Tricia Hewlett Art is my small business creating, exhibiting and teaching art to protect the critters one artwork at a time.

Wild about wildlife, I spend time creating art as a way to find the beauty within, show the character of the critters, and honour their environment within Aotearoa/NZ.

Spending time in the outdoors has been a constant thread throughout my life.

As country kids, my siblings and I spent more time under forest canopy and in the water than anywhere else. 

Abel Tasman and Kahurangi National Parks were my backyard throughout my youth. I went on to spend some time helping to build the Kepler Track, doing Kiwi surveys on Stewart Island, and removing exotic weeds in Milford Sound. 

In adulthood, despite living in cities it was the forest and the sea that I sought out for peace and inspiration. 

When my partner and I were offered the opportunity to live and work on Hinewai Reserve, a 1500-hectare wildlife reserve on Banks Peninsula, NZ, we did not hesitate.

I studied Expressive Arts and Marketing at Massey University, as well as a certificate in Natural History Illustration from the University of Newcastle. I participated in a plethora of community-taught art opportunities while working in the tertiary sector before our move to Hinewai Reserve in 2007.

After completing my degree in 2013, I made time for art.

Art had been a calling since childhood but like so many others, I was discouraged to follow this in school. In fact, I was told, “You have no talent” so I gave up for far too long.

Inspired, like many artists, by nature, I am offered endless material including the environment we need to preserve, the critters big and small, and the tiny details noticed through careful observation.

I lose myself in the mark-making. The layer upon layer of marks creates the detail and reveals the character of the critter I am recreating on paper.

My art journey began in mixed media. Nature has always been featured in my art with inspiration from natural history artists such as Raymond Harris Ching, AWB Powell, and Walter Buller’s Birds of New Zealand illustrator, John Gerrard Keulemans. Although I still create some mixed media artworks it is the detailed graphite and ink art that I love. This is where I have focused my attention for the past few years.

I am now a full-time wildlife artist.

I create in my studio at the end of a long country road to nowhere, surrounded by birdsong and nature’s abundance. I teach both in my studio and in the wider community including the local rest home and the local area school. I exhibit, mostly in Canterbury, due to the logistics of transporting artwork, but I have exhibited throughout Aotearoa/NZ.

Much of my work is available on my website: www.triciahewlettart.nz

I share my art endeavours on Facebook and Instagram

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