Anna Gibbs is a contemporary painter living in Banks Peninsula, near Christchurch in the South Island of Aotearoa NZ. 

If you search her name on Google you'll see she is described as an "internet personality" which probably comes from the amazing work she does on the Instagram social media platform and her loyal audience of more than 100,000 followers.

Anna is interested in conservation and fortunate to live on a rural lifestyle-block populated by many native birds and plants. Her oil paintings are inspired by her daily observations of the interaction between native flora and fauna. She is deliberate with her composition and, whilst her work is detailed, she describes her subject with neither abstraction nor absolute realism. 

In this episode we have a fabulous chat about all sorts of things - such as why Anna likes to gild her backgrounds with 24ct gold leaf and her delicate gilding process, her strong connection to NZ native birds and why she loves to paint them and her passion for conservation.

Anna speaks of her apprenticeship with painter Judy Curnow, who studied with legend New Zealand painter Tim Wilson, and how that influenced her painting approach particularly with glazing techniques and helped her confidence as a self taught painter.

We explore her painting process, framing, the size of her paintings, her gorgeous studio, how she prepares for an exhibition and her upcoming show at Little River Gallery. She shares some tips for Instagram and how she feels about this platform

This is another quite long episode but it's full of really interesting tips and treasures and is so worth listening to - maybe over 2 walks or 2 commutes or 2 art making sessions, however you like to listen.

You can view Anna Gibbs unbelievably beautiful paintings at her solo show South Island Songs at Little River Gallery from January 30th - February 24th 2025 https://littlerivergallery.com/

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