Creative Connections

Wendy Leach is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Mangawhai Heads, Northland, Aotearoa NZ. 

In this chat we unpack her long successful artistic career, from making domestic inspired still life works as a young mother to painting European and New Zealand landscapes, painting abstracts, working with oil pastels and gouache, exploring photography and working with light. 

Wendy talks about her time studying at Elam School of Fine Art at age 18 and why she chose to return to study years later, this time at Whitecliffe College in Auckland, to complete her MFA. We explore the work created in her 2 year MFA course, her Surrogate Self Portrait series and her Light Painting series, and what she gained from this and learnt about herself as an artist and as a person.

We discuss the experiences and environments in her life that have influenced her work including a funded trip by a collector to make work and exhibit in Jordan, living in Belgium for 5 years, travelling extensively throughout Europe and the Mangawhai coastline. 

Wendy talks about why she is no longer interested in being represented by a gallery, her connections with the community Mangawhai Artists' gallery, how she sells her work, her attitude to moments of creative block, what she looks for in a landscape and her oil painting process.

https://www.wendyleach.com/

https://www.instagram.com/wendyleach_art/

https://www.facebook.com/WendyLeachArt/

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Maico Camilo has been a professional contemporary artist for nearly two decades and has made a significant impact on the art scene. His abstracted figurative and abstract paintings are unashamedly neon bright, bold, textured, energetic and unique.

Born in Southern Brazil, Maico Camilo first arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2005 and has since lived, travelled and shown his work throughout Europe, Asia, The United States and Oceania. His experiences across different cultures have informed an artistic practice centred around people, connection, perspective and the way we interpret the world around us.

You're going to love this episode. Maico talks very honestly about: relationships with galleries; the ups and downs of selling work internationally; marketing and selling his work independently; his views of the art gallery business model and his approach to exhibiting his work.

He shares his thoughts on how he is influenced by his Brazilian culture, the art scene and working as an artist in New Zealand, how he thinks of his art practice as a global business and the intricacies of pricing his work. We explore some of the works that are going to be in his upcoming solo show Unapologetically Dazzling at Turua Gallery, from October 16th - 28th. And of course, so much more! 

Thank you for listening to Creative Connections. Here is Maico Camilo.

Unapologetically Dazzling, opens 16 October at TURUA GALLERY in Auckland, featuring 20–25 vibrant, heavily textured works bursting with neon colour, pattern and energy. Opening night is October 16th from 5pm and the show closes October 28th.

https://turuagallery.co.nz/collections/unapologetically-dazzling

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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 Andrea shares her personal challenges with health issues and periods of chronic pain and how she manages this around her art practice and her love of being in nature. She shares the messages and narratives behind her paintings, the things that are important to her, how she manages her 3 series of work, what she loves so much about kiwis and the volunteer work she does with them, and she unpacks her painting process.

I think you'll find Andrea very inspiring in the way she deals with the challenges in her life, her attitude to the world and her positive mindset.

https://www.andrearobinson.co.nz/

https://www.instagram.com/andrearobinsonartistnz/

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Become part of the Creative Connections community with Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/cw/CreativeConnectionsNZ

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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 journaling practice and what informs the paintings she makes.

We discuss her experience studying visual arts online with The Learning Connexion, what caused her to lose confidence in her practice when her focus shifted to teaching watercolour painting and her connection to local surroundings and events. Nicole talks about her landscapes work and the quirky little caricatures she enjoys and the narratives that are communicated through her work.

And Nicole gives one of the most detailed descriptions of her plein air and studio painting process we've had on the podcast. Enjoy! https://www.nicolerussellart.com/

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Become part of the Creative Connections community with Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/cw/CreativeConnectionsNZ

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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 uses layered mark-making, and gestural linework to reflect the raw beauty and quiet resilience of the land. Her style is intuitive yet grounded in observation, often blending abstract impressions with botanical and environmental detail.

Tallulah had a traumatic upbringing and suffers from a number of mental health issues including Obessive Compulsive Disorder, Dis-associative Identity Disorder and Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Tallulah generously shares her life dealing with these challenges and how painting, particularly repetitive mark making, is a positive way for her to respond to and process her life and mental health.

This is another unique, enlightening episode I know you'll enjoy. Nga mihi, thank you to Tallulah for her honesty and authenticity and for highlighting mental health issues in the way she has and for explaining how being an artist has supported and created a 'safe space' as a person dealing with mental health illness. 

https://www.instagram.com/tallulahnunez_studio/

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Become part of the Creative Connections community with Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/cw/CreativeConnectionsNZ

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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 relationships.

Kylie's practice sits intentionally in an uneasy place and explores the uncomfortable question of what it means to be Tangata te Tiriti in Aotearoa. Rather than finding resolution, her work is shaped by ongoing questioning and reflects her responsibility as a Pākehā artist, wife and mother.Through painting she explores the emotional and political weight of portraiture, where gaze, visibility, histories, relationships and power dynamics combine, considering the accountability of making work in relation to Māori.

This episode is unique, thought provoking, authentic, beautifully honest and even raw and emotional at times. 

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Become part of the Creative Connections community with Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/cw/CreativeConnectionsNZ

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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 Visual Arts in 2006. Her subjects are often friends, family, and self-portraits, and over time have included her children as they navigate from childhood into adolescence and adulthood. 

Art That Connects

Opening Day Ceremony

16th May 2026 2-4pm

Depot Artspace, Devonport, Auckland

https://www.betweenus.co.nz/

https://depot.org.nz/

https://www.instagram.com/figurativeartnz/

This exhibition has been developed to showcase the plurality of voices in contemporary figurative art and portraiture in Aotearoa New Zealand by exploring the rich themes of identity and lived experience with a goal to expand audience appreciation for the genres of figurative art and portraiture, and foster greater expression and connection in our communities. 

We start talking about this show 1 hour and 6 minutes in to this episode. Tracey and Karlalise would like to sincerely thank Depot Artspace in Devonport for their wonderful venue and all their support.

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Become part of the Creative Connections community with Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/cw/CreativeConnectionsNZ

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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 internationally.

Lynne’s artwork delves into the beauty of nature, the cycles of life and the evolving concept of home and being a care-taker of land. She’s a maker, curator and collector with an insatiable appetite and curiosity for art in all its glorious forms.

I see Lynne as an amazing experienced role model for artists with some sound advice. as well as a damn good human! In this episode we talk about the benefits of art communities, creating and opening her studio to the public, stepping away from being represented by galleries and why she has chosen to do this, why she loves working 'her own gig', and how she sustains her practice by thinking creatively and outside the box as well as taking calculated risks and her business like approach to her art career.

As a past judge, selector, member of the board and part of the founding team of the NZ Art Show, and a guest judge in other art shows, Lynne shares her experiences selecting and judging art. 

Lynne talks in depth about her various series, including floral paintings on long rolls of canvas that gather on the ground, her landmark paintings, painting on books, her still life and landscape paintings, and her heavily textured sculptural paintings.  http://www.lynnesandri.co.nz/

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Become part of the Creative Connections community with Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/cw/CreativeConnectionsNZ

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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 linguistics at Massey University and her initial love of mosaics which 14 years ago led to learning about glass screen printing, lamp working and glass fusing. She shares why she only now feels she's getting to really understand what she's all about as an artist and why she does what she does. Jo works in series which often use different techniques or are based on different ideas. She explains how she juggles the various series of work, her time making as a busy mother and how she manages being an extrovert alongside spending so much time alone in her studio. And she describes the process for her most current series Mythology of Fruit.

Jo shares some excellent advice, philosophies and reflections for artists and people wanting to develop a creative career.

https://www.jotrickerglass.com/

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Become part of the Creative Connections community with Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/cw/CreativeConnectionsNZ

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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 being a mother of 3 children whilst still prioritising time to paint; why she likes to capture ordinary scenes as well as magestic landscapes; how she brings her imagination into her landscape work and why she loves to paint still water, mist and atmosphere.

We talk process - from her preference for preparing her own ACM boards and mounting and adhering canvas or linen on top, to techniques she uses for priming and colour mixing, using a rag as well as brushes and the joys and challenges of plein air painting.

Roseanne generously shares a mental health condition she has lived with for 30 years called TTM or Trichotillomania which she has recently overcome, how this has affected her life and why she now feels ready to share this with others. 

This is a wonderful episode I know you'll enjoy. Ngā mihi thank you to Roseanne for sharing her beautiful practice and for sharing her personal beliefs and mental health with us.

https://rosannecroucher.com/

Support the show

Become part of the Creative Connections community with Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/cw/CreativeConnectionsNZ

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