Sarah Pou
COLOURFUL AFFAIR
Studying Visual Communication at Unitec in Auckland from the early age of 17, Sarah Pou went on to have her art showcased in several high street art Galleries in Auckland and then later in London. She met her husband when she was travelling in England and her artistic career was put on hold in favour of consistent income.
After the birth of her first child she painted childrens nursery artwork and one of her customers proclaimed that she was an ‘illustrator’. This resonated with her and after returning to New Zealand and having their third child, she felt an overwhelming desire to create again, which she could not ignore. She started to develop her style whilst working and looking after her young family. “Time was very limited so I carved out time in the evenings. Although it was tiring, I felt fulfilled and content when I was creating.”
Hiria Anderson
PAINTER OF LIGHT
Hiria Anderson prefers to be known simply as Hiria, a preference which reflects her shy and retiring nature. Brought up with her grandparents who were practitioners of Raranga (weaving) and Whakairo (carving) she grew up surrounded by creativity, loving drawing and making things with her hands.
“I’ve grown up around creatives so it was a natural transition for me to make art my career. As a young person I remember wanting to become an artist so I didn’t have to talk to people. I was fearful of having a job in front-of-house, reception, or serving in a shop. Anything to do with people I didn’t want to do. Well, I’ve come a long way in thinking from back then.”
Alfred Memelink
Within the delicate touch of watercolour, Alfred Memelink’s love and admiration of the sea is clearly visible. His joy and wonder in the environments he portrays are clear in the lightness and pleasure of his colour range and composition which emits a sense of satisfaction and contentment. With an easy brushstroke, one gets a feeling of comfort almost giving us permission to forgive nature its dark side with its wondrous and supple beauty. Even his stormy works have a feeling of softness and fragility, yet evoke inspiration.
Self taught, while at sea, his work was developed whilst sailing between New Zealand and Japan, working as a marine engineer. Giving credit to the Pacific Ocean and King Neptune, he began an artistic journey alongside the one he was already on. Having already had an early introduction with a childhood flavoured with artistic parents and wanting a hobby during his voyaging, watercolour was the practical decision to begin his artistic endeavours. A leisurely diversion from the practicalities of living, these early exercises and a book, ‘Feel the fear and do it anyway’ led to the decision in 1994 to leave the sea to paint full time and get ready for his first solo exhibition in a local cafe.
Ben Woollcombe
DISTILLED INSPIRATION
After almost four years of studying Industrial design at the Wellington School of Design in the early ‘70’s, Ben Woollcombe realised industry was not such an inviting option when the alternative was that he could create things of his own fancy and have people appreciate them, even buy them. The motivation to become an artist came from being able to make his own decisions and “enjoy living by my own wit rather than swapping my time for a pittance, while manifesting someone else’s dream.” He loves being able to use his time as he pleases - fishing, entertaining friends, sailing, painting or digging the garden.
Ben always enjoyed the Geography & Biology sets during his early education through correspondence school, as they usually involved illustration of some sort. A high mark in art was his main reason for gaining school certificate.
Simon Kerr
SIMON KERR
SIMON KERROne-time member of the infamous Hole-in-the-Wall gang, prison escapee and activist, Simon Kerr has turned his remarkable talents to painting, creating a body of work which is both narrative and allegorical, the story of his life and redemption and a commentary on the place of human beings in the world. These works are often autobiographical in nature, exploring Kerr’s controversial history and his Devonport upbringing.
Simon Kerr gained notoriety in the 1980s when he set up the Hole in the Wall Gang (complete with t-shirts!). He also made headlines throughout the 1980s for numerous escapes from custody, including from Mt Eden and Paremoremo prisons. He stowed away on a cargo ship to Australia after escaping from Mt Eden in 1987. In 1994 he mounted a 13-day rooftop turret protest against remand conditions in Mt Eden that ended with the Armed Offenders’ Squad forcibly bringing him down.
Cherol Filbee
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.”
Andrew Carter
CHALLENGING COLOUR
CHALLENGING COLOUROil pastel artist Andrew Carter learned he was colour blind at the age of nine when he argued with his teacher over his choice of selecting yellow instead of green for the grass and red for the bark on the trees in a school painting.
It certainly didn’t put him off painting and drawing and why should it have? Some famous artists such as Constable, Picasso and van Gogh are thought to have been colour blind and they did well. It is, after all, a simple matter of perception, not skill or technique.
Beverly Reid
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!
Bruce Mortimer
GRAPHIC DETAIL
GRAPHIC DETAILA 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.
