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 she grew up” and she hasn’t looked back since.

Donna’s love of New Zealand is evident in her painting. She is madly passionate about the outdoors, in particular, the ocean, and is always keen on an adventure. These activities take her to destinations around NZ that end up as motivation and inspiration for her paintings. Road trips are big on her agenda…she believes New Zealand has so many beautiful places to paint as well as the things she discovers in these landscapes such as old shacks, fishing boats, boat sheds and beehives.

https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-episode-22-with-donna-massey

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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 and subject areas that might seem unexpected. Ranging from classic cars to abstract works, they all share the same characteristic precision and attention to detail. Each work is the product of many stages of research, drawing, composition, creation and refinement. Often Ingrid will dream up the outfits worn on her ladies, placing great importance on every detail from the stitching on a dress to each jewel on a necklace.

As a final touch, there is a unique element in all her paintings. If you look hard enough you will find a signature camouflaged  illustration tucked away in each of her paintings.

You can see her work on our Blog
https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-episode-21-with-ingrid-boot

https://www.ingrid.co.nz/ 

https://www.instagram.com/ingrid_boot_artist/ 

https://www.facebook.com/IngridBoot 

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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 herself as an artist..

Her paintings often respond to the sea, skies and land of a favourite place, Muriwai Beach, where she spent many happy time as a young adult. Gabriella's work also responds to the beautiful architecture, objects, shapes and patterns discovered on her travels and particularly in her birthplace of Sicily, Italy.

Hear about how she realised her own varied art practice, taught herself new techniques, had a solo exhibition after only 4 years of making and her dreams of opening up her own art studio to the public.

Gabriella Williams on the Creative Matters Blog https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-episode-20-with-gabriella-williams

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/gabriellawilliamsart/

Kumeu Arts Centre https://www.kumeuartscentre.co.nz

Muriwai Arts Group Show http://muriwaiarts.co.nz

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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 urban object that I endeavour to express through both manipulation of metal and the indeterminate nature of enamel. 

The alteration of the surface is intended to draw attention to the beauty found in decline. Through wear and tear each piece will expose itself wholly to the wearer. This unpredictability of process and material is what intrigues me." 

Mandy talks about her immigration to NZ from the UK, her time as an artist with Fingers, an iconic NZ Contemporary Jewellery Gallery, her mentorship within the Handshake Project and the development of her practice and process - amongst many other things! 

Fingers Contemporary Jewellery http://www.fingers.co.nz/exhibitors/mandy_flood.htm Photographs courtesy of Michael Couper

Mandy on Instagram  
https://www.instagram.com/mandyflood2020/
https://www.instagram.com/just_asking4/ 

The Handshake Mentoring Programme https://handshakeproject.com 

Melbourne Contemporary Jewellery and Object Biennial http://www.radiantpavilion.com.au 

Nelson Jewellery Week "Chains of Reaction"  http://www.acn.org.nz/nelson-jewellery-week.html 

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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 through the use of costume, body adornment, dance, poetry, ceremonial activations and more recently moving image. 

Fee has been a long-standing member of ‘Pacific Sisters’ a fashion activist art collective of artists, performers, fashion designers, jewellers and musicians established in 1992.

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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 parallels between historical and modern European and Pacific Island culture and themes of identity, often from a feminine perspective.

To communicate the curiosity she has for the human motivation and experience of exploration, navigation and migration across the South Pacific, she uses the printed markings on dressmaking patterns as a reference to cartography. 

Sourcing and using second-hand materials and creating poetry are part of her creative process and art-making ethos. The collages evolve naturally into combinations of craft and pattern which reflect her historical European ancestry and place of birth in the South Pacific. 

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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 boats, the seaside and the coastal fauna and flora of New Zealand. In the last 5 years she has turned her attention to the Garden and has rediscovered a driving passion to recreate the pockets of beauty which are in our own backyards. 

 Amber tells a fascinating story from her days as a sign writer after high school to becoming a well known, well respected NZ artist. She has great tips about showing work, teaching and entrepreneurship and gives us a wonderful tour through her creative process.

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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 this range of unique fabric styles allows me to add my own historical vision into my design work."

I've learnt so much about the quilting process from talking to Sharon and even feel inspired to try working with fabric and thread myself! From a feed dog and walking foot to Baltimore and antique quilts, Sharon unpacks her process, practice and business in a way that is very inspiring. I'm sure you'll enjoy hearing her story.

You can  listen to CREATIVE MATTERS on your favourite podcast platform and subscribe  to receive our weekly episodes with other NZ artists, or go to our blog/podcast page www.creativematters.co.nz

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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 writing and photography is inspired by the dynamic beauty that surrounds her. She gives thanks for the tangata whenua of Aotearoa and is grateful for the wisdom and guidance of Maoritanga in her country of birth. She draws strength from her rich Lebanese heritage as well as the Scottish determination and Celtic love for nature she inherited from her mum.

Emma is a businesswoman and author who is passionate about spreading a message of unity, empathy and understanding. Emma enjoys a good laugh, often at her own expense.

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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 that attracts Kiri to the medium as a way of expression through mark making.  She works by building up a bigger story through repeated intricate marks, the process being as integral to the piece as the finished outcome.  Her work is slow, meditative and often physically challenging, and requires her to have a fully worked out concept before she begins a piece.

 Kiri’s work has themes of land and ecology at its core:  Human connection to place through story and materials, and the reciprocity of care and protection between humans and the earth.  

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