Chris Melville is a photographer, graphic designer and jazz musician living in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. In his latest photographic collection, Chris uses household items and a slow shutter speed to create landscape compositions, suggesting dreamy lakes or mountains appearing from the mist. Chris currently works with linen, denim, smooth cotton an…

Ross Jones is a painter creating works that evoke a heady sense of nostalgia and elevated playfulness, living in Snells Beach on the east coast north of Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. Each meticulously devised painting offers hints at various narratives as the artist invites the viewer to engage with his role as storyteller. I loved meeting Ross and ch…

Cathy Carter is a photographic and multimedia conceptual artist, living in Grey Lynn, Auckland. Cathy's art is inspired by concerns about climate change and our evolving relationship with bodies of water as physical, cultural, and unique environmental ‘landscapes’ and investigates our complex psychological relationship to water through different pe…

Jeff Thomson is a sculptor living in the little suburb of Helensville, in the north west of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. He is well known for his corrugated iron animals, birds, cars and people as well as NZ icons like the Taihape gumboot and the Holden in our national Museum Te Papa, and is often referred to as the corrugated iron man of Australasia.…

Emma Hercus is a painter born in Hastings and now living in Plimmerton, just north of Wellington. The everchanging ocean and its view from her home serve as constant reference points in Emma's narrative abstract figurative paintings. I loved talking to Emma. We talk about her early influences and inspiration from family as she was growing up, the a…

Today I'm catching up with painter, printmaker Kylie Rusk to see what she's been up to since I last spoke to her in March 2021. Listen to Kylie's first chat on the podcast in episode 2: https://www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-on-air-with-kylie-rusk You can see her work at her upcoming group show ELEMENTS at Turua Gallery October 18t…

Gilly Sheffield is a sculptor | weaver living in both Glendowie in Auckland and Wanaka in the South Island. After a lifetime of making, it was only a few years ago that Gilly developed a more specific art practice using corrugated iron and started to see herself as an artist. In this episode Gilly shares how she came upon this very iconic NZ materi…

Creative visual thinking is fundamental to us all as human beings as we strive to understand our sense of self and the world. Chartwell seeks to deepen understanding about the importance of art and creative thinking for our future and our wellbeing. The Chartwell Trust was set up in the early 1970s by Robert Gardiner, then a Hamilton businessman an…

Levi Hawken is a brutalist | modernist sculptor living and working in west Auckland. His practice includes sculpture in concrete, glass, wood and bronze as well as painting. As a skateboarder, Levi understands the undeniable attraction of the urban concrete landscape. His work responds to the forms and elements of this environment. In this very aut…

Di Tocker is a sculptural glass artist living and working from her purpose built studio in Cambridge, in the Waikato. Di maintains a structured approach to her art practice and business. She provides work for 5 galleries throughout New Zealand, and undertakes commissions for private residences and commercial projects. Di loves to connect with peopl…

Ronja Schipper has been lovingly making up-cycled art objects since 2015. She lives in the Waitakere Ranges in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. Ronja uses waste materials for creating design pieces, aiming to highlight the relationship with our at-risk environment & its resources. All pieces are hand made in NZ from discarded bike innertube, cleaned, pol…

Mandy Patmore is a multi-media environmental artist living in Karekare, on Auckland’s west coast. Primarily a painter, Mandy's current work focuses largely on deforestation and habitat loss in New Zealand, and the plight of many endangered native species, whilst exploring themes of colonisation and human impact on our landscape. I find the work Man…

Born and raised in Auckland, Dita Angeles completed her BFA at Whitecliffe College in 2004 before spending the majority of her career in Asia and more recently Australia. With a strong background in portraiture - social presentation, perception and persuasion are the dominant themes that run through Dita's work. Her paintings are inspired by existe…

Leigh Tawharu, is a contemporary mixed media and printmaking artist living in Kaeo, Te Tai Tokerau in the far north of Aotearoa NZ. Her work is created through various techniques and mediums which seek to explore surface texture, pattern and design on paper. She is influenced and inspired by her surrounding landscape of maunga (mountains), native b…

Sam Leitch is a contemporary painter and print maker living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Sam sees himself as a storyteller of everyday life and the unknown, capturing time and combining commonplace objects and surrealist expressions to invite the viewer in to the painting. He has always been fascinated with what makes a piece of art. The connection…

GUEST UPDATE: Textile artist Frankie Meaden was last interviewed on the podcast in July 2023 in episode 87. Today we catch up with her to hear about what she has been up to since then - including a residency, her first solo show, a group show at Turua Gallery coming up and the creation of new works. She was also involved in and a finalist in the Ch…

Agate Rubene, aka Restless & Infectious, is an artist and illustrator with a background in fashion and graphic design. She is from Latvia and now lives in Wānaka in the South Island of NZ. Agate’s work focuses on people and their actions, capturing emotions and feelings. She is inspired by the people around her, human interactions and patterns in n…

Jennie De Groot is a contemporary painter living near Hamilton in the Waikato. Jennie's oil paintings occupy a space where reality, imagination and memory all hold equal tenancy. These psychological landscapes hold the tension between realism and abstraction, place and non-place. Her status as immigrant informs her work, exploring themes of identit…

Alice Fennessy is an artist based in Palmerston North in the Manawatu. She uses drawing to convey themes such as intimacy, domestic life and interior worlds. Her work is currently intertwined with motherhood as she raises her two young children, dreams and memories. Alice is endlessly fascinated by the juxtapositions or dualities thrown up by pregn…

Artist Rosanna Raymond aka Sistar S’pacific is in her words an "activator, fabricator" who has achieved international renown for her performances, installations, body adornment, and spoken word. Rosanna is an innovator of the Pacific art scene and notable producer of and commentator on contemporary Moana culture in Aotearoa New Zealand, the U.K, Ca…

Georgina is a painter living in Nelson in Te Waipounamu, the South Island of NZ. Informed by her print & pattern textile design background, Georgie develops distinctive, warm and earthy colour palettes and paints with broad expressive brushstrokes. Her work is primarily semi-abstracted landscapes, still lifes and portraits. I loved meeting Georgie.…

Jamie Adamson is a sculptor based in East Auckland. He works in a range of materials including rimu, pine, oak, pohutukawa, maple, walnut and steel. The timber pieces utilise steam bending techniques; while the steel works involve meticulous welding to create seamless forms. With a background in boat building, design and business, Jamie now works f…

Pam Wildbore is a contemporary artist from Hastings now living in Napier. Pam is a resin and acrylic artist who began her art practice only 4 years ago. Since then she has had 7 solo shows, participated twice at the NZ Art Show with a sellout show of her work in 2023, and is currently preparing for at Art in the Park 2024. We have such a great chat…

Natalie Holland is a textile artist from Wellington. She produces bright and colourful punch needle pieces that feature motifs and patterns used in hiapo (Niuean tapa cloth), linking to her Niuean heritage. Her works are made using 100% NZ wool and feature botanical and geometric elements in a wide range of often unexpected colour combinations. Nat…

Yvonne Abercrombie is a contemporary artist living in Helensville just north of Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. Applying the figure to an abstract landscape is where Yvonne’s practice is situated. Yvonne combines personal narratives and imagination with an exploration and development of the painting process. It was so lovely for me to speak to someone I…

Rachael Errington is a visual artist living, working and exhibiting in both New Zealand and Australia. She has been showing her paintings professionally for over 20 years, and has had 40 major solo exhibitions to date. Rachael grew up living in the middle of an English wood, where she and her brother spent most of their time making dens and treehou…

Tim Jones is a contemporary painter born in the UK and living in Matakana New Zealand. He creates bold abstract paintings through the use of strong gestural mark making. Driven by inquiry, and with evocative reference to the natural environment, colour and painterly form are intertwined and steeped in rhythm and movement. Tim talks about how he has…

Zoë Nash is a multidisciplinary artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. Her brightly coloured, abstract works explore a slow and mindful accumulation of repeated and highly detailed mark making. Reflecting her love of nature, Zoë’s works increasingly draw on selected plant and flower motifs as inspiration. Frequently initiated by things seen, th…

Belinda Griffiths is a conceptual figurative artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. Her work lies within the disciplines of painting and printmaking and explores the expressive power of the gestural mark. When coupled with depictions of the human form, this tension between mark and form has the potential to dig deeper and communicate something …

Clinton Christian (aka Clint© or CC'd) is an award winning contemporary New Zealand artist based in Hamilton New Zealand. His graphic style, themes and mediums reflect his personality - fun, bright, shiny and often nostalgic with a love of all things 70s and 80s. Clint initially gained a big following with his animal pop portrait series ‘Animal Ins…

POPUP is a versatile platform for artists, organisations, and venues in Aotearoa to produce their own online experiences. Born out of years of online event production, POPUP allows users to effortlessly create and manage their online events. The platform's immersive virtual spaces facilitate serendipitous encounters and meaningful interactions. Fro…

Dunedin based artist Nic Dempster has been part of the city’s art scene for over twenty years. His bold colourful geometric style has developed out of contemporary landscape work and reflects his love for architecture and design. His works play with ideas of urbanisation, our infatuation with property and the great kiwi quarter acre dream. It was s…

In this episode I'm chatting to Charles Tongue, the founder and CEO of Brother Theo - a platform dedicated to career coaching and legacy planning, tailored specifically for artists. Brother Theo provides a range of perspectives to help artists plan and grow their career as well as their legacy. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to take yo…

Robyn Fleet is a painter from the Hawkes Bay. Her paintings capture the essence of human experiences and our deep connections to the environment. Robyn is obsessed with the materiality of paint itself and all its possibilities. A common thread in Robyn's work is 'the human condition' suggesting avenues of emotion and thought, the human experience t…

Sally Bulling is a contemporary New Zealand painter living in Queenstown. Invoking a sense of energy, Sally Bulling's abstract works are created with physical movements, sweeping marks, dripping flicks and elaborate pours. Her love of colour, light and reflection is captured in her beautiful paintings. After a successful career in the fashion and f…

Tim Christie is a designer and artist currently based in Wellington New Zealand. His innovative, fashion-forward artistic style has been described as a modern synthesis of op art, pop art, street art and geometric expressionism. Over the last two years he has extended his collection to include light boxes, large original acrylic paintings and illum…

Alison Gilmour is a painter from Auckland, New Zealand. She grew up in Devonport, a coastal suburb in Auckland, which has instilled a deep love of the sea inspiring her to paint it in its many forms. She is also well known for her beautiful floral and still life paintings. Alison captures the endless beauty of her environment with delicate brushwor…

This episode is kindly supported by Turua Gallery Dominique Marriott is a Waikato-based artist living near Raglan on the west coast. She specialises in life drawing and is well known for her minimalistic nude paintings created with sumi ink and calligraphy brushes. Dominique works in a bold and uninhibited way to capture the essence of the human fo…

Raymond Sagapolutele is an Aotearoa NZ-born Sāmoan artist and academic living in Manurewa in Auckland. His photographic practice focuses on his lived experiences, his heritage and his cultural ties to the history of and the lands within the Pacific. In his hands, the camera gains a voice and connects to the cherished Samoan tradition of storytellin…

Auckland based artist James Emery has always had a keen interest in art and art history, particularly NZ art from the 1950s and 60s and the American abstract expressionists. Majoring in art history at Auckland Uni James worked within the art industry for many years before developing his own practice only 2 years ago. This month he celebrates his fi…

Jae Frew is a contemporary portrait photographer previously based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland and now living in Mahurangi. Jae's commercial career spans over 30 years and the highly respected and sought-after photographer lists prime ministers, heads of state, TV personalities, corporate CEO’s, film and television actors, and prominent sports peop…

Artist Michael McHugh is New Zealand born and resides in Sydney Australia. For more than three decades, he has been exploring the vast potential of colour, composition and abstract form with an inquisitive emphasis on the natural world. McHugh believes constant drawing and collaging to be fundamental to his painting process. This foundation enables…

Faleata Ualesi is an emerging contemporary Samoan Artist living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. His current work is built around motifs shown through grids and pacific patterns. I loved meeting Faleata and welcoming him to my studio (and black taro patch) at Muriwai Beach. In this episode we talk about Faleata's teaching career, how he manages his art…

Tony Ogle is known as one of New Zealand’s leading screen printers. He currently lives in Tairāwhiti, Gisborne. Next month in March Tony celebrates a prolific art career of more than 30 years with a retrospective solo exhibition at Parnell Gallery in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland, showing more than 60 of his original paintings that have rarely been seen…

Tawhai Rickard is a contemporary New Zealand Maori artist born in Gisborne, Tūranganui-a-Kiwa, of Ngati Porou decent. He is influenced by the epic history of his country Aotearoa, New Zealand and its historical interrelationship between Māori and Pakeha to the present day. His work reflects the social, historical and cultural landscapes of Aotearo…

Esther is a photographic artist living in Greytown in the Wairarapa. She has had a long successful photographic career firstly in wedding photography then in project and portrait photography. Her personal fine art photographic practice has become her main focus since 2020. At her core Esther loves to illuminate others and give them their opportunit…

Naomi Azoulay is a middle-eastern-born, Auckland-based award-winning portrait and mixed media collage artist. Naomi creates captivating, bold, intimate and vibrant mixed media collages and oil paintings. She aims to tackle social justice issues, decolonise the art space and expand the definition of beauty. She is passionate about exploring the fema…

Oliver Cain is an English born artist who emigrated to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2013. His work covers a wide range of topics and materials and takes many forms from ceramics to sculpture to installation and painting. His artworks push the boundaries between conceptualism and post-pop art. As a proud member of the queer community, Oliver uses his wor…

Joshua Davison is a contemporary artist from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, with a diverse body of work in both realism portraiture and sculptural painting. Josh is a self taught artist who has developed personal techniques which he uses throughout his impasto and sculptural paintings such as a methodical palette knife technique, layering MDF like a top…

Tanja McMillan, a.k.a Misery, is an Australian born painter, sculptor, photographer and mural artist living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Her creative reach is extensive, ranging from highly crafted fine art paintings and wall art to animation and fashion. Tanja’s work, under the name Misery, graces streets and galleries in Aotearoa NZ and around th…