Vehicles Archives - Aotearoa Artist

Damian Jacobs

7 October 2024
Artists, Asia, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Aviation, Emerging Artists, Featured Artists, Figures, Hyper Realism, Landscape, Oils, Painting, Realism, Still-life, Vehicles

Damian working on "The artists little ballerina"

ABOVE: Mercedes AMG One

UNDISCOVERED TALENT

Born in Hamilton, Damian Karl Jacobs developed a passion for creating art at a young age. Over the years, he intermittently indulged in this passion, finally becoming serious about in the mid-2010s, and hasn’t stopped since.

He hasn’t had any formal art training as there was no-one at the time that could cater to his specific artistic skills. However, he did gain some influence from an artist in the 1990’s by a lovely lady called Laurel Flemming, she ran a studio from her home in Dinsdale, Hamilton. It was there that he got some basic tips on how to paint, but once that episode ended, he figured the rest out himself.

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WAKE (Alex Tikaram)

1 July 2023
Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Coloured Pencils, Drawing, Featured Artists, Figures, Pencil, Realism, Vehicles

ESOTERIC CANDOUR

“I want to say I had formal art training at school, but what did school teach anyone apart from how to prepare yourself to be short on cash. Art was something that I always did that cost me next to nothing that I could learn alone and in my own way, so no, no formal training.”

It’s hard for Wake to pinpoint how he ended up being an artist. “Anyone who does anything slightly creative is an artist to me, but to define it to something more specific, I started to take it seriously when a friend of mine made a social media page for me around the end of 2020, to exhibit and possibly sell some pieces. A couple of years ago, I would never have dreamed of people wanting to pay actual money for the things I draw. However, I sold a piece to a guy all the way in the USA which I’m pretty proud of, it’s very humbling.”

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Rochelle Thomas

1 February 2022
Acrylic, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Featured Artists, Hyper Realism, Landscape, Painting, Realism, Vehicles

AUTO ART

Taking the time to use her observational skills, Rochelle Thomas has always been fascinated with paintings. At Cafe’s, offices, anywhere art hangs, Rochelle studies the work to fathom how it has been done. One day she decided to try this out for herself, and purchased paint, brushes, paper and books of scenic New Zealand. After completing her first painting she was hooked.

Rochelle completed a correspondence course with The Learning Connection, earning a Level 5 Diploma in Art & Creativity in 2014. Working full time, and a single Mum of three, Rochelle juggled her work and art for a couple of years until an unfortunate accident, which resulted in a broken leg, left her at home for six months, where she concentrated daily on her painting. She decided not to return to work, but rather became self-employed, concentrating on commissions to paint vehicles.

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John White

1 January 2017
Animals, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Birdlife, Featured Artists, Impressionism, Landscape, Oils, Painting, Realism, Vehicles

WILD PASSION

“Don’t be afraid, all the great painters had to start somewhere. You will make many mistakes so go ahead and start making them”. Adeptly using the time honoured mediums of oil and watercolour, John White portrays his love of wildlife through richly built paintings, softly painted, revealing the passion he has for his subject. Having built his skills over a lifetime he continues to create, advise and exhibit in New Zealand and overseas.

You know the first thing people ask me when they see my art is “how long have you been painting”? My answer is that I have always painted. I was brought up in a small place called Macandrew Bay on the Otago Peninsula with my three brothers and one sister. One of my brothers is my identical twin who is also an artist. We are the only ones in our family who do art, so my parents really did not understand what it was all about but they did encourage us. In my late teens I used to come home after playing rugby on a Saturday and paint watercolours on our kitchen table. If we had any visitors my mother would bring out my paintings and show them.

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Ron Jackson

1 November 2015
Acrylic, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Featured Artists, Figures, Painting, Realism, Vehicles, Watercolour

RAISING STEAM

With no formal training at an Art College, Yorkshire-born, New Zealand railway artist Ron Jackson honed his skills at night classes at Waiuku College and painting workshops for about ten years.

I started sketching during my holidays then progressed to painting. I had some very good tutors at the art classes workshops that I attended. Further to this I was impressed by the abilities and techniques of amateur artists on a UK Television program ‘Watercolour Challenge’.

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SSOtaki 2 Battle With Mowe WW1-wallace-tricket-aotearoa-artist

Wallace Trickett

1 November 2015
Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Aviation, Featured Artists, Hyper Realism, Naval, Oils, Painting, Realism, Vehicles

CREATIVE SPIN

Believing in what he does and creating a historical link that families will treasure for generations is what makes Wallace Trickett’s creative brain spin. “Life is a learning curve, from the cradle to the grave.”

Wallace studied with a professional painter for the Duke of Edinburgh Gold award at age 17 and has always been interested in art. He emigrated to New Zealand in 1979 and started painting seriously in 1997 after taking some stress leave from a full time job in the transport industry. Commissions started almost immediately.

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Reka Norman

1 May 2015
Acrylic, Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Drawing, Ink, Painting, Pencil, Portraits, Realism, Vehicles, Youth Art

REKA NORMAN

Straight ‘A’ student, sixteen year-old Reka Norman has always enjoyed drawing, ever since childhood, for her it is a hobby.

Reka takes her hobbies seriously and to end her high school year with a 95% pass rate for her final International Cambridge Art Exam is a notable demonstration of this.

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Alan Williams

1 March 2015
Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Drawing, Emerging Artists, Realism, Vehicles, Watercolour

OUTLAW ARTIST

There has always been something indefinable about motorcycling and motorbikes. Perhaps it is the independent nature of man and machine that sets them apart from the general populace or because bikes and bikers have long been associated with outlaws and gangs - the ‘one percenters’. Life-long biker Whangarei-based Alan Williams is a ‘one percenter’ but he is not an outlaw, he just thinks differently to most folks.

Alan doesn’t go out of his way to break the rules he just does it as a matter of course. That’s the way he is. A fabrication engineer by profession and a full-blooded biker at heart Alan has another side to his character – he is an avid watercolourist. No one taught Alan how to paint; he just picked up a brush and did it. No doubt his technical and engineering grounding guided his hand and enabled his approach but then, with his chosen subject being motorcycles, this was, quite fortunate.

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Robert Rapson

1 November 2014
Artists, Australia, New Zealand & Oceania, Birdlife, Contemporary Art, Featured Artists, Nature, Sculpture, Vehicles

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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David Foley

1 July 2014
Artists, Drawing, Featured Artists, Illustration, Ink, Painting, Realism, Seascape, Street Scenes, Vehicles, Watercolour

A LINEAR PERSPECTIVE

For much of his life David Foley worked in commercial interior design and only took up serious watercolour painting on retiring, attending various workshops in New Zealand, Italy and Australia.

“While I took an interest in drawing from a very early age I did not have any formal art training at all,” he says. He did however attend the Brixton School of Building and Architecture in the UK from 1949 - 1952 and completed a five year apprenticeship in Display and Signwriting in Hamilton.

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