Artstation
Artstation home
| Classes
| Exhibitions
| Hire a studio
| The tutors
| Contact us and opening hours
| News
Meet the tutors
Alexis Neal
Alexis Neal
Alexis Neal graduated from Auckland University Elam School of Fine Arts with
a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1997. She went on to complete a Masters degree in Fine
Art Media at the Slade School of Fine Arts in London where she also worked as a
Teaching Assistant in etching.
Since returning to New Zealand, Alexis has continued to develop her professional
practice as a contemporary artist. Alongside her professional career, she has held
tutoring positions in both academic and community institutions. These include UCOL
Maori Print Wananga in Wanganui, at Artstation working on children's printmaking
workshops for the Matariki festival in 2008, as guest artist tutoring in drawing
and weaving at Paremoremo prison and as a senior tutor at Elam School of Fine Arts.
As a practising artist her work involves defining a place for women's cultural
identity predominately looking at the duality of artefacts in terms of personal
adornment and material culture. Her studio practice is interdisciplinary, combining
components of print, sewn feather canvases, weaving and installation, to address
Maori traditional whakapapa in a contemporary context.
Alexis has exhibited extensively in New Zealand in both group and solo exhibitions
since the mid '90s. She has exhibited internationally participating in exhibitions
in London, Melbourne and Sydney and the United Sates and Norway. Alexis is represented
in the National Gallery of Australia.
Andrea
Gaskin
Andrea Gaskin
Andrea Gaskin brings a wide variety of experiences to her work at Artstation.
After completing a Geography degree in England she began a career in the Union movement.
Working as a Union Organiser in England and later as National Educator for the Service
and Food Workers Union in New Zealand, meant she taught and worked with a wide range
of people and cultures in the workplace and in other unions.
In England Andrea also worked in a homeless shelter for men in Brighton. Here
she introduced painting and drawing sessions for the men and witnessed the therapeutic
benefits that they gained from making art... "the art groups definitely made their
lives more comfortable" says Andrea. This experience has lead her to consider more
study in art therapy in the future.
After returning to New Zealand, Andrea took evening classes in art and completed
the pre-foundation course at MIT. T. Students are also encouraged to explore the
sculptural potential of S silkscreen printing. Recently she has made a move in her
work from political work around colonisation and feminism to work of a more personal
nature. She is finishing needlework begun by her late grandmother and is using her
jewellery as inspiration for printing and focus on textiles.
Andrea loves working with children, she says it is the antithesis of being at
art school. The children's direct and uncomplicated approach to making art is refreshing
and grounding for her. Andrea has a warm and gentle way with the children and they
come to class each week with great enthusiasm and gusto.
Anna
Rae
Anna Rae
Anna Rae majored in printmaking at Auckland University of Technology and graduated
in 2000 with a Bachelor of Visual Art. While at university Anna explored photography,
drawing and text which lead her to an interest in sculpture, moving image and sound.
Anna now works with moving images and sound. "I enjoy finding sounds and images
from the environment and then recreating them into rhythms and conversations with
each other."
Anna started working at Artstation in 2003 teaching children's classes. She specialises
in the five to seven year old age group. Anna works on holiday programmes, hosts
birthday party art classes and has taught photography to teenagers and members of
the Framework trust. She has taught art at Ronald McDonald House at the children's
Starship hospital. Anna enjoys the playful approach kids have to making their art
and she finds their enjoyment of creating very rewarding.
Anna also works as a printmaking tutor at Spark Studio in Kingsland, a creative
space that offers sessions in visual arts education and creative expression for
adults with various disabilities. She has recently filmed and edited a series of
videos which form visual dairies of the student's works. These videos have documented
the innovative teaching processes used at the studio and are used to evaluate the
student's processes and progress.
Bronwynne
Cornish
Bronwyn Cornish
Bronwynne Cornish has been a practicing artist for 35 years. Originally she studied
to be an industrial designer at Wellington School of Design but quickly worked out
that she wasn't into designing toasters or washing machines and was seriously into
clay.
She started work as an apprentice to well known NZ potter Helen Mason. During
the week they made work to sell at the Brown's Mill Market, a craft co-operative
in downtown Auckland. It was a historic flour mill filled with furniture makers,
glass artists, jewellers and ceramicists selling their work. She enjoyed meeting
the people who bought her pieces and was often commissioned to make new work through
this contact.
After two years working with Helen she and her husband, painter Denys Watkins
and children, moved to Waiheke Island. Here she joined up with artists Denis O'Connor
and Peter Hawksby who were also working figuratively, in different ways and they
supported each other in their work. Living next door to each other they were able
to share firings and ideas and in 1980 the three of them exhibited with Warren Tippet
and John Parker at the Denis Cohen Gallery in a show called 5x5. This exhibition
pushed the boundaries of ceramics at the time and caused some contention in the
craft world.
In the 80's Denys was employed at Elam and they moved back to Auckland, to Mt
Eden where they live now. Bronwynne has a studio/workshop attached to the house
in an old stable. She describes it as quite rustic. "It's folksie, like a museum,
there's lots of detritus gathered over the years, I like it," says Bronwynne.
After many years of art making there have been many highlights for Bronwynne
including representing New Zealand at the Brisbane Triannale in 1996. A recent exhibition
at the Auckland Art Gallery called 'Allude' was also a highlight. For this exhibition
she made still life ceramics from Frances Hodgkins' paintings. In preparation she
read a lot about Francis and felt she got to know and like her. Frances Hodgkins
was also interested in ceramics and painted her friend's favourite pieces. These
appear in a number of paintings in different arrangements.
Another highlight for Bronwynne was a commission for Alan and Jenny Gibb's sculpture
park. This was a great opportunity to work on a large scale - she made earth walls
in horseshoe shapes with whistles imbedded in them. This was called The Singing
Folly.
Her current work includes collaborations with Denys in which Bronwynne makes
the vessels and Denys paints on them. They won a major prize at the Norsewear Art
Award this year for their work. She enjoys the challenge of the collaborative process.
But the thing Bronwynne loves the most, like Frances Hodgkins, is the art of arrangement.
Given a space and objects she thrives on the challenge to arrange and light them;
to create installations. No doubt students of her new course will be doing some
arranging as well! As presentation of work is fifty percent of its success visually,
students will be encouraged to group and arrange their works.
Throughout her career, Bronwynne has always enjoyed teaching alongside her art
practice. Currently she is teaching landscape drawing and ceramics, and has in the
past taken part in summer schools and continuing education courses.
Chris
Mules
Chris Mules
Chris Mules is a multi media artist who graduated from Auckland University with
a master of Fine Arts with First Class Honours in 2002. She was a lecturer at Manukau
School of Visual Arts until 2008.
Chris's first experience of teaching began in 1985 at Artstation when she taught
ceramics for 3 years. After teaching at Artstation, Chris was director of the Auckland
Studio Potters from 1985 to 1988. In 1994 and she begun a BFA majoring in sculpture.
She worked at the Auckland War Memorial Museum as a display artist in the Maori
and Natural History Galleries, furthering her interest in objects and their relationship
to each other and to the environment.
In term four Chris is teaching Artstation's Introduction
to Sculpture course for people who want to develop their skills and appreciation
of three dimensional composition. Students will have nine weeks of varied, directed
learning, using a broad range of materials and techniques. Chris adapts her teaching
to suit individual learning styles, giving students an excellent base from which
to continue making their own work.
Damien
Kurth
Damien Kurth
Damien brings a fresh, unique approach to these traditional genres, teaching
fundamental painting techniques and skills with a view to contemporary art.
Damien comes to Artstation from Elam School of Fine Arts where he worked for
three years as a technician in the painting department after graduating with his
Masters in Fine Arts in 2002. Prior to his Masters, he was based in Hamilton where
he painted full time and taught a broad range of drawing and painting classes at
the Waikato Society of Arts. He completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts at Otago University
in 1997. Damien has exhibited at galleries including Milford Galleries, McPherson
Gallery and Morgan Street Gallery. As well as teaching at Artstation, he is currently
working on painting commissions and as a freelance illustrator.
Damien's portraits infuse realism with contemporary painting approaches, so what
appears as a traditional figure painting also reflects an investigation into paint.
Both the person and the paint are the subjects in his detailed works. "I like the
idea that traditional genres can be easy to access and once you start looking other
things may start to surface," he says. The portraits usually take months of work.
"An area that appears to be abstract may actually be made from thousands of brushstrokes,"
he explains. Damien constantly refers back to painting fundamentals when stuck on
a particular aspect in a portrait. "I use painting techniques to get the image working,"
he says. His classes reflect the knowledge and skills he has experienced firsthand
as an artist.
In his classes, Damien initially spends time teaching the fundamentals of painting
such as colour, tone, line, composition and proportion. Damien believes these fundamentals
give students a sound framework to work with and support their development. He aims
to impart practical skills, knowledge and confidence in his classes, and believes
even experienced students can benefit from going back to the basics.
Damien often uses an example of painting glass to explain how useful these techniques
can be. He describes how at first, painting a reflective, transparent surface can
seem daunting, but if you break it down, it is still simply line, tone and colour.
As a tutor, Damien says teaching these skills presents an opportunity for him
to learn about students' interests and ways he may support students' development.
While painting fundamentals act as an initial structure for his classes, he also
works with students' personal interests by offering lots of individual feedback.
He says it is important for his classes to suit and respond to students' needs and
offers plenty of opportunities for students to pursue and develop areas of interest.
Damien's dedicated, open and informed teaching style reflects his broad interest
in painting, and while he sees painting as a form of communication, a way of passing
on information through paint, Damien also has a passion for the process, "I just
love painting and paint," he says.
Elizabeth Serjeant
Elizabeth Serjeant
I asked Beth when she first knew she was an artist. She said she has three clear
memories. One is the patterns on her father's scarlet runner beans. The second is
the sandpit at her kindergarten, she remembers making a mountain of sand and then
taking the top off it and noticing the changed form. The third memory is of the
coloured tissue paper at the kindergarten, which she now knows came from Japan.
This was her first experience of beautiful paper and there would be more beautiful
papers later in her life.
Beth believes we are observing from the moment we're born and storing it away
- that art is a documentation of our lives.
After leaving school Beth worked for five years as the resident artist for an
advertising company. This is where image and text first came together for Beth and
would later play a large part in her artistic life. Beth got married and moved to
the country where her husband was a teacher. They had their kids and there was no
time for Beth's art.
The catalyst for her return to artistic life was a series of workshops by Carole
Shepheard on 'Women in the Arts' at the ASA (Auckland Society of Arts). Beth describes
the ASA in the early 80s as a vital enclave of printers. She remembers the smell
of solvents from the top of the stairs and knew this was her place! She enrolled
in the ASA etching class with Rodney Fumpston and became a passionate printmaker.
Printmakers need paper.. so, Beth began an exploration into paper and papermaking.
Ways of encapsulating and storing words and images has led Beth to bookmaking. She
sees the book as a container of information and narrative and a way of archiving
our memories.
The use of text and image is an important part of her work. Beth has worked on
many projects with writers. One of her first collaborations was with Joan Taylor
and a group of NZ writers. 'The Visionary' was an anthology for the future. Beth
produced lithographic images to accompany the writing, they were processed and printed
by Joan and the text was printed by John Denny at Puriri Press. Since then she has
collaborated with Hone Tuwhare and most recently with Albert Wendt, hand printing
their poems.
She has received scholarships and grants for her work. In 1990 she received a
grant to attend the 1st National Conference of the Book Arts in New York.
Beth describes this event as hugely enriching and was an opportunity to make some
great contacts in the world of book arts. Later she attended the Paper and Book
Intensive (1990) at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine, USA. This
was a master class in paper and bookmaking by some of the most esteemed book craft
people of the world.
Beth says she has a loyalty to her creative spirit, this is her soul, her
identity.
Beth calls Artstation her creative home. She spends many hours in the Print Studio
teaching printmaking, bookmaking and papermaking classes and often works with artists
and students helping them to realise their projects. She encourages students to
tell their personal stories and to incorporate them into their art.
Memory makes us what we are!
Jarad
Bryant
Jarad Bryant
Jarad Bryant has developed a course at Artstation which now has a firm following.
Expressive Life Drawing and Painting is designed to free up the unique expression
in all of us. The course is a positive, nurturing environment which allow students
to develop their individual creative potential. Jarad also teaches children's classes
and he is adamant that their imagination should be encouraged from an early age.
His classes are wacky and interesting and he encourages the development of the imagination
through the children's own areas of interest and by having loads of fun. (He has
been known to dress up in a pilot's outfit or in full diving gear to inspire the
kids to get drawing and painting!)
Jarad is a practicing mixed media artist. Working from his studio in Grey Lynn
his work 'uses traditional techniques in untraditional materials'. He is a graduate
from the Elam School of Fine Art and has worked as a mural painter, prop maker and
has played percussion in a band. He has an interest and knowledge in the areas
of natural health and wellbeing and personal motivation. Aspects of these areas
can be seen in the style of his teaching and the positive environment he creates
in his classes.
Jo
Nuttall
Jo Nuttall has been teaching cast glass at Artstation since it first began in
1999 and was a great supporter and advisor on the developments of the Cast Glass
Studios.
Glass casting is a unique and special craft form which is growing in popularity
and has been rediscovered in New Zealand in the last 15 years. Ann Robinson pioneered
glass casting technology in New Zealand and Jo is part of the second generation
of glass artists who are benefiting from the ongoing developments in this field.
Jo believes it is important that glass casting is taught in Auckland especially
as we are lucky enough to have access to the beautiful glass available at the Gaffer
Glass company.
Jo has exhibited her work in many exhibitions in New Zealand. In 1997 she received
a Creative New Zealand Emerging Artist Grant to exhibit her work at the Dowse Art
Museum and Lopdell House Gallery. Recently she was awarded a commission for the
Thomas Collection.
John
Nicol
John Nicol
With over thirty years teaching experience in the visual arts, John Nicol has
an extensive knowledge of what it takes to get into art school, and he shares this
knowledge in a series of Artstation classes for adults and teenagers. From choosing
the right art school to portfolio presentation and tertiary learning styles, John's
Artstation classes will prepare students who plan to take the leap into tertiary
art education.
John's broad arts education background includes high schools, adult community
education, polytechnics and most recently Elam School of Fine Arts, where he worked
as a Senior Lecturer and Studio One Course Coordinator for a number of years. These
diverse teaching experiences have seen John work with students of all ages and backgrounds.
John's experience and understanding of visual arts education is further extended
through his visits to high school art departments and research into studio teaching
and learning practices in art schools throughout NZ, Australia and USA. He has also
advised tertiary teachers on interpreting NCEA results, acted as an external moderator
in several art schools and presented lectures and papers on studio teaching and
learning.
John sees learning as a reflective process, where students' input, needs and
learning styles play a vital part in determining course content and structure. John
describes his role as "a facilitator for learning experiences as opposed to an old
master type of teacher." He aims to combine the best possible balance between traditional
and practical skills such as drawing, with the development of creative solutions
to visual and conceptual problems. All John's classes expand on developing these
skills.
Establishing a lively and flexible studio environment to support learning is
an important part of John's teaching approach. He fosters an active learning environment
where students learn through doing and participate in discussion and feedback. This
student-centred style sees John encouraging students to pursue their own areas of
interest.
Alongside teaching, John maintains his own vibrant art practice. Represented
by Milford Galleries, John is best known for his 'Fabrications', object and image
constructions which combine sculptural plywood forms and painted surfaces of evocative
land and sea scapes.
Julie
Downie
Julie Downie
Julie Downie has returned home after 19 years in the UK and is loving the harsh,
bright light of NZ for her photography.
She makes still-life constructions for the camera which exist only in the time
it takes for them to be photographed. Her work is mostly concerned with looking
at the tiny, often overlooked details of the natural world - 'the last realm of
the marvelous'. Julie is a collector of dead things - especially bugs of which she
has a collection from all over the world. These are often included in her constructions.
Julie's passion for 'arranging' ties in with her passion for museums. She has
an MA in Museums and Gallery Education (as well as a BA and MA in photography).
Her interests include reading as widely as possible, from art theory and criticism
to the wonders of natural history.
Julie has taught photography for many years in the UK both at a tertiary level
and in adult education at the City and Islington College in London.
Kairava
Gullatz
Kairava Gullatz
Kairava Gullatz was born in Cologne, Germany. She moved to New Zealand in 1997
and has been working in ceramics for 20 years.
After leaving school she studied ceramic design for four years at a University
in Krefeld, close to Cologne. The course was unique in Germany at the time because
from the beginning it was very 'hands on'. She was continuously making, and was
ultimately inspired by her Professor to explore sculpture. After her studies she
joined a group of fellow students to share a studio and they exhibited together
and sold work at the markets in Cologne.
The spiritual side of life is very important to Kairava. She says she felt very
at home in New Zealand as soon as she touched down here. Her horizons were widened
when she came to New Zealand - it was a new language, new friends and so she changed
her name for a new life. Now she lives at Piha and loves being close to nature.
These new horizons and nature are strong influences in her work:
"Most of my work here in New Zealand is tableware thrown on the wheel. I love
the process of shaping the soft clay with my hands. It's a quiet, gentle way of
manufacturing and each vessel is an individual even if they are made as a series.
Throwing and carving porcelain - by sponging it - is another challenge for me. The
results are very fine, thin translucent pieces. My wall pieces are inspired by New
Zealand waterfalls. They are built from slabs and covered with thick layers of slip
and glazes."
Since coming to New Zealand Kairava has found, and appreciated, good support
and encouragement from fellow ceramicists and artists. Her studio is located in
a former wine making building at the Corbans Estate Art Centre and is a beautiful
and spacious work area surrounded by other working artists. She sells her work through
a co-operative craft gallery, Gallery 3 in Victoria Road, Devonport, and works part
time in the shop. As a member of the co-operative, she finds it offers her support
in business, encouragement and motivation with her art practice.
Kairava is passionate about her ceramics and loves sharing her skills. She enjoys
teaching because she meets lots of people and loves the enthusiasm they bring to
class and finds she can easily help people realise their ideas. In her gentle and
generous way she brings all sorts of inspirational material to class and then allows
the space for students to express themselves in clay and explore their areas of
interest.
Kate
McLean
Kate McLean is a ceramist, quilt maker, photographer and drawer but it is silkscreen
printing that she is best known for at Artstation. She has been teaching silkscreen
printing at Artstation for many years and loves it for the variety of people who
attend her classes. She is able and willing to modify her classes to help students
achieve what it is that they want to do in class. "Silkscreen Printing requires
innovation," says Kate, "one learns to think laterally as you go and respond to
the print as it appears." Kate's approach is very much adapt and modify. Each term
Kate encourages her students to do at least one print in a run on something other
than paper or fabric.
Kate is very committed to the community. She has worked on many community art
projects, most notably at Westmere School, where she facilitated four ceramic murals
for the outside of the buildings. She is very keen to allow the children's art be
the central component of the work while she completes it by firing and installing
it.
You may have noticed the artwork on the side of the Maths and Physical Sciences
Building at the University of Auckland in Princes Street. It was designed by artist
Alberto Garcia-Alvarez and made by Kate McLean and her husband Matt. It is a large
ceramic mural composed of regular cubical elements that emphasize the rectangular
and three dimensional characteristics of the building. Kate and Matt made the work
at Artstation. It was hand made, bisque fired and then some pieces had a white slip
and glaze applied. Take a good look at it next time you are passing by there.
Kathryn
Stevens
"KEEP PAINTING!" has been the philosophy of Kathryn Stevens' own painting practice
and is a theme repeated in her painting classes. Kathryn is back at Artstation teaching
a beginner's drawing and painting class on Saturday mornings. She believes that
it is important to learn to play again and that people need to learn to loosen up
and let things happen. At the same time there are skills to be taught and good habits
to be formed. All this happens in an atmosphere of fun and gentleness.
Her own work is informed by painting theory and influenced by architecture and
engineering (she started studying engineering when she first left school). There
is a mathematical precision in her work, her paintings address notions of perspective
and perception.
While Kathryn's not painting or teaching she is working as a make up artist for
fashion and advertising. Kathryn's world is a visual world in which she is constantly
making visual decisions. She teaches that from the beginning the process of painting
informs the work and that painters should keep growing with it.
Linda
Roche
Linda Roche
Linda worked as a media manager in the advertising industry for 15 years where
she was involved in developing media campaigns for major clients such as Air New
Zealand, Dominion Breweries and Coca Cola.
After taking art classes at Artstation with Matthew Browne, Linda did the Foundation
course with Sue Daly, through Manukau Institute of Technology, at Rutherford College.
From there she completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts degree at Auckland University
of Technology majoring in painting. She has recently completed a Masters degree
in the school of Art and Design at AUT.
Linda has worked as a volunteer, teaching adult literacy classes for Auckland
Adult Literacy and has taught English as a second language for the ESOL Home Tutor
Society. She has also volunteered at Radio Lollipop, the radio station at Starship
Children's Hospital, where she put together programmes and activities for patients
and their siblings.
In her own art practice Linda uses paint and process to generate complex relationships
between order and randomness. She uses a range of systems and procedures to explore
the potential for chaos within a logical, repetitive art making approach involving
the dispersal of fluid oil pigment across large areas of canvas.
Linda has exhibited in many group exhibitions and is a member of 'The Dust Collective',
an exhibiting group of recent art school graduates. Linda's class, 'Paint and Possibility'
will focus on the implications of paint and surface. Working within given guidelines
or processes, students will be encouraged to explore the properties and qualities
of various media with the aim of establishing an approach to painting that personally
excites them.
Lyndal Jefferies
Lyndal Jefferies
Lyndal Jefferies was born in New Zealand, however she completed an
undergraduate degree in Visual Arts at Sydney College of the Arts and a Master
of Fine Arts at Goldsmiths College in London.
An accomplished contemporary artist Lyndal has been making experimental works
in a range of mediums for over twenty years. Well known for her 'sound pool'
works Lyndal was the winner of the inaugural Sculpture on the Gulf outdoor
exhibition in 2003 and her works can be found at Brick Bay Sculpture Park and in
the Wallace Art Collection.
Lyndal is also a highly skilled art writer, curator and contemporary art
tutor with an in-depth knowledge of New Zealand and International art practice.
She has been a guest tutor at Elam school of Art and Manukau Institute of
Technology and most recently has taught a Contemporary New Zealand Art and an
International Art Program at Waiheke Community Education night school.
Lyndal believes that developing artists can benefit greatly from gaining a
deeper understanding of different modes of contemporary art practice. Her user
friendly Contemporary Art Studies course at Artstation is designed to give
students a good general knowledge of key artist's works and allows them to hone
their interpretive skills though exercises designed to develop a deeper
understanding of artist's ideas and techniques.
Matthew
Browne
Many of you will have met Matthew, he has taught literally hundreds of students
at Artstation and at other art schools in New Zealand.
Painting has always been a major part of his life. His father, Michael Browne,
also a painter, instilled in Matthew something of a painter's experience and its
unquestioning value. He currently paints from his studio in the old Sunday School
Union Building in Queen Street. Matthew returned to Elam last year to do a Masters
of Fine Art in painting. He regularly exhibits his work and was a finalist in the
Wallace Art Award shown at the New Gallery in Auckland.
He teaches beginners through to advanced painting, creating a fun, safe and nurturing
environment for students.
Natalie
Couch
Natalie Couch
Natalie Couch is of Ngati Tuwharetoa and Te Arawa descent and French Scottish
and English ancestry.
Natalie graduated from Elam school of fine arts in 1998 where she specialised
in printmaking and design. After graduating Natalie traveled for a year to India,
Nepal, and Taiwan. On her return to Auckland she worked as the coordinator of 'The
Upstairs Gallery' at Lopdell House Gallery in Titirangi, Waitakere. At Lopdell house,
she held weaving and print workshops for children, and ran a school holiday programme
for youth painting murals for the Waitakere Community as well as coordinating an
exhibition programme.
The major inspirations for her art practice have been her studies Te Reo Maori
and the birth of her daughter, Mumuteawha in March 2003, For the past few years
she has exhibited extensively in group and solo shows in Aotearoa, USA, Bulgaria
and France working mainly in print, drawing and mixed media.
Nicole
Lucas
Nicole is a practicing cast glass artist. Her work is varied. "I enjoy making
things in cast glass that are design objects, using the beauty of the material,
developing ideas and designs through the process of making. I also enjoy the challenge
of making more sculptural glass work, where I get the opportunity to play with the
nature of glass as a material. I find it a wonderful poetic material full of contradictions,
it is fragile and yet also has strength. I want my work to embrace the inherent
qualities of glass such as fragility, beauty, strength and preservation".
She also teaches a workshop in silicone mould making, a process used in sculpture
to replicate found objects or to make copies of forms. "I like to be able to incorporate
found objects into my work and I find using silicone gives me a lot of options and
is fairly easy to use, plus, you can get it from a hardware shop!"
Nicole completed her degree in glass at Unitec. From there she moved into a shared
studio in Richmond Road, Grey Lynn. Originally a ceramicist's studio Nicole and
a group of glass graduates moved in and set up a busy, lively cast glass studio.
It was the perfect space and a great opportunity for the new graduates to bridge
the gap between university and their new life as working artists. Later Nicole was
lucky enough to inherit her father's garage once his outdoor furniture business
became too big for the space and he moved on to bigger premises. Three phase power
was already installed so she hooked up her kiln and was away! During this time Nicole
also worked part-time for other glass artists until she started teaching.
Teaching is something that Nicole enjoys very much. "At Artstation", Nicole says,
"the students have a wide variety of skills that they bring with them to the class,
they all have a unique approach to learning the process of the lost wax method of
casting and this can be really interesting and exciting. I always learn something
as well! Also the Artstation studio is well set up with equipment which provides
students with a lot of options for finishing their glass pieces and realizing their
ideas in glass."
Sara
Smallman
Artstation's resident art therapist, Sara Smallman is first and foremost a painter.
Her first degree was in painting at the Falmouth College of Art in England and it
was always her aim to be a painter since she was a girl. Her mother had a big influence
on Sara, she is a painter and had a degree in embroidery and design and making art
was always part of their lives.
While at art school she got a part-time job at a school for maladjusted boys
(as it was called back then!). Here she discovered an interest and talent in motivating
and facilitating the boys through their problems. In her last year of art school
she met an art therapist and realised that this was the perfect job for her, one
that combined her love of art making and work that was about the human condition
and helping humanity express itself.
One of the first placements during her art therapy training was at a large psychiatric
hospital in Kent. There was a big studio in the hospital dedicated to art therapy.
Patients would come to the studio for 5 minutes or for a whole day, some for one
visit, some for a year or more. Sara loved this work and would later get a full
time job there for six years. This studio art therapy model provides materials and
support for the creative process and is similar to the way the Artstation workshops
are run.
So, you may wonder what art therapy is all about...
Art therapy is a way to tell stories about our lives and discover their meaning.
Using art materials such as paint, pastels and clay participants explore their stories
then talk about the images they have made. Sara describes it as an unblocking of
the creativity pipes...like a giant bypass operation.
Apart from teaching at Artstation Sara has her clinical practice. She works for
the Eating Disorders Service which is part of Auckland District Health Board, she
supervises Chaplins in schools and has private clients. She has completed her final
Masters Research paper in Art Therapy at Whitecliffe College of Art and has 2 children
and still finds time to be a painter!
Zarahn
Southon
Zarahn Southon
Zarahn graduated in 1998 with a Bachelor of Visual Arts degree from Manukau Institute
of Technology. In 2000 he left for Europe to study the works of the Old Masters
and on his return has been working as a professional artist with several successful
solo shows. He has work in collections in New Zealand, the UK and Europe.
Zarahn is currently represented by Orex Gallery and Artmix Gallery in Belgium.
In 2005, Zarahn won the Martin Hughes Contemporary Pacific Art Award and has
been a finalist in the Wallace Trust Art Awards and the New Zealand Portrait Awards.
In 2006, he took a two-year sabbatical studying classical and realist painting in
Ateliers in Florence, London and France.
In 2007, he received the Jouffrault Scholarship from Studio Escalier in France,
to study figure painting and drawing. More recently, he has studied portraiture
with the painter Ted Seth Jacobs in San Francisco and was a scholarship finalist
in American Artist Drawing Magazine.
Over the past decade, Zarahn has taught extensively in adult community education,
and since 2005 he has taught life drawing at Auckland University of Technology's
Graphics and Design school. At Artstation, Zarahn teaches life drawing and painting.
Zarahn is of Maori descent and is from the central North Island tribe of Ngati
Tuwharetoa.
Updated November 2009
