marilyn andrews
Marilyn Andrews, Nelson
Marilyn has been a full-time professional artist for 30 years, working from her home studio and gallery beside the Brook Stream. She enjoys the vibrancy of colour, and painting is a wonderful excuse to play with shapes, colours and textures on the canvas surface.
In 1993, she graduated from Nelson Institute of Technology with a Certificate in Art and Design and Diploma in Visual Arts, majoring in sculpture and jewellery. She has been a finalist in the New Zealand Wearable Art Awards, multiple finalist in the Telecom Art awards, winner of the Yellow Pages Arts Scholarship in 2003, published in “Favourite New Zealand Artists” and featured in “New Zealand – A Painted Country” (Nov 2007) and “Artists Impressions of New Zealand” (2011).
Her landscape images grace wine labels both locally and in Japan. She has had outlets around New Zealand, exhibited for a time at Eclipse Gallery in Hitchin, England and ‘Gallery at The Wentworth’ in Sydney and Udara Art Studio in Melaka, Malaysia.
Marilyn has a strong connection with nature and loves being outdoors gardening, walking and luxuriating in the wonder of life. She considers herself an ambassador for nature. Her commissioned works cover a wide range of styles including illustrating a children’s book.
What does the term Grow mean to you in your art?
Grow in relation to my art means the development and refinement of my craft, attaining my goals small and large. Learning from previous works.
How has your art/process/aesthetic grown over time?
I enjoy looking back and seeing all the processes, innovations and ideas melding and morphing into the art I now produce. Some have been fleeting others have become a part of what makes the work uniquely mine. So many things, events, experiences and other people have contributed to the works I create today.
What positive change do you hope you evoke in viewers of your art?
At times in the past when I have questioned doing what feels like a delightfully selfish occupation and whether I should continue on when things get tough, people have come to me saying my paintings make them happy, make them smile or cheer them up. That gave my so-called selfish indulgence a purpose.
What is your favourite thing to grow? Anything you can’t grow?
I just LOVE growing things …almost anything, although time, space and climate do create certain limitations. Where I live I have difficulty growing some of my favourite plants or food like black passionfruit, mangoes, tamarillos, avocados and macadamias although I am attempting the last two. I enjoy self sufficiency on my tiny block of land which is rewarding in every way although can take priority over my art sometimes.
Is there anything from your childhood that’s had spurred growth and develop into your artwork?
Thinking along the lines of you grew and your art grew with you. I grew up on the kiwi quarter acre. My father grew almost all our fruit and vegetables so being surrounded by growth continually I have a natural affinity with nature from eggs and chickens to compost, gardening and food production (and eating!). It is a way of life. I think over the years I have painted almost every aspect. I was always interested in nature and cycles of growth, change, seasons, bugs and butterflies. I was able to incorporate much of this into a children’s book on the seasons of the garden I illustrated for a friend recently.
Favourite plant?
It would be unfair on all the other plants to choose only one.
