Creative Connections

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...

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 study...

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...

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...

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 ti...