Creative Connections

Welcome to Episode 56. This week I'm talking to Josh Lancaster. Josh paints the places and buildings New Zealanders know and love.   "I do this by trying to capture the essence of a familiar place" says Josh " be it someone’s dairy, beach, view, flat, island, road, takeaway shop, family bach or simply just the memory of one. These are the places we cherish - the iconic moments...

Rachael Mayne is an artist with a passion for wild flower fields, gardens and all things floral, living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Rachael juggles a career as a clinical psychologist and a professional artist, as well as being the mother of 2 young children. Rachael mainly paints impressionistic and abstract pieces and draws inspiration from the colours and forms surrounding us in nature. She lo...

Artfull is an online gallery platform that bridges the gap between artists, galleries and art collectors in Aotearoa NZ.  https://www.artfull.co.nz/ On Artfull you can discover original artworks from established and emerging Aotearoa New Zealand artists, connect with the story behind each piece, engage with art, culture and design and buy and collect New Zealand art - all in one place. Artfull was...

Lucy is a full time artist living in the small seaside town of Snells Beach, an hour North of Auckland, New Zealand, with her husband & 3 young children. She studied Photography and Art at Elam School of Fine Art in Auckland NZ  and spent 8 years running her own photography business (Lucy Rice Photography)  before launching her painting career in early 2019. Lucy works with acrylics & mixe...

This is episode 52 and the first of a new series of shorter format podcast episodes that will be sprinkled through our artist interviews and are devoted to highlighting a creative business from Aotearoa NZ who provide a great service or product I think you would love. This week I'm talking to the Founder of Blank Inspiration, Hadleigh Vernall. Hadleigh AKA Hads talks us through the range of a...

Jim Wheeler is a veteran NZ sculptor living in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland.  Jim generally works in cast metals such as bronze, aluminium and iron but also uses concrete, ceramics, plastics, wood, stone and fabric- whatever is appropriate to express his ideas. His current work is a blend of botany, biology, and beauty. His interest in plants and how plant communities evolve informs his sculptural pra...

Lucy Melville is a painter, creative entrepreneur, business coach and Mum based in Mt Maunganui. Lucy’s work centres around energetic geometric shapes with strong, vibrant colour. Her latest work features some of the most stunning birds found on earth combined with shape and contrasting colour to reflect their spiritual meaning. As well as managing a busy full time art practice Lucy is on a missio...

Coral Noel Yang is a Waitakere-Auckland based, Taiwanese born, multidisciplinary artist who specialises in expressive figurative and abstract paintings with oil and acrylic.  Her passion for Aotearoa nature, her Chinese/Japanese heritage, and living and working across the US, Europe and Asia inform her works.  Before pivoting to full time painting during Covid in 2020, Coral worked as a film and a...

Fraser Williamson a.k.a. ‘Fraz’ has had a love of art since he was a young boy and has been creating incredibly distinguishable paintings and illustrations for 35 years. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-fraser-williamson In the early 1990’s he became known as Red Shark Art and Illustration, putting his dreams and musings to canvas and his love of diversity and the quirk...

Shane Hansen is an artist, a designer of graphics, furniture and fashion, a loving husband and doting Dad to two boys.   Born in New Zealand in the 1970s, he is of Maori (Tainui, Ngaati Mahanga, Ngaati Hine), Chinese, Danish and Scottish descent. Shane is the benefactor of a life lived long and well in Aotearoa. The country is in his blood, in his heart and in his art. https://www.creativematters....

Helen Dean is an artist based in Titirangi, Auckland. Her abstract paintings begin with colour and are created through many layers of paint to build up a surface that is full of life, showing glimpses of what’s underneath, combining gestural brushwork, playful shapes and subtle glazing. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-helen-dean https://www.helendeanart.com/ Helen expl...

Kell Sunshine, a.k.a Kelly Spencer, is a lettering artist, muralist & illustrator from Gisborne with a big love for Mother Earth.  Her creative style is characterised by bright and retro-fresh colour palettes and curvaceous forms, meticulously hand crafted lettering, and illustrative elements of flora and fauna. https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-kell-sunshine “I cons...

Sarah Barton-Hills is a painter and photographer based in Auckland, New Zealand.  As a girl, Sarah was drawn to pattern, colour & texture. She constantly drew, sculpted, photographed, sewed and created with fabric to express her deep fascination with these elements, inspired by her NZ bush clad Waitakere surroundings.  Through her career in fashion and textile design, retail, visual merchandis...

Kate Hursthouse is  a New Zealand artist, illustrator, creative entrepreneur and mother of one living in Te Atatū Peninsula, Aotearoa NZ.  https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-kate-hursthouse She is on a mission to help women find their own place of joy and calm through colour and creativity. Kate has a background in architecture and design and has been running her creative...

Gae Webster is a multi-disciplinary artist from Auckland in Aotearoa NZ. She works in paint, print, paper, fibre, glass, sculpture and contemporary jewellery from her studio in Pukekohe. Gae's works are all a narration of her views and responses to life – the telling of the story is the focus across all the mediums that she likes to create in and all of her disciplines connect and relate to e...

Toipoto (which means Closer Together in Te Reo Maori))  is a free mentoring programme for the creative sector in Auckland NZ. Developed from The Big Idea's popular Mentoring in the Arts format, Toipoto has been expertly designed for those starting out or looking to build momentum in their creative journey, who are driven to build a sustainable and rewarding career in the arts. Today we are th...

Eric Schusser is a photographer from Central Otago in New Zealand. He has a diverse style and portfolio that includes social documentary, abstract works and fine art imagery. His work is often project based and he's fascinated by the power of text and photo together.  He is drawn to the big skies, dramatic weather and season changes and the graphic wide-open spaces of the South Island of New...

EPISODE 39 : Photographic artist Annemarie Hope-Cross was born in Wellington NZ, grew up in Auckland and has lived in Alexandra, Central Otago, since 2008. Annemarie uses three historic processes that date back 180 years to early pioneering photography techniques, some of which are referred to as camera-less  photography. Her mousetrap camera is set up outside in her back garden. It takes six to e...

Erika Pearce is a multi-disciplinary artist born in Auckland Aotearoa NZ and now based in the beautiful Bay of Islands. She is well known for her large scale murals, vibrant artwork and strong female portraits. Her mural artwork can be found throughout New Zealand, from Northland to Bluff,  as well as in Fiji, Australia, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand and the USA.  Erika is a dedicated ocean conservat...

Philippa Bentley is a multi-disciplinary artist inspired by nature, with ecology and environmental concerns at the heart of her work.  ​ While primarily known as a painter and printmaker, Philippa incorporates a range of media and processes in her art practice. She is interested in the intersection of art, design, science and technology and the possibilities this brings." "We are an isla...

Lucy Davidson is a contemporary landscape painter from the Tutukaka Coast in Northland NZ, currently living in Auckland. Her abstract paintings explore the notion that nature and human emotion are interconnected and affect each other.  To Lucy,  Memories are inherent in our natural landscape and she uses colour to highlight the things we might miss in our daily encounters with natural elements.  H...

Jenny McLeod is a contemporary glass artist from West Auckland, NZ. She creates quality, original functional glassware, sculpture, garden art, installation and exhibition work and enjoys using glass for a modern environment in a non-fragile way. Her two 6 cubic foot kilns in her workshop at home give her the control required to fuse and slump cut and layered sheet glass.  Much of her work is mixed...

Rosemary Eagles is an established contemporary NZ artist living in Auckland. She has with a deep appreciation of nature and the beauty of Aotearoa New Zealand.  Her work captures vibrant impressions of native trees, plants and flowers and strata land formations with an unrestrained use of texture and colour, depicting her expressions of these different environments and the things within them, disc...

John Botton is a fine art photographer and a digital giclée inkjet printer who holds a Fellowship from the Photographic Society of New Zealand.  He's also an entrepreneur and self confessed 'Technical Geek' and is the founder and CEO of Print Art: Fine Art Imaging - a company well known and loved by many NZ artists.  John is a true supporter of artists and their process. He sees his...

EPISODE 32: Beatrice Carlson is an interdisciplinary artist, a visual artist, printmaker and contemporary jeweller.  http://www.beatricecarlson.com   Born in France, she has been living and making in Devonport, Aotearoa NZ for the last 16 years. Beatrice has always been interested in shapes and textures in her interdisciplinary art practice - from visual art to costume design to printmaking and no...