand), when he unfortunately passed away.”

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Jan Huijbers

Jan Huijbers - Aotearoa Artis

THE CREATIVE MIND

A history buff, a fascination for new inventions and a keen gardener. During his life-long journey to establish himself as a full-time practicing artist, Jan Huijbers has been exposed to a myriad of different styles and influences. In the article below he talks about his life long journey as an artist.

I had no formal training but was involved in art at an early age. At age 16, I was a member of an art design team creating flower structure parades, a yearly event in Zundert Holland for many years.

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Robert Rapson

FOCUS ON ROBERT RAPSON

Ceramic artist Robert Rapson, who has made the trophies for the annual Arts Access Awards for the past four years, has received one of his trophy creations: the Arts Access Artistic Achievement Award 2014.

Robert learned he was the recipient when he returned home to the Hutt Valley in late June after three months travelling in Europe and North America. The judging panel described Robert as a “clever, quirky and self-taught artist” and said the award acknowledges his “unique voice and contribution to New Zealand art.”

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Vjekoslav Nemesh

Vjekoslav Nemesh - Aotearoa Artist

UNIVERSAL LOVE

Inspired by nature and the outer reaches of the human soul, award winning artist Vjekoslav Nemesh says the overriding subject matter of all his work is quite simply universal love.

Born in Petrovaradin in the former Yugoslavia, Vjekoslav Nemesh has been a professional working artist since 1984, participating in over 150 group and 30 solo exhibitions.

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Darina Cincurova

Darina Cincurova - Aotearoa Artist

THE ART OF FREEDOM

A passionate environmental artist, Darina Cincurova, hopes her art will inspire a respect and appreciation of New Zealand's diverse wildlife heritage.

Born in the Czech Republic, Darina says art has been her ‘thing’ from early childhood when she started drawing the world around her and dreamed of becoming a full time artist. Little wonder then that as a student Darina abandoned fashion design opting instead to undertake a four-year art course at a private art school in Prague as this allowed her more freedom to express herself. It is this artistic freedom that has driven and inspired Darina all her life and what she loves most about being an artist. “I cannot imagine life without it,” she says simply.

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