Some of our Artists for 2026

Dennis Chippindale is this year’s Art in the Park guest artist. He is well known for his live sketching, producing portraits that capture the character and mood of people around him. In a cafe, on the bus, wherever - he sees a   face that intrigues him, takes out his sketch pad and water-soluble pencils and draws. He does at least one drawing every day, posting 30 every month on his dennychups Instagram page (he has 8,500+ followers). Visitors to Art in the Park will be able to see him in action.

Indulging in sketching and watercolour painting is a pleasurable counterpoint to Dennis’s demanding professional life as Director and Principal of a Christchurch architectural company.

Gary spent 45 years working as an architect in Greymouth honing basic drawing skills taught at Grey High School and Auckland university.

Retirement 12 years ago gave the time to develop those skills, and learn the basics of water colour. 

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The challenge was to record structures in a more loose and colourful way, and produce pen and watercolours of buildings and landscapes as an alternative to photographs.

While travelling Gary noticed that art exhibitions were devoid of paintings of historic and heritage structures, many of which are disappearing from our landscapes and towns. This has been a focus to date.

Gary has original art and limited edition prints for sale at galleries in Greymouth, Hokitika and Darfield.

"My creative practice involves research, processing and un-processing. My interest is to do with who we are, how we intertwine and weave our way through the complexity of relationships with ourselves, each other, objects and the world around us. Reality and unreality collide or sometimes land more softly and melt in these interactions.

The joy I feel when painting is immense. I work mainly in oil, though once again I like to delve into the mixing of possibilities, in this case adding and exploring other mediums when put into close proximity."

RANA is a Wanaka based artist who creates unique artworks out of old postage stamps.  Every piece she creates is made from real, unaltered stamps.  Her skill lies in creating beautiful colour shading using only the colours of the stamps she has to hand.  She believes that the use of stamps adds real history to her work – every stamp tells a story in itself.

Jeremy Leach is one of the West Coast’s most respected, yet under-the-radar artists. He is a quiet man who has found a way to live for and by his art.

He is self-taught, absorbing techniques from books during his youth to enhance his obvious talent, which he began to exercise by producing cartoons and caricatures in his school days. He continues this auto-didactic process, now using internet guidance to upgrade his skills.

Jeremy is a professional artist who has been finding ways to enable his talent since his teenage years. While known for the landscapes, his artistic life has two other strands that support it. The first is fantasy paintings – which one could be tempted to see as the yang to the yin of the landscapes.

Jeremy Leach artwork can be seen at the Reefton Co-Operative Gallery, 29 Broadway (which he is a part of), or on his instagram site: jeremyleach.art. Contact via jerrygleach@yahoo.com

Chris has exhibited at Art in the Park since its inception. His speciality is highly detailed pen and ink paintings of people, animals, houses, and vehicles of all kinds.  Chris has a wide range of art interests include cartooning, calligraphy, logo design, photography, bone carving and driftwood sculpture. Over the years, his illustrations have been published in a variety of books, including children's’ stories and homestay guides.

All the prints for sale here are on German stock paper, printed by Microfilm Digital Print Christchurch. Larger or smaller prints are available on paper or on stretched canvas.

Originally from the UK, Emma has now made Reefton her home. Not only is the beauty of this area, and the creative community, a big draw to her but also the amazing local trails. Emma has a passion for ultra-marathon running and also hold a few world records for endurance events. When she’s not being creative you’ll find her in the wilderness. Emma’s art is a mixture of detailed pencil drawings and bright, bold paintings. She takes inspiration from the natural environment and colour combinations she finds on her explorations. Please take your time enjoying her work.

Sue Currie is a Christchurch born artist with a background in graphic design & illustration. She paints watercolours, acrylics, oils and pastel in a colourful and contemporary style sourcing her subjects from plein air sketches and photographs from travel around the South Island. A passion for painting has extended over 5 decades, exhibiting in art galleries, art societies and art shows mainly in the South Island. Paintings have been sold and are in collections in many overseas countries as well as New Zealand. She is the recipient of numerous awards. Sue comments- “ A love for nature and the joy of painting endless subjects that it may present ” www.suecurrie.co.nz

​Using fabric - both hand dyed and painted and assorted commercial fabrics and hand stitching, I explore the local landscapes - it's various forms and colors - and the flowers in my back garden.

Over the last year or so my focus has changed from celebrating the West Coast with predominantly fabric to minimal fabric use with stitch interpreting our skies, Franz Josef glacier ice and our trees.

I am enjoying the slow pace and quiet moments hand brings.

My work can be seen at my home studio in Hokitika - 170 Gibson Quay or on Facebook or Instagram janetgawnart.

Sarah Godfrey is an established landscape artist and has a fine arts degree from the Dunedin School of Art.  Painting became her specialization.  “I concentrate on colour, texture and mood in my paintings, and I try to capture the feeling of a place rather than trying to create a realistic scene.  I am drawn by strong contrasts in nature to the dramatic effects of light and shadows that accentuate contours."

Eli Berland is our youngest artist  and this will be his second year of exhibiting  He has accompanied hi parents to art shows all over New Zealand so he might as well show off some of his skills too!

Eli experiments across a wide range of media and his parents have encouraged him to learn techniques in drawing, painting, printing, dyeing and sculpture.

Carver Marlene Trounson has turned her dream of working with greenstone into an actuality – and a passion.  She had, for many years, worked with natural gemstones and pearls to create distinctive fashion jewelry. Ten years ago she enrolled for the Diploma in Jade and Hardstone Carving at Tai Poutini Polytech. “I started full of excitement, but within days was asking myself what on earth I’d got myself into,” she chuckles. “I hadn’t touched carving tools before, and it was definitely more complex and challenging than I had anticipated.”

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But she persevered, graduated, and now creates a wide range of beautiful carvings - traditional pendants and earrings as well intricate sculptured works including flowers and delicate leaves. While 90% of her work is with greenstone, she also works with other gemstones and agates sourced from overseas.

Marlene has been exhibiting at Art in the Park since 2009.

Donna has been a regular at Art in the Park since its inception. Her Corrie Iron Art is well loved all around the South Island of New Zealand and she never seems to run out of inspiration! 

Lorna is an artist, based in Greymouth. She paints mostly in both oils, acrylics and water colours.. but is always learning new tricks!

Hello Art Lovers, my name is Shirely Louise Day and I create unique collages using a wide range of flowers, leaves, paints and mixed media.

I’m completely self-taught and through much trial and error have arrived at a place where I believe my work will delight and bring smiles to my viewers.

All of my work incorporates flora grown, picked and pressed by the artist. I live in Christchurch and regularly display my work at various markets that concentrate on supporting creators and makers.

The Daft, Mysterious Woman

Margaret Mary Fabiola Wallace started back with 'New Beginnings’ Visual Art recently. She had a long sabbatical break from painting. Now she has a new approach to art, looser, freer and more experimenting. She is expressive, loves colour and texture. Her art now is based on memories packed with love, emotions, mood, texture and our beautiful planet we live on. She has fresh ideas and no boundaries now. Also known recently as 'The Daft Woman’ according to a recent post. Margaret Mary is inspired by her environment and the beautiful wild West Coast beaches.

She is a West Coaster and ex-pupil of St Mary's. Some of her upbringing reflects in her art work, richness of colour, lights and darks. These days she finds inspiration closer to home, “from my garden”.  Her house acts as a whole new outlook, “I don't have to go far, there are spontaneous views from my windows and never ending inspirations”.

Karin Werner        b. Oxford,1963

 I have drawn and painted all my life and am largely self taught.   I use mainly oils, water colours,  pastels and pencil. 

 My subjects are often landscapes, horses and other animals, vehicles,

 particularly motorcycle engines, although I also do more interpretive work,

and acrylic pour/swipes.

I live in Amberley and am a member of Arts Canterbury, the Rangiora, Ashburton, and Otago Art Societies, and exhibit mainly through their exhibitions.

My paintings have been awarded People’s Choice, Merit and Premier Awards

 at art exhibitions and competitions throughout the South Island.

More of my art can be viewed on my website  www.karinwerner.co.nz 

and on my face book page  @ SOUTHISLANDARTIST

Greymouth’s Bob McQuarrie is well recognised around the Coast for his functional stoneware – beautifully shaped bowls, coffee mugs, cups and platters from his busy potter’s wheel, and freeform tiles, small animal and bird ceramics.

His ceramic garden-art towers were a hit at last year’s Art in the Garden in Flaxmere, Canterbury. “As it’s in October it forces me to be busy over winter,” he says.

Bob uses only local clays from various sources, which sometimes can be straight out of the ground but usually need to worked to remove stones, sand or roots. He achieves vibrant decorative effects by creating his own glazes, often from differently coloured recycled glass. His kiln is fired by dry pine from trees he planted on his Karoro hill property many years ago. Wood ash provides unique glaze effects. “It’s a lot of effort but it’s good to have a hobby you love that also brings in a bit of money.”

Having cut and carved gemstones of all kinds since 11 years of age and trained in carving under Ian Boustridge among others, Amhairghen Faithliaig (Avirin) now runs Woven Stone Jade in Greymouth: a small jade and hard stone carving company specialising in high-quality, one-off jewellery and sculptural pieces. "Quality work, or not at all" is his company's motto; and he takes that motto seriously. He stocks works in local pounamu (nephrite and bowenite) and some foreign nephrite jades, aotea, local rhodonite, aroha stone, Guatemalan blue jadeite and occasionally even whalebone.

Rachelle McKellar-Basset lives and works on the beautiful West Coast of the South Island. She is inspired by the wild coastline and exquisite driftwood crafted and shaped by the sea. Incorporating beach stones she creates whimsical works that sometimes include a saying or quote to inspire, encourage or just make you smile.

She worked for many years as a Visual arts teacher in Auckland but now feels home is on the coast. Preserving and caring for the natural environment is close to her heart. With her husband she runs an eco campsite on their rural property, practicing permaculture and breeding free range chickens and organic lamb.

Rachelle is a graduate of the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Visual Arts, 2005. She was awarded the Toss Wollaston scholarship in her first year of study.

While Rachelle is painting beauty and peace at the front of their home, Stu is in the large shed out the back where he has his blacksmith's forge. Fire is raging in the steel-lined recycled 44-gallon oil-drum forge he made. "I use whatever I can to make things", he explains, pointing to the air-pump that was part of an end-of-life Land Rover and the T-junction from an old milking machine. His re-use and recycle ethic extends to every artifact he creates. His anvil is a restored antique. He makes all his own tools. Stu's skill shows in the finely crafted artifacts he makes, some of which he will bring to Art in the Park. Fire pokers with finely twisted thread, hooks, belt buckles, curtain rails, decorative wall hangings — he is always experimenting, having new ideas. "There's a lot of old steel on the Coast, and old steel is good steel — railway spikes and screws, old mining equipment, horseshoes. I'm always on the lookout for good, high-carbon steel. "Blacksmithing is one of the oldest skills around. People often think it's about brawn, but really it's all skill and technique."

I am a self-taught North Canterbury based artist whose art journey began in 2019. A new-found passion for painting led to a return to study in 2020. I enrolled at Oxford Area School and studied Year 13 Art as an adult student. I chose the genre Portraiture and loved the challenge this presented in capturing expression. I thoroughly enjoyed the learning environment; I love the joy of discovery and the escape that my creative practice offers. 

I am ever inspired by the many moods of our New Zealand Landscape, endeavouring to capture highlights and shadows, conveying the grandeur of our mountains, the stillness reflected in our lakes and the vast colour palette of nature.

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Social Media:      Facebook – Donna Coster – Artist

                              Instagram – donna.coster.art

I’m Trish a dairy farmer from the West Coast with a love of gardening and art.

I have dabbled in many art forms over the years from painting acrylics, watercolours and oil, Sewing clothing and quilts, Sculptures stone, clay and Paverpol.

While I still enjoy all of these, I really found my niche with Paverpol.

I first came across Paverpol when I ordered a kit from a magazine 15 years ago, from there I did a class with the NZ trainer & importer in nelson, then in 2009 I trained to become a certified Paverpol instructor, I have been teaching workshops ever since.

Paverpol is a fabric hardener that allows the artist to create sculptures suitable for outdoors using recycled natural materials such as old t-shits, muslin, towels, curtains etc.

You will always find projects on the go in my small studio workshop. And thanks to my Husband & daughters I now have a small Gallery that is open by appointment.

Trish Silcock – Paverpol Instructor

The Mawhera Mudslingers meet regularly at the Left Bank Art Gallery to practice and develop their skills in working with clay. The group started in 2025 after Cassandra Struve – the Gallery Chairperson – sought to fill a need that had become clear to her after she had been approached by a number of local people keen to learn claywork skills, and a number of visitors to the gallery interested in seeing more three-dimensional works.

Cassie wanted to continue the inspiration of Grey polymath, teacher and potter Yvonne Rust, who was almost single-handedly responsible for an explosion of arts and crafts on the West Coast during the late 1960s and 70s. With this model in mind, Cassandra reached out to our current local polymath Sam Duckor-Jones who, amongst his many skills, has considerable experience in working with clay. Together they created the Mawhera Mudslingers, which has spawned and nurtured a lot of first time artists, who all seem to be having a lot of fun!