Creative Connections

Kathryn Wilson is NZ’s most successful shoe designer. She created her brand Kathryn Wilson at the age of 23 in 2003 with a dream to “make beautiful shoes for cool people” and go big. And that she certainly did!  Kathryn Wilson is now an internationally renowned footwear brand, a household name in NZ and one of NZ’s fastest-growing fashion brands Kathryn hosted a New Zealand first, exclusive footwe...

Describe your studio. What tricks or ideas do you have to make the space work well for you and your creative process? In this episode NZ artists Terri-Ann Berry, Joss Hong, Robyn Kay, Moya Deacon Radley, Adele Dubarry, Amber Emm, Lynette Fisher, Rosanne Croucher and Tanya Blong answer this question from their point of view. You can see images of the artists and their work on our blog https://www.c...

Michelle Reid is a painter living in Riverhead, Auckland. She graduated with a Bachelor of Textile Design from Massey University in 2001 and worked in the textile industry for 8 years in both NZ and London. In 2019 she gained a Postgraduate Diploma from Elam School of Fine Arts with Distinction - at the same time as raising her 2 young children. An eclectic mix of written, visual, and intuitive in...

What impact has your creative making had on your everyday life?  In this episode artists Marlon Hart, Tanya Blong, Gabriella Williams, Ingrid Boot, Guy Du Toit and Emma Springford-Gough (plus a little contribution from Mandy) answer this question from their point of view. About your host: Mandy Jakich is the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters, an award winning business providing creative, educati...

EPISODE 27: Judith Milner is a portrait and figurative painter living in Auckland NZ. After studying law, psychology and art history at the University of Auckland, Judith worked as a commercial lawyer for 13 years before re-connecting with her love of painting while taking a break to focus on caring for her two young children.  Judith has always been drawn to the quiet contemplation of portraiture...

Guy Du Toit is a wood artist living in Keri Keri NZ who creates unique and bespoke fine art pieces in rare native timbers. His fine wood art includes sculptures, jewellery, wood turned art pieces and traditional wood turned objects. Guy was born in South Africa and emigrated to New Zealand in 2015.  From the first moment he put a gouge to wood Guy understood that the wood was taking him on a journ...

Vanessa is a young Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland artist who gained a fine arts degree at 20 years old and has worked in Art Galleries and art education since then. She is now 27 and celebrating ONE year in business selling her intricately handmade clay earrings through her Dewdrops brand, informed by her fine art practice in sculpture and installation and her love of painting.  Vanessa started making e...

Introducing - Spirit: Conversations with Creative Women https://www.thecreativecollectivespirit.co.nz/ https://www.instagram.com/conversationswithcreativewomen IT ALL BEGAN WHEN….an idea was sparked between two friends, writer Jannine Wilkinson and photographer Ann Orman, to produce a book celebrating creative women in New Zealand. This week the result of this powerful union and vision comes to fr...

Judy Darragh is a highly respected NZ artist renowned for her brightly coloured sculptural assemblages of recycled items, industrial materials and found objects, as well as video, collage, photography and poster art.  She has exhibited widely since the 1980’s and is well known for her ambitious works which alter public spaces in incredible ways. Her works are held in numerous public and private co...

Donna is an established full-time artist living and working in Riverhead, Auckland NZ.  Her oil paintings are easily recognized for their vibrant crisp images and bold colours. It never occurred to Donna that she could have a career as an artist. She left school to work in a bank where she stayed for twenty years and it wasn't until 2004 that she discovered "what she wanted to be when sh...

Ingrid is a painter influenced mainly by beauty as well as fashion history, fashion photography, movie icons and old things from the 20th century. Her paintings are all about style and elegance, portraying the beauty of the female form with a surreal, stylised realism.  Ingrid lives in Orewa, north of Auckland and emigrated to NZ from the UK in 2000. Over the years Ingrid has explored other themes...

Gabriella is an artist living in Auckland NZ. She has a super interesting story which I’m sure will be really inspiring to many of you, as despite living amongst creative people, trying out creative ventures over the years and having a creative career in education, it’s only now in her 50s her passion for art has been unleashed and she has developed her own art practice and now finally thinks of h...

Mandy is a contemporary jeweller from Westmere, Auckland NZ. "Everything is on the point of decline" W.G. Sebald "The aesthetics of decay and obsolescence along with the beauty of impermanence forms the impetus for my work. I take the traditional process of enamelling and seek to expand the preconceptions of a finished surface.  It is the inclination of time found on the commonplace...

Feeonaa Clifton (née Wall)  is a multi-disciplinary artist and a mother of 3 children of Samoan, Swedish, German and English heritage, living at Muriwai Beach, North West of Auckland.. She has a Bachelor of Performing Arts (Pacific) / Diploma in Arts Administration, University of Auckland. Her work has explored indigenous histories and stories, her own identity, wellbeing, and environmental issues...

Arwen is a New Zealand-born mixed media artist, raised in the beautiful ranges, forests, and beaches of the West Coast of Auckland.  Her recent artwork on canvas utilises a unique mix of media—dressmaking patterns, graphite, charcoal, metallic foil and paint. Through this unique multi-media approach Arwen references landscape and oceanic forms while exploring intersections, crossovers, and paralle...

Amber Emm  is a full time artist from the North West of Auckland NZ, currently painting stunning photo realistic floral oil paintings that celebrate contrast, colour, detail and light. Amber took up painting in 1990 purely for pleasure and became a full time artist in 1995. Then In 1998 positive feedback from a painting demonstration encouraged her to start teaching. Her main inspiration has been...

Sharon is a passionate quilt pattern designer and quilt maker from Auckland NZ.  A self confessed lover of reproduction fabrics, her favourite thing to do is 'Appliqué' using pieced blocks to complete the quilt.  "I simply love to design and make quilts, for me it has been an absolute joy to share my patterns and my fondness of vintage and reproduction fabrics. Experimenting with th...

Emma is a writer, photographer, creative maker and meditation practitioner. Her work is all about emotion, and the life of the spirit. She brings this awareness to her work with photography, books and soul stones. Each of her pieces is designed to start a conversation with the heart of the viewer. Emma writes her books and creates her soul stones at her studio overlooking Muriwai Beach and her wri...

Kiri Abraham is an artist, mother, gardener, tramper and lover of nature who has lived and worked in Helensville (North West of Auckland NZ) for the past 15 years.  She describes her art as ‘drawing’, although it includes painting, printing, stitch and more recently, cutting and burning.   Drawing can be both a very simple process, and a complex, multi layered practise, and it is this diversity th...

With over thirty years’ experience in the arts, as both a practitioner and curator, Anna Hanson strives to empower artists, champion the role of art in society, and transform widely-held perceptions of textile-based projects within the art arena.  As a practitioner, Hanson’s work embraces the codes of embroidery ,ropes and textiles. She believes in art as an essential part of a healthy community a...

Artist Emma Springford-Gough grew up in West Auckland NZ and has lived in Huapai for the last 11 years with her husband, 3 kids, dog, cat and a handful of fish.  Making art, drawing specifically, has always been a great part of Emma’s life. She loves drawing and finds it a raw and immediate form of expression. She uses drawing as a tool for documenting objects and interiors that surround her. Ink...

Jago Neal is a mixed media artist, illustrator and photographer originally from London. He now resides in West Auckland New Zealand.  Jago has a small studio at home which also serves as a darkroom. He often incorporates photography into his practice or integrates it with other methods of drawing, collage or painting.  "I draw, paint and photograph the world as a form of expression, to help m...

Amanda Jakich (Mandy) is a self taught abstract painter and the Founder and CEO of Creative Matters. She is the proud mother of 2 young adults (with a grand baby on the way) and lives with her husband George at Muriwai Beach, North West of Auckland. Mandy's work responds to her surroundings, particularly to the seas, skies, land and nature of her home place Muriwai Beach NZ.  She is drawn to...

Marion Stutz is a painter living in Huapai, Auckland NZ.  In the last 5 years she has gone from being a creative interested in art  with a great appreciation for all things arty and a love of making to a practising artist who already has her first solo show under her belt. Marion's work is all about colour and form, explored through landscapes, portraiture and still life and inspired by artis...

Catrina is an abstract painter from Muriwai Beach, North West of Auckland, with a passion for interpreting the many layers of her natural environment.  Whenever she is outside in Muriwai she can't help but see endless paintings, endless textures, colours, lines, shapes, light and movement, and so much west coast energy. She enjoys translating what she sees through exploring different techniqu...