Posts

Review Yvonne Rust: Maverick Spirit – Michael Godfrey

First a disclaimer. I know the author. We’re Facebook friends and we’ve even met in unpixellated life. We worked on a common project without knowing each other, and met subsequently. Her coffee is great, and was it pecan pie? Something magnificent. Aotearoa New Zealand is a small country. So small. Years ago I worked in […]

Yvonne Rust, QSM – Gift for human connection

    Yvonne Rust, QSM, was more than a painter and a pioneering potter. She had the gift of human connection, so much so, that people invariably felt that she was their special friend, and this made them open to her. Once a student was open, Rust could create the space for extraordinary learning, and […]

New Zealand Painter, Geekie – Inside the Dream

  “Art is the collective dream of a culture, and when understood as such, makes both all the more sublime, and at the same time, coherent,” says Peter Geekie. “A culture deprived of artistic expression is short-lived. An individual deprived of dreams soon becomes insane.” Peter Millington, aka Geekie, emigrated from England to Australia in […]

Michael Rowland – New Zealand Painter

Let's Do Lunch by Michael Rowland - Photo Theresa Sjoquist

In 2004, Michael Rowland and his wife, Jan, abandoned Mt Eden  where their lives had been centred for many years, and moved to  Oratia on Auckland’s West Coast.  For Michael the move constituted a  shift to full-time painting, while Jan, who worked as a primary school teacher, supported him, and continues to provide the emotional […]

Yvonne Rust, QSM – Potter, Painter, Inspirational teacher

Spirits Bay by Yvonne Rust, QSM - Photo Theresa SjoquistTheresa Sjoquist

Yvonne Rust, QSM – An introduction – New Zealand’s influential pioneering potter, artist, arts teacher, with an unmatched gift for inspiring motivation. Yvonne Rust, QSM, was born in 1922 in Whangarei while her parents were living at Awarua in Northland, where her father had a few weeks earlier been posted as the native school headmaster. […]