Bellamy Art
Nelson artist Michelle Bellamy started painting and drawing early in life. “I grew up in an arty household,” she says. “Mum was a medical and botanical illustrator, and Dad was a painter and songwriter. We had lots of books and discussions about art, and in the evenings we’d listen to the radio and draw.”
Her parents also did a lot of hiking. “We went into the Cobb Valley and Nelson Lakes area a lot,” she says. “When I was about 14 I did a few paintings of local landscapes in the Mt Robert area and sold my first painting in a gallery in Nelson. It was then I realised I could earn money from painting.”
Bellamy works as an artist full time. “I get to explore areas I love and combine the worlds I live in – the outdoors and painting. I didn’t do any formal study or training, but as I grow as an artist I find techniques that look cool and add them in, and it develops. It’s a whole learning process that will carry on forever.”
Early in her career she worked away from home. “I lived on tuna and pasta,” she laughs. “It was a bit of a grovel, and I had to take on commission work. Now I’m at a stage where I can think about what I want to paint and what inspires me.”
Bellamy paints finely detailed landscapes in acrylic on board. “I love getting out in the backcountry to find scenes,” she says. “I take photos, usually in the evenings and mornings because they’re great for light and absorbing different atmospheres.”
Bellamy photographs each part, such as close-ups of tussock colours and tarns and pictures of the sky. “It pieces things together,” she says. “I also spend time absorbing the area while I’m there, and make colour and composition notes to map it out – little details like whether the water is calm or the tussocks are standing straight. Then I put it aside for a while. I don’t go back to it straight away.”
Bellamy enjoys finding scenes that inspire and resonate with her and then creating the best aspects. “My style is the only way I know how to paint, and it just evolves. I don’t know what the final product will look like when I start.”
She’d like to work with different organisations for the good of the country. “At the moment I’m working with the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary, creating artwork to promote their kiwi project. I’d love to do more things like that rather than just going to a place and painting a scene.”
Michelle’s work can be seen at bellamygallery.co.nz
Love Thy Land
Lisa Nicole Moes from Wānaka says she always wanted to be an artist but felt it would be a tricky career choice.
“So I thought I’d do graphic design because it’s still creative and there’s full-time employment.” She completed a Bachelor of Design at Massey University. “After I finished I couldn’t get a junior design job so I ended up as a freelance illustrator with other part-time jobs.”
This led to her founding Love Thy Land, selling travel-inspired prints of iconic New Zealand locations. “Initially it was a side hustle,” she says. “I combined my love of old-school travel posters with my passion for the outdoors and started selling prints in Wānaka and Queenstown. The motivation wasn’t actually to make a business out of it, but it ended up successful, so that was a nice surprise.”
Moes uses her own adventures to inspire her artwork, and most of her pictures are of places she’s been to. “I love hiking and adventures, and I like to document them,” she says. “I want to evoke that feeling of being there, to give people a memory of their trips.”
She gets many requests for different locations, including overseas, but is sticking to New Zealand.
“New Zealand is my brand,” she says. “It’s so inspiring living here, I don’t need to do other countries. I could do endless different illustrations of Aoraki Mount Cook, for example.”
“All my trips are business trips,” she laughs. “I definitely have a good work–life balance and I get outside a lot. I love what I do and it doesn’t feel like work.”
Moes also does commissions and commercial art. “I like the variety, and sometimes I’m more motivated to create my own work if I have other work going on.”
Lisa’s work can be seen on Instagram @lovethyland_nz
Denise Map Art
Aucklander Denise Nel is a graphic artist who turned her Covid lockdown project into a business.
“I’m an illustrator and I love the outdoors, maps and cartography,” she says. “During the Covid-19 lockdown I had time on my hands and put pen to paper.”
Nel’s project, to create a map of New Zealand, is the result of walking Te Araroa over eight years to celebrate her 50th birthday. “I was hugely inspired by the walk,” she says.
She drew the detailed map by hand over two years. “I used a lot of references because I wanted it to be accurate,” she says. “Every place is exactly where it should be, with a little bit of creative licence for the roads and mountains.”
Nel then mapped Te Araroa onto it and decided to see who might want to buy it.
“People love that they can showcase what they’ve done,” she says. “The map gives a bird’s eye view of New Zealand and all the beautiful valleys and mountains.”
Nel grew up in South Africa. “I had the freedom to climb trees and mountains and play sports. My family is full of gardeners and landscape architects, so from the year dot I’ve been an outdoorsy person. I love it, and any opportunity I have I’m out exploring new tracks.“
Map art has become Nel’s main focus. “It’s a lot of work, but I love painting and drawing for fun. I think if you love doing something then the money will follow.
“The best reward is the sense of accomplishment,” says Nel. “I create a lot of custom maps for people who want to personalise their experiences. I’ve shipped maps all over the world.”
Nel doesn’t think she’ll ever run out of map ideas. “I’ve got a list a mile long of tracks and trails to cover,” she says. “The whole time I’m evolving, and I don’t feel like I can exhaust this creative burst. New Zealand is endless. I count myself very lucky.”
Denise’s work can be seen at denisemapart.com
Kemi Niko & Co
Seven years ago Waikato artists Kemi Whitwell and Niko Leyden started making miniature replicas of backcountry huts. They have since expanded their passion into a sustainable business.
“I love how using the backcountry as inspiration in the arts is growing,” says Leyden. “We’ve always been backcountry hut nerds and started making public art using a hut as an art medium.”
Whitwell adds, “We made interactive public hut sculptures. They weren’t replicas of existing huts, they were their own thing. Some were more conceptual, and often we were playing with experimental ideas. Each had a log book. People would fill the blank pages with all sorts of things, and it was at that point we realised there was something special about what we were doing.
“We shifted to making little huts that people can buy because we needed to have a sustainable income.”
The miniature huts are mostly made from recycled materials. Salvaging drives their business. “We wouldn’t be making them if we didn’t have that passion,” says Whitwell.
“What we’ve always loved about the huts really matches the modality of our art,” adds Leyden. “The backcountry has always been made from resourcefulness.”
In hindsight they realise that they’ve taken something that already exists in the backcountry community – hut bagging – and made a physical product of it. “People have an emotional connection to tramping huts, and buy the mini huts because they want to be reminded of those experiences and be taken back to that time,” says Whitwell.
They have a process for making their miniatures.
“We have a kind of criteria,” says Leyden. “We look at the history, the community around the hut, and what different versions there might have been over the years. We don’t always choose the most current version, and love to tell the stories of the huts.”
“We like the classic huts of yesterday for the stories they hold, how they were built and the architectural vernacular of them,” adds Whitwell.
Leyden sees their art as a service to the community. “Doing something that you’re driven to do and that you love doing is key,” she says. “You do what you love, then you find the people that love it. It’s like a feedback loop.”
Kemi and Niko’s work can be seen at keminiko.com
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