Creative Connections with Mandy Jakich

Vicki Fox founded Quirky Fox art gallery in 2012. It is located in Hawera, a small town of 10,000 people south of New Plymouth.
Showcasing both established and emerging talents, Quirky Fox invites both New Zealand and international artists to be part of its carefully curated range; all international artists are exclusive to the gallery within New Zealand, while New Zealand artists are exclusive to the gallery within Taranaki. 
Quirky Fox aims to provide a home for artists working in new contemporary and representational styles and introduce their works to both a New Zealand and international audience. 
This episode is a great insight into how a person can get over challenges and use their strengths to create and work on something they are passionate about. Vicki Fox has lived her whole life with a speech impediment. As a child and young person she was teased and never felt she fitted in, even feeling like a "misfit" at times throughout her life. As she has got older she has come to the realisation that the things she was teased about are actually the really interesting, fun parts of her personality. 
 In this chat Vicki shares how she finds her artists and builds her network, what she looks for in an artist and her expectations and management of artists both in New Zealand and internationally. 
We discuss her advice to artists approaching her gallery, how she feels about artists experimenting and changing their style, why she is against AI, pricing work (her least favourite part of the business), the development of her newly renovated gallery space and her exhibition schedule. 
Thank you to Vicki for agreeing to have this chat with me, something I know she had reservations about. I think her story will inspire you.
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Scott Lawrie is a well known, much loved gallerist and writer who was based in NZ and is now living in Scotland. 
I absolutely loved catching up with Scott again a few months ago while I was living in Turkey. I last spoke to Scott on the podcast more than 3 years ago in episode 62.
Scott Lawrie Gallery began life in 2017 in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland and continues to thrive now in Edinburgh Scotland. As the gallery’s reputation grew the focus pivoted away from art as a business ontology, towards a more authentic, occasionally experimental, vessel for interesting ideas. 
The gallery has hosted over 200 exhibitions, showcasing work by over 140 artists from around the world.
Scott moved from Aotearoa NZ back to his home town of Edinburgh in Scotland in 2022.
In this episode we discuss everything from: giving up alcohol 4 years ago, taking a weight loss drug and how that has affected him, his view of the art world in Aotearoa and in Scotland; to capitalism and how it flattens culture, art for the working class, cultural vandalism, theories of collapse, the purpose of art fairs, funding in the arts and his love of critique.
If you haven't listened already to our first chat on the podcast, I recommend you listen to episode 62 before you settle in to this one. 
Nga mihi nui, thank you very much to the lovely Scott Lawrie for his encouragement and support of this podcast and for joining me again to update us on his life and views. 
And thank you for tuning in again in our first episode of 2026. I look forward to sharing more inspiring stories this year and connecting with my listeners and artists. Thanks so much for your support as well. 
I'm currently in the process of locking in artists for 2026 so please do get in touch if you know of an artist living in NZ who would make a great guest or if you are interested yourself. One of my goals for the podcast this year is to grow my audience and the variety of visual artists I speak to, so I'd be very grateful if you could share the podcast or episodes you've enjoyed with your friends or on your socials. 
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In this episode I speak with Mike and Linda Geers, the owners of Art By The Sea, an art gallery in Hurstmere Road Takapuna, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
This is a fabulous chat with 2 people who are very passionate about the visual arts in Aotearoa. Linda and Mike see themselves as conduits between artist and audience, as kaitiaki guardians of artists' work, making connections through art.
We talk about how they came to purchase Art By The Sea in 2001 when it was in Devonport, the early challenges they experienced and their move to new premises in Takapuna in 2021. Mike and Linda share how they choose an artist to represent, what they recommend to artists, how they like artists to approach them, what they look for in an artist's work, how and why they turn down some artists, what they expect from their artists and how they respond to their artists experimenting with new ideas. 
We discuss their yearly exhibition programme, supporting charities through group shows and the challenges of owning and running an art gallery, 
Linda and Mike generously share the rewards, honours and life changing moments they have experienced as gallerists who are deeply connected to their stable of artists, their collectors and their audience. There is so much great advice for artists in this chat which I'm sure you'll find valuable.

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Katie Leigh Stewart is a mixed media artist living in Wellington, Aotearoa NZ. 
Katie's paintings explore floral landscapes, portraiture, everyday life and nature. Her bright and bold palette as well as signature brush strokes gives viewers a moment to pause and find joy. 
In this episode Katie talks about her early nursing career and how she finally came to focus on her artist career as a new Mum. We explore her paintings which are mostly inspired by her life, everyday experiences and her love of gardening and nature. Katie talks us through the ways she captures the feeling of the moment she is responding to and the essence of her subject, her painting process and the ways she manages the different media she uses in her work including combining acrylic and oil paints. We talk about why she often likes to underpaint using a fluoro paint and her use of colour, her layering technique, the ways she introduces details, how she paints flesh, light and shadow and the tools and mediums she uses.
Katie shares her approach to sharing her work on social media, diversifying within her practice, experimentation, mark making, commissions and how she manages her days as a homeschooling mumma of 3 young girls.
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Natalie is an emerging multi-disciplinary artist born in Yorkshire, England, with a current focus on figurative oil paintings. Nat moved to New Zealand in 2016 in her early twenties.and is currently based in Auckland.
In this episode Natalie shares how creating likeness in a portrait has become a challenge too tempting not to take on as she's got older, becoming thirsty for something that felt more difficult and less forgiving. As a Mum of 2 boys, her sons have become treasured subjects that she never feels bored of capturing in her work.
Natalie explains what she gains from entering her paintings into NZ art awards and the success she has had, becoming a finalist and runner up in a number of awards such as the Parkin and Adam Portraiture prizes. 
We talk all about synesthesia (a word I stumbled on every time I said it in our chat!), what it is, how it presents for Natalie and the ways it influences her painting approach. Nat shares her techniques for capturing likeness in a face, painting flesh, the paints she likes to use and how she likes to apply them. And so much more. You're going to love this chat.
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Creative Connections Website
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