Showing posts with label painter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label painter. Show all posts
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Red Cross Fundraiser
Yay! I am sooo stoked, 'Arohanui' has found itself a new home and has raised over $500 for the Red Cross Christchurch Earthquake Fund. Thanks so much to all of you who bid and special thanks to the winner of the auction. I am going to miss my favourite tui hanging around my flat but it is for such a good cause.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Arohanui Christchurch
We were staying in a motel just outside of the central city, on the edge of Hagley Park. Thankfully they still had water and power. It was how I imagined a war zone to be, helicopters frequently cut across overhead; ambulances wailing at least one an hour. The people we came across were in a stunned state, some tramautised. Members of my family who have been deeply affected but are thankfully intact. Like many their house and land is probably to be condemned, but I suppose events like this are part of life's journey. I wanted to do a little something in response to this tragedy. It took me much longer than I thought as I had yet to paint a manu this large. Here it is . . .
Arohanui 2011
560mm x 710mm x 36mm
Archival Acrylics and gesso on canvas
You couldn't hear any birdlife around the city, apart from the ducks in the park. Like they say, 'water off a duck's back'. This saying has always appealed and I think there may be some influence evident within the painting. Tui I think of being particularly resilient also, they have thrived where other species have floundered. The photo that inspired the pose I used was from New Zealand Geographic abridged tui article
Well it has been a hectic couple of weeks. The awful events in Christchurch have frequently been in my thoughts, especially as my Dad's family come from Canterbury. The Friday after the quake I actually was down there for a family event and it was a different city from when I last visited, just before Christmas.
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| Arohanui 2011 |
We were staying in a motel just outside of the central city, on the edge of Hagley Park. Thankfully they still had water and power. It was how I imagined a war zone to be, helicopters frequently cut across overhead; ambulances wailing at least one an hour. The people we came across were in a stunned state, some tramautised. Members of my family who have been deeply affected but are thankfully intact. Like many their house and land is probably to be condemned, but I suppose events like this are part of life's journey. I wanted to do a little something in response to this tragedy. It took me much longer than I thought as I had yet to paint a manu this large. Here it is . . .
Arohanui 2011
560mm x 710mm x 36mm
Archival Acrylics and gesso on canvas
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| cover image and article by Jason Hoskings |
You couldn't hear any birdlife around the city, apart from the ducks in the park. Like they say, 'water off a duck's back'. This saying has always appealed and I think there may be some influence evident within the painting. Tui I think of being particularly resilient also, they have thrived where other species have floundered. The photo that inspired the pose I used was from New Zealand Geographic abridged tui article
This photo is just stunning, I did adapt the pose to suit my needs as I wanted to render the face of the tui. Within the painting are other references to painters, old and new as well as influences by one of my favourite illustrators. I suppose I like the idea of the tui being like an endemic phoenix. Shortly I will be able to provide a link to the auction, of which I am going to donate the proceeds to the Red Cross. I you like it, link-love would be great . . . even better, bid on it :)
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| detailed layering |
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| fluttering feathers |
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| here you can see some of the sheen of the gold underpainting coming through  |
Saturday, January 15, 2011
. . . Its been a while
Well, once again I tried to work full-time and also maintain my own artistic practice. However for some strange reason it just didn't seem to work. This year I have decided to step back once again from structured employment and allow time for my painting. Summer is a wonderful time for recharging creative energy and the flood of ideas I have had has been massive. Hopefully I will be able to do some of them justice . . .
Thursday, February 7, 2008
harakeke piwakawaka
Triptych 3 pieces 205mm x 2205mm x 35mmArchival quality acrylics and gesso on canvas
This little work was so much fun to paint, these two piwakawaka (fantails) just turned out gorgeously. Trying to capture movement is something that I am interested in exploring further and I am really happy with how the wings turned out on the male.
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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.