Open studios: Brushes with nostalgia and passion

Commercial artist and graphic designer Gaye Downing says she has always had a passion for painting, especially the "old-style" still life.
Downing says she loves working in oils and using the Alla-Prima method of working "wet in wet", and taking simple objects and creating beautiful paintings reminiscent of a bygone era. Downing's inspiration has come from artists such as Richard Scmid, Pino, Raphaelle Peale and John Singer Sargent. Downing's 26 years as a commercial artist have given her a keen eye for detail and a perfectionist quality that is evident in her paintings, whether commissioned or displayed in galleries.
Hill is well known for his high-country New Zealand scenes and horses. Painting has always been his passion and combined with his interest in the rural lifestyle and horses, he captures their energy and vibrancy in his paintings. Hill says his studies of men on horseback evoke strong feelings of nostalgia for a way of life that is increasingly disappearing.
A characteristic of Hill's work is the contrast between the creamy surface of the oil paint and the often rugged subject matter.
"As an impressionist artist, I paint using the direct method which involves working quickly to complete the entire painting 'wet in wet'. This achieves a much livelier result."
He has devoted the past 15 years to full-time painting, including private commissions, and his works are sold mainly through galleries from Auckland to Queenstown.
Andrea Glasgow has been drawing for most of her life, but it is only in the more recent years she decided to take her art seriously. Glasgow is self-taught and says she does not know what is "right or wrong in the eyes of the art critics". She hopes others get as much pleasure looking at her art as she does creating it.
Glasgow's first love is drawing with graphite, but she also enjoys watercolours, acrylics, pastels and recently oils. Her main subjects are animals; horses, then any creature great or small, and people. Glasgow does commissions, with a lot of work being pet portraits.
"Of course, art is such a personal thing, but usually if one person enjoys creating something, somewhere another will appreciate it."
 
OPEN STUDIOS

Names: Painters - Newcomer and still-life artist Gaye Downing, impressionist artist Don Hill and self-taught artist Andrea Glasgow, who now works in oils.
Location: 678 No 2 Line, Fordell, 250 metres past Matarawa Church turn right at the bottom of the dip.