Creative Connections

This episode is different to our usual format. Mandy is in the Kumeu Arts gallery at the podcast group show CONNECTION with 4 previous podcast guest artists who have work in the show. 

Contemporary Fine Artist Dita Angeles https://www.ditaangeles.com/

Abstract photographer Chris Melville http://www.chrismelville.co.nz/

Painter Yvonne Abrcrombie https://www.instagram.com/yvonneabercrombie

Contemporary painter Coral Noel Yang https://cor...

Hello and welcome to season 9 of Creative Connections. I’m so excited to be back with weekly episodes and a fantastic varied line up of artists booked in from now until mid December 2025.

This episode is a bit different. I was interviewed by artist Julie Battisti for The Creative Kind Podcast a few months ago and I thought you might be interested in listening to our conversation. 

We’re talking community. Which is very topical at the...

Janette Cervin is a contemporary painter. She lives in Warkworth, north of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, with her partner and artistic collaborator Jake Kennedy.

Jan creates beautiful large-scale paintings that offer an invitation to an immersive antipodean paradise teeming with exquisitely detailed New Zealand flora and fauna. 

A unique illusion of depth is created through the combination of traditional painting conventions and applicat...

Alice Alva is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Kirikiriroa – Hamilton, New Zealand. Her work is informed by an interest in patterns, ornamentation, architecture and craft-based processes.

In addition to her art and design work, Alice is also an art educator and a māmā to her daughter Daphne. She is an advocate for the visual arts in Aotearoa, New Zealand and is on the executive committee of ANZAAE – Aotearoa New Zealand Associat...

Michelle McIver's is a contemporary artist who grew up in rural Otago and is now living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Her work explores the interplay of light, colour, and form through abstract compositions. Using simple geometric shapes, she layers and juxtaposes blocks and bands of colour to create depth and structure. Each painting is an exploration of how light interacts with form, evoking a sense of balance in its abstract...

The Resale Royalties Scheme brings New Zealand in line with global standards to ensure artists are fairly compensated when their work is resold.

It means NZ art resold here and overseas will return a payment to our artists or their successors.

Today I'm speaking with Chief Executive Sam Irvine. He explains everything artists, successors and art market professionals need to know about the Resale Royalty Scheme. I recommend you ch...

Isaac Weston is a full-time copper artist based in Matua, Tauranga, Aotearoa NZ.

Isaac’s creative process is a unique blend of artistry and alchemy, combining acids, salts, and sunlight to reveal the hidden beauty of copper. This approach allows him to bring out light, shadow, texture, and vibrant patinas, showcasing the organic elegance of the metal. From sculptures to wall art, Isaac creates high-quality gallery pieces that reflec...

Sefton Rani describes himself as a maker, who uses paint as his primary material. Based in Auckland, he is a visual DJ who mashes up industrial materials with Cook Island narratives, to create modern Pasifika art.  

Sefton is the current Parehuia Artist in Residence at McCahon House, which is in Titirangi West of Auckland NZ. McCahon House Artists’ Residency, named Parehuia by local kaumatua Eru Thompson in 2008, is amongst the most...

Claudia Aalderink is a self-taught artist based in Kihikihi, near Hamilton in Aotearoa New Zealand. She is also the founder and director of The Mandarin Tree art gallery in Gordonton.

Her works are created by meticulously fragmenting discarded beehives in a non-symbolic approach. Within a reduced visual vocabulary of circles, squares, rectangles, and lines, she explores the subtlety of colour, scale, and composition

Originally from H...

Sara Langdon is a contemporary New Zealand landscape artist living in Beachlands, East of Auckland. Sara currently draws inspiration from the beauty of familiar and distinct volcanic landmarks around Auckland city and the Waitemata Harbour.The New Zealand landscape is Sara's source of inspiration and reason for painting. 

Sara paints places she is connected to and loves, places she wants to explore and respond to so that people...

Born in Oxford in the UK in 1984, James Watkins moved to Auckland, New Zealand at a young age, kicking off a lifelong journey of travel and creative exploration. 

James thinks of his intuitive painting practice as limitless and sees defining his practice as a certain style or describing himself as a certain type of artist as restrictive and unnecessary.

In this episode James shares how he never really felt creative as a young person ...

Working at the intersection of art and technology, Delainy Jamahl's art practice focuses on data as the central narrative. He creates immersive and interactive installations that explore and visualise, transforming complex information into engaging visual experiences.

It was lovely to meet Delainy and to speak with a creative technology artist - the first of his kind on the podcast! In this episode we explore the creative and t...

Anna Gibbs is a contemporary painter living in Banks Peninsula, near Christchurch in the South Island of Aotearoa NZ. 

If you search her name on Google you'll see she is described as an "internet personality" which probably comes from the amazing work she does on the Instagram social media platform and her loyal audience of more than 100,000 followers.

Anna is interested in conservation and fortunate to live on a rural...

Welcome to episode 155, the final episode of 2024. Ngā mihi nui Thank you so much for listening and for your support this year. I hope the podcast has cheered you up, motivated you, inspired you, affirmed what you do or educated you in some small way.

As you probably know, the CM podcast is largely self funded. However, I now have a way for you to show your support if you'd like to, by making a small donation of 3, 5, 8, or 10 ...

Established in 1974 by a group of young jewellery makers to promote their work, Fingers has become synonymous with innovation and originality and the development of an indigenous style of contemporary New Zealand jewellery. 

Fingers has been at the forefront of treating and displaying the craft object as art, and has constantly challenged the notion of what is precious. As the oldest contemporary jewellery gallery in New Zealand, Fi...

Bailee Lobb is a queer, disabled artist born in Whanganui, Aotearoa, 1989 and now based in Wellington. She is a multi-disciplinary artist who works with textiles, colour, and movement to create sculpture, installation, and performance artworks that explore art as disability access and care.

In this enlightening episode Bailee talks about how she felt as a teenager, as a person who was dealing with undiagnosed autism and how her artw...

Julie Battisti is a painter who grew up in Melbourne Australia and moved to Aotearoa New Zealand with her husband in 2017, settling first in Rawene in the North Island then going on to make Dunedin her home.

Julie's paintings currently have two significant themes; clouds and flowers. Both are studies of light and texture. 

In this episode Julie shares how she sources and chooses the flowers she paints, how she creates her floral...

Chris Melville is a photographer, graphic designer and jazz musician living in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. 

In his latest photographic collection, Chris uses household items and a slow shutter speed to create landscape compositions, suggesting dreamy lakes or mountains appearing from the mist. Chris currently works with linen, denim, smooth cotton and coarse hessian, creating visual layers and textures. The resulting images, while be...

Ross Jones is a painter creating works that evoke a heady sense of nostalgia and elevated playfulness, living in Snells Beach on the east coast north of Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.

Each meticulously devised painting offers hints at various narratives as the artist invites the viewer to engage with his role as storyteller.

I loved meeting Ross and chatting to him. We talk about Ōtaki on the Kapiti Coast of Aotearoa where he grew up and...