Getting out-of-doors, in and amongst nature is something that I find productive for my art making, but also calming for my spirit. My regular walk is a wonderful way to start the morning. I leave the house half asleep and inarticulate, to return refreshed, revitalized and ready to face the day. Oh, and face what ever ideas I need to resolve and paintings I need to continue upon from yesterday. It is a lovely little ritual.
I was walking up Maungawhau (Mt Eden, one of Auckland's very special volcanic cones) the other day. A retreat from the hustle and stink of the city. There are many gorgeous native trees up there and you can frequently hear and see tui, swallows and other birds. After reaching the summit and having all of the cobwebs blown out of my head by a brisk South Easterly. I started to make my way down through the track that passes by the kumera pits. Overhead flew a cluster of birds, it was a silhouette that I had not seen up there before. They were larger forms that I was used to seeing, my immediate assumption was that they were sea-birds. Maybe they had flown inland to avoid some of the shonky weather that we had been having. The shape of them was not right for a seabird however. As it turned out, after getting a close up view of one's chest, the white and grey-blue determined that they were kereru! I don't think that I had ever seen them anywhere in Auckland except for out in the Waitakeres. It made my day.
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About Me
- ella thomas
- Auckland, New Zealand
- Ella Thomas is a contemporary artist who lives in Auckland, Aotearoa. She is of Ngapuhi descent and has a passion for the beauty of the whenua (land), the sea and for the unique flora and fauna of New Zealand. The concepts that are explored within Ella's work are based upon notions of conservation, ecological balance and extinction. Her paintings often feature nostalgic patterns reminiscent of the mid to late 1800's, the era when European colonization occurred. It was during this time that many unique species of birds became extinct. The rarer a bird became, the more prized a specimen of it became. Alive or dead. Much of Ella's paintings are celebrations of the unique character of our surviving taonga (treasures). Ella has a Bachelor of Visual Arts and has been working within arts related industries for many years. She has paintings in collections nationwide, Australia, England and the USA. Finally the plunge has been taken and Ella has committed herself to fulfilling a dream, that of becoming a full-time artist.
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