Creative Connections

Wendy Leach is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Mangawhai Heads, Northland, Aotearoa NZ. 
In this chat we unpack her long successful artistic career, from making domestic inspired still life works as a young mother to painting European and New Zealand landscapes, painting abstracts, working with oil pastels and gouache, exploring photography and working with light. 
Wendy talks about her time studying at Elam School of Fine Art at age 18 and why she chose to return to study years later, this time at Whitecliffe College in Auckland, to complete her MFA. We explore the work created in her 2 year MFA course, her Surrogate Self Portrait series and her Light Painting series, and what she gained from this and learnt about herself as an artist and as a person.
We discuss the experiences and environments in her life that have influenced her work including a funded trip by a collector to make work and exhibit in Jordan, living in Belgium for 5 years, travelling extensively throughout Europe and the Mangawhai coastline. 
Wendy talks about why she is no longer interested in being represented by a gallery, her connections with the community Mangawhai Artists' gallery, how she sells her work, her attitude to moments of creative block, what she looks for in a landscape and her oil painting process.
https://www.wendyleach.com/
https://www.instagram.com/wendyleach_art/
https://www.facebook.com/WendyLeachArt/
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Maico Camilo has been a professional contemporary artist for nearly two decades and has made a significant impact on the art scene. His abstracted figurative and abstract paintings are unashamedly neon bright, bold, textured, energetic and unique.
Born in Southern Brazil, Maico Camilo first arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2005 and has since lived, travelled and shown his work throughout Europe, Asia, The United States and Oceania. His experiences across different cultures have informed an artistic practice centred around people, connection, perspective and the way we interpret the world around us.
You're going to love this episode. Maico talks very honestly about: relationships with galleries; the ups and downs of selling work internationally; marketing and selling his work independently; his views of the art gallery business model and his approach to exhibiting his work.
He shares his thoughts on how he is influenced by his Brazilian culture, the art scene and working as an artist in New Zealand, how he thinks of his art practice as a global business and the intricacies of pricing his work. We explore some of the works that are going to be in his upcoming solo show Unapologetically Dazzling at Turua Gallery, from October 16th - 28th. And of course, so much more! 
Thank you for listening to Creative Connections. Here is Maico Camilo.
Unapologetically Dazzling, opens 16 October at TURUA GALLERY in Auckland, featuring 20–25 vibrant, heavily textured works bursting with neon colour, pattern and energy. Opening night is October 16th from 5pm and the show closes October 28th.
https://turuagallery.co.nz/collections/unapologetically-dazzling

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Creative Connections Website
See our website for more about us and artist blogposts with images + links of the things we talk about in each episode.

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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 manages this around her art practice and her love of being in nature. She shares the messages and narratives behind her paintings, the things that are important to her, how she manages her 3 series of work, what she loves so much about kiwis and the volunteer work she does with them, and she unpacks her painting process.
I think you'll find Andrea very inspiring in the way she deals with the challenges in her life, her attitude to the world and her positive mindset.
https://www.andrearobinson.co.nz/
https://www.instagram.com/andrearobinsonartistnz/
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Creative Connections Website
See our website for more about us and artist blogposts with images + links of the things we talk about in each episode.

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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 studying visual arts online with The Learning Connexion, what caused her to lose confidence in her practice when her focus shifted to teaching watercolour painting and her connection to local surroundings and events. Nicole talks about her landscapes work and the quirky little caricatures she enjoys and the narratives that are communicated through her work.
And Nicole gives one of the most detailed descriptions of her plein air and studio painting process we've had on the podcast. Enjoy! https://www.nicolerussellart.com/
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Creative Connections Website
See our website for more about us and artist blogposts with images + links of the things we talk about in each episode.

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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 the land. Her style is intuitive yet grounded in observation, often blending abstract impressions with botanical and environmental detail.
Tallulah had a traumatic upbringing and suffers from a number of mental health issues including Obessive Compulsive Disorder, Dis-associative Identity Disorder and Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Tallulah generously shares her life dealing with these challenges and how painting, particularly repetitive mark making, is a positive way for her to respond to and process her life and mental health.
This is another unique, enlightening episode I know you'll enjoy. Nga mihi, thank you to Tallulah for her honesty and authenticity and for highlighting mental health issues in the way she has and for explaining how being an artist has supported and created a 'safe space' as a person dealing with mental health illness. 
https://www.instagram.com/tallulahnunez_studio/
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Creative Connections Website
See our website for more about us and artist blogposts with images + links of the things we talk about in each episode.

CREATIVE CONNECTIONS Instagram