Artfelt - Intuitive Art

When I was asked to do an intuitive painting for someones daughter, I had a vision of grass with dasies and dandelions. Straight away I was surprised at the simplicity of the image, or rather the commonality. This is a part of nature we often see, as it is literally right beneath our feet. Maybe on a deeper level  it symbolises   her daughters papa kāinga - original home, her whenua - land and her tūrangawaewae - place where one has the right to stand. Papatuanuku - our earth mother, gives us all we need to survive, nutures and sustains us. As children we play on her, we pick the daisies and make daisey chains, climb trees, run over fields, gather kai to eat; she is our nourishment, spiritually and physically.  Although a simple image, to paint grass was quite a challenge. It was almost meditative with the time it took painting many green shoots, the repetitive shapes, forming a blanket of green. I felt an acknowledgement to this gift we have, grass covers much of ou...

When I saw this piece in my mind, I saw a large male stag standing there majestically looking at me. I love the beauty of these animals and was excited to see and paint one. I was curious why this would have come through for this person. I went ahead and tried to paint on canvas the image I had seen. I was aware through out the process of a male father like presence. It was as though the stag represented the commissioners father in some way. I felt a protective male energy that showed a love and loyalty to his family. I was also aware that the stag felt like it was in a New Zealand setting. In the background I painted a deer and its fawn to further enhance the message of protection.   In many cultures the deer symbolises spiritual authority. In traditional Christian symbolism, the deer symbolised piety, devotion and God taking care of his children (humanity), which is similar to the feeling I got from this piece except it was the father taking care of his family. For ...

When I was asked in May 2018 to do an intuitive painting for a friends grandson who was twelve years old, I never expected to recieve a vision of a fish! This was a particular shaped fish, and although I didn't know the kind of fish at the time, it didn't take long to match the right name to the image I saw. I soon found out this fish was the Kuparu also known as the John Dory.  But what relevance does the Kuparu have with this young man? In the research I did next, I came to learn that the John Dory is a coastal fish and is found especially in the East Coast of New Zealand. It so happens that one of the hapu this boy belongs to is Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti, the descendants of Hauiti, from the East coast Region. On the arrival of the British explorer Captain James Cook in 1769 and Tupaia the Tahitian who accompanied Cook on his voyage around the Pacific, this local hapu gifted some Kuparu to the explorers. Several casks of them were pickled.  When his grandmother saw his p...