Upstairs Art Gallery, New Lynn, West Auckland

Painter

Tony Brown offers us all a vision of perseverance and triumph over turmoil. An enthusiasm to forge a better life is what fuels Tony's passion to create works that inspire powerful and emotive responses: "I want to reach out to people who are stuck". Tony's paintings, which are deeply inlaid with a locality and familiarity and in some cases, are intimately provocative, grapple with issues such as depression, adoption, loneliness and sobriety.

Tony's dark and raw works show an artist who interprets issues with an innate sense of compassion and individuality. Through a process of rehabilitation, Tony rediscovered art as a form of expression from childhood and values the emotions he is able to stir within viewers of his work.

Click here to visit Tony's website

“There are two kinds of photographers; those who compose pictures and those who take them… for the latter, their studio is the world. The constant flux of life exerts a power of fascination over them. They are alert to it at all times. For them, the ordinary does not exist…” Ernst Haas, Magnum Picture Agency.

My first experience of photography was as a child living on overseas US Army bases. While stationed in Japan, my father recorded “ the constant flux of life” using a Rangefinder Nikon 1. Back in Decatur, Georgia, I got my first camera for my 8th birthday; a Kodak with a built in flash reflector. I thought it normal to photograph people without asking. I became the irritating ‘kid with the camera’ and after the complaints, my parents discovered it was impossible to buy flashbulbs in Decatur.

My first news picture was published during the 1960’s freedom riders campaign to desegregate public transport. I took a shot of the local Ku Klux Clan in full regalia driving past our house on their way to burn a cross, and the next morning I took the film to the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. At the age of 12, I saw for the first time how the news was made – and began my life long affair with photo journalism.

In the early seventies I moved to the UK and worked for underground publications such as the International Times and Oz magazine, photographing the social movements of the time, especially those around the vibrant and exciting music scene.

Marie Darby

I love creating things using new & recycled materials, creating something new as well as up-cycling something old. I paint and also make earrings, rings, necklaces, hairclips, soy candles, art for children, baby mobiles, jewellery display tiers, cake plate stands & more.. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Click here to visit Marie's facebook page.

Textiles

Maxine Jepson has spent her life exploring and discovering the potential of textiles to produce innovative and distinctive art forms. Maxine's career began as a freelance visual merchandiser, her creative and ground-breaking approach fuelled her passion and persistent attraction to textiles, fibres and form.

Ceramic Sculptress

Karen lives in the HendersonValley with her husband and chooks. She has been happily creating ceramic sculpture for 25 years, is largely self taught and has won numerous awards.She is a member of Waitakere Central Community Arts Council, Titirangi Community Arts Council and Titirangi Potters.

She mostly sells her work through New Zealand Galleries.Small Collectables: Dogs, cats, mice, folk figurines, whistles, roosters, clowns, tiles, all in fine white clay, meticulously hand painted, clear glazed and mid fired.Mid Range: Hollow dogs, cats, woodpigeons and other birds, traditionally glazed and mid fired.Large Paper Clay: Dogs, cats, boars, people, slip coloured and glazed, sometimes bronzed work. Weatherproof. mid fired.Public Sculpture: Seat and table in Onehunga Mainstreet, Dragon Seat in Ngataringa Reserve, Devonport. All ferro cement and hand made tiles.

Visit Karen's website on www.karenkennedy.co.nz

Photographer

At the age of 11 Arne Loot already had a darkroom in a wardrobe of his parent’s home in Holland. Ever since photography has remained a lifelong interest for this man with multiple occupations - Sailor, Designer, Builder, Painter, Cook, Farmhand, Musician, Writer and Herpetologist ... you name it.

He arrived in New Zealand in 1952. His first job for 8 years was with the largest Portrait and Bridal Studios, becoming the Manager. Then 3 years with one of Auckland’s leading agencies where he invented his iconic bleach out technique with black and white prints before establishing himself as a freelance photographer for the rest of his life specialising in photographing works of art and antiques for galleries and contemporary artists.

Photographing Art, Antiques etc was a great passion...

A self taught artist who loves to experiment and play with colours, Chirstina McTaggart-Tie has been interested in art all her life.

She came to New Zealand in 1971 from Singapore and is now a  New Zealander. She has been involved in Arts and Crafts, taught Copper Art and makes her own greeting cards. In 2005 she resumed her love for Watercolours.

She is a member of the Titirangi Community Arts Council, Upstairs Gallery and has exhibited there in The Ethnicity Of The Waitakeres exhibition. She has also sold her work privately.

Contact by email at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or by phone on 021-2318527

John McWilliam has spent 35 years in the world of Film & Television in London, Copenhagen and Auckland.

This series of 12 photographs called “Te Atatu Otaipango” was shot in the Far North at the remote beach of Otaipango during “Magic Hour”. 

 Magic hour occurs shortly after sunrise and before sunset when the low-angled light blasts exquisite yellows, oranges and reds in turn across untouched elevated landscapes overlooking the azure sea. The ochre colours and twisted sculptural forms breaking through the sand come from iron-pans exposed by the wind howling across these extraordinary 35 metre high heaps of pure silica lying between East and West coasts. Scientists tell us that tsunamis have rolled across here with frightening regularity; on average every 2000 years. But we’ve not been here long enough to realize until now. 

 Highly prized by traditional weavers, this is NZ’s premier location for that charming little native, the orange-coloured coastal grass, the pingao, making their home next to ancient remnants of giant fossilized kauri still lingering amid lonely sandstone outcrops. In the distance Uenuku, the rainbow, reveals a storm fleeing the scene. And everything illuminated by nature’s surrealistic light-show.

In this situation, while most of us would understandably stand and admire the beautiful sunset-sky, John has instead turned his camera away from cliché to photograph the gorgeous sculptured geological forms that lie undisturbed on the dunes but still beautifully lit in the same ghostly atmosphere. Magic Hour at Otaipango.

Abstract Digital Imagery

Experience the unique imagery of Fred Mans where he has created abstract figures of light in motion.

He has his own vision which he has honed over the years and continiues to find images in the most unlikely of places.

Fred takes us on a journey through the looking glass and shares a world where everything is not what it appears to be. His art reveals a new take on what is the norm. Even a moving or parked car has a reflective beauty which becomes apparent.

All the phoographs have been taken using water, glass, plastic, metal and any surface that can reflect light. He uses every opportunity to create images at different hours of the night and day.

The images are not enhanced or modified in any way.

Contact Fred Mans: 021-124-6819 or 09-846-1488

Rag Rug Weaver

“I have been a TCAC member since the  late 80's and am member of Handweavers and Spinners Guild. I am essentially a rag rug weaver, working from my studio at WoodBay on commissions and for exhibition. All my fabric is of the previously used, or the no longer wanted, variety. My addiction to fabric and colour is a passion, and my work is on walls and floors locally, nationally and internationally.”

Recent exhibitions include: Juxtaposition of Journeys and Junk Art at Upstairs Gallery, Fine Threads at Corban Estate Arts Centre and Smart Tarts and Social Butterflies at Signal Gallery.

I have always been drawn to the enigma of art in nature and the emotive response it fills me with, and it has become over the years, a passion of mine to convey the beauty and form I see in NZ’s rugged and beautiful landscape, and it’s lush native bush through night photography, which is done when all available daylight is gone, each image is taken over a period of time, and records the motion of stars, clouds and any moving light. And in a mysterious way picks up colour that was in the sky previously, even though you cannot see it presently while the photograph is being taken in darkness.

I’m also passionate about flowers, female nudes, and abstract impressionism, as I love to discover new ways to paint with the camera, and exploring natural techniques to do this with.

Rachel Mooney specialises in floral, abstract, female nude and night photography.She studied the basics of photography at Manukau Polytech and all her series of work are self taught. 

Painter

Terry Prince is an artist living in Oratia. Growing up and living in West Auckland, he spent the best days of his childhood at Foster’s bay Huia, and as he became old enough to roam, the big surf beaches.

He finds the grand scale, shapes, and endless colour shifts of these places fascinating, and derives great joy from trying to capture them.

An ex student of Garth Tapper and Ralph Venables, he then worked for many years with his long time friend Ted Dutch.

His work is in private collections and galleries throughout New Caledonia, France, the United Kingdom, New York and New Zealand.

Bachelor Of Fine Arts

Tania Sunde has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design. Tania is the owner of Art Point Gallery and Art Tutoring Studio in Point Chevalier. Art Point Gallery show cases Tania's creative talent and also specialises in nurturing art after school, to young students aged between 8 and 12.
 
Tania exhibits in Auckland and Wellington and her artwork is held in private collections worldwide.

Click here to view Tania's website.

Click here to view Tania's art profile at  www.thebigidea.co.nz

Kia ora! My name is Felix Torres. I'm from Chile but I've been living in Aotearoa (New Zealand) for 6 years. This has been a long journey and on my way I have learned lots of skills that I love to use to create ART.

Aotearoa has given me the resources and inspiration that I need, also a beautiful family who support my work. My work has been developed over 8 months of experimentation and emotional processes to fusion two important topics that can define my technique and style: South American - Pacific art and environmental sustainable art. Both are concepts that you will be able to appreciate in every single piece.

Although I don’t have a degree in fine arts, I have been a worker all my New Zealand life, I’ve been a painter (decorator), hammer hand, water proofing installer, isolation installer, roof painter … so I know how the materials work, what impact they have on the environment and  how to get the most of them. So I can say that working has been my art school.