Creative Connections

Andrea Robinson is a painter from Wellington Aotearoa NZ. Her paintings celebrate nature and are made with the intention to touch people's hearts and shine a light on conservation and environmental protection. From stylised realism to illustration, Andrea explores many styles and approaches within 3 series: florals; landscapes and native birds with a particular focus on kiwi.  In this episode...

Nicole Russell is a watercolour artist born in Germany and now living in Ruby Bay in the Tasman district at the top of the South Island of New Zealand.  Nicole paints her local environment and what she sees and she loves to paint en plein air. In this episode Nicole talks about how she came to a full time painting practice after a career in law, her journey to living in Aotearoa, her watercolour j...

Tallulah Nunez was born in Wellington and raised in the Hawkes Bay. She is a painter currently based in the remote Gascoyne region of Western Australia, with a strong creative connection to New Zealand. Her practice is grounded in place — exploring the rich textures, colours, and forms of arid landscapes, native botanicals, and geological structures. Working primarily in drawing and painting, she...

Kylie King-Hazel is a portrait painter living in Pōneke Wellington.  https://www.instagram.com/kyliekinghazel/ Kylie's practice inhabits the space of a soliloquy - an internal dialogue shaped by uncomfortable questions and self-reflection. It begins as a love letter to her Māori husband and children and moves to questioning her responsibility in creating work shaped by love, proximity and rel...

Tracey Coakley is a narrative oil painter working primarily in figurative painting and portraiture. Born in Melbourne, Australia, Tracey has lived in New Zealand since 2007 and now works from her studio in Waipu, Northland.  https://www.instagram.com/traceycoakleyart/ Predominantly self-taught, she has been painting since 2000 and working full-time as an artist since 2017, completing a Diploma of...

Lynne Sandri is a contemporary artist and a curious idealist living in Seatoun in Wellington.  With a career spanning over 25 years as a full time artist Lynne has had over 100 exhibitions and numerous artist residencies, she has built studios and opened them to the public, she's taught students and mentored artists and she sells just about everything she makes throughout NZ and international...

Jo Tricker is a glass artist based in Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty, Aotearoa NZ. Jo creates glass fused, slumped, cast and lamp worked objects that are shaped by a love of literature and travel and the people from different cultures that she has met along the way.   Jo is an exuberant storyteller. In this episode she talks about her younger life living in the UK and studying English and linguisti...

Rosanne Croucher is a landscape oil painter from Hamilton New Zealand. She sees herself as a 'painter of moments' as well as landscapes, capturing the splendour, light and mood of ordinary everyday Aotearoa scenes. In this episode we talk about Rose's experience completing a masters degree of design and visual arts at Unitec in Auckland, which she completed in 2013; how she juggles...

Katie Robinson is a painter based in both Alexandra, Central Otago and in Devonport, Auckland. https://www.katierobinson.co.nz/ Katie makes work that sits at the intersection of memory, emotion, and mischief. Her art is grounded in its making, but often not in its mood. It’s underpinned by real stories and personal heritage, often tangled up with humour, oddness, and where I unexpectedly find emot...

Janet Mazenier is a contemporary visual artist living in Te Hau Kapua Devonport in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Janet's practice engages with place, time, affect, world bending, and materiality. Her drawn-paintings are characterised by texturally rich, excavated, and striated surfaces that evoke ancientness, the hidden, the unseen, and the ephemeral. Janet's paintings are created using oil...

Mark Whippy is a Kiwi-Fijian artist born and raised in Auckland, New Zealand. Mark’s figurative and portrait art is inspired by observing the ordinary everyday people and scenes of his environment, hoping to capture their stories and characters, finding the beauty of every day life.  Mark's style is a playful blend of realism and abstraction. His focus currently has been on the urban environm...

Ben Kaye DBKAYE is an Auckland tattoo artist and the co-founder with his wife Madeline of the Roots Auckland Tattoo Convention. Auckland is set to host its first-ever international tattoo convention in 2026 with the launch of the Roots Auckland Tattoo Convention, a weekend celebration of artistry, culture, and community taking place Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th March at The Cloud, 89 Quay Street,...

Carol Bucknell is a Waiheke artist who has come from a successful career in journalism and garden design. She has been painting commissioned portraits and figurative works in oils for 20 years, and now produces more abstracted figurative works using oils and cold wax. In January 2024 Carol and artist Sally Tagg held a joint exhibition at Waiheke Community Art Gallery. Later that year she was a fin...

Lyndy Wilson is a contemporary New Zealand painter of Tainui descent. She grew up and still lives in the small town of Ngāruawāhia surrounded by the Waikato and Waipā rivers and the majestic Hakarimata ranges, a constant source of inspiration. Her style can be described as diverse, eclectic and ever evolving which allows her the freedom to explore different subjects such as floral and botanical, a...

Helen Kerridge is a contemporary painter from the Hawkes Bay.  Many of Helen’s paintings are set in sparse environments, with a minimal grouping of subjects exude a sense of stillness, contemplation, and a celebration of the beauty to be found in objects and the stories to be told. Helen has been painting all her life, from as far back as she can remember. She started her photo realistic painting...

Vicki Fox founded Quirky Fox art gallery in 2012. It is located in Hawera, a small town of 10,000 people south of New Plymouth. Showcasing both established and emerging talents, Quirky Fox invites both New Zealand and international artists to be part of its carefully curated range; all international artists are exclusive to the gallery within New Zealand, while New Zealand artists are exclusive to...

Scott Lawrie is a well known, much loved gallerist and writer who was based in NZ and is now living in Scotland.  I absolutely loved catching up with Scott again a few months ago while I was living in Turkey. I last spoke to Scott on the podcast more than 3 years ago in episode 62. Scott Lawrie Gallery began life in 2017 in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland and continues to thrive now in Edinburgh Scotland...

In this episode I speak with Mike and Linda Geers, the owners of Art By The Sea, an art gallery in Hurstmere Road Takapuna, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. This is a fabulous chat with 2 people who are very passionate about the visual arts in Aotearoa. Linda and Mike see themselves as conduits between artist and audience, as kaitiaki guardians of artists' work, making connections through art. We ta...

Katie Leigh Stewart is a mixed media artist living in Wellington, Aotearoa NZ.  Katie's paintings explore floral landscapes, portraiture, everyday life and nature. Her bright and bold palette as well as signature brush strokes gives viewers a moment to pause and find joy.  In this episode Katie talks about her early nursing career and how she finally came to focus on her artist career as a ne...

Natalie is an emerging multi-disciplinary artist born in Yorkshire, England, with a current focus on figurative oil paintings. Nat moved to New Zealand in 2016 in her early twenties.and is currently based in Auckland. In this episode Natalie shares how creating likeness in a portrait has become a challenge too tempting not to take on as she's got older, becoming thirsty for something that fel...

Andrew Barns-Graham is an established Auckland-based artist known for his hard-edged contemporary portraits with a pop realist style.  He renders smooth, gradient-infused figures set against minimal, atmospheric landscapes. In this episode we talk about the pivotal moment that led to Andrew devoting himself to his art practice after a career in advertising. Andrew tells us about a traumatic near d...

Kyra Alkamil is a 19 year old emerging artist from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, in her first year studying fine art at Elam School of Fine Art in Auckland. Kyra paints in oils and is interested in storytelling, the human figure, nostalgia, domestic scenes and surrealism. In this episode we talk about the ways Kyra discovered and developed her love of art and her skills in visual art as a homeschooled...

Katrina Cosgrove is a painter born in England who immigrated to NZ in 2005. She is now based in Bronte, a small settlement at the top of the South Island of Aotearoa NZ in the Tasman District, near Mapua.  Katrina's nature inspired artworks delve into the themes of self discovery, transformation, freedom, and the profound connection between nature and the human spirit. With a background marke...

Shelley Ryde is a well known, highly respected Aotearoa art educator and artist living in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland NZ.  Shelley has led the visual art department and taught art at Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland, finishing this position in 2024 after 42 years of devotion, hard work, commitment and a lot of love.  Many young art students and NZ practising artists have been taught and inspire...

Kirsty Nixon is a contemporary New Zealand artist living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Her vibrant, light-filled paintings celebrate the untamed beauty of Aotearoa New Zealand — from the windswept beaches of the North Island to the soaring mountain ranges of the South. Drawing inspiration from the land, sea, and native birdlife that surround her, Kirsty’s work invites a quiet moment of reflection —...