Meet Our Artists
Discover our Hidden Fairy Doors
Monday 17 - Sunday 23 April
Centre hours
Free to take part in
Using the Invercargill Central Rewards app, find the fairy doors hidden throughout Invercargill Central, decorated by local Southland artists. Find all the doors and submit your entry via the app to go into the draw to win 1 of 3 $100 gift cards!
Find out more about some of the artists who have created our magical doors for you to discover!
Dale Greene
Slow Stitcher.
I just love Slow Stitching for its mindfulness and opportunity to be creative.
I did my first embroidery when I was about 7 and loved it when my Mum framed it to hang on my bedroom wall. I have sewn, quilted and embroidered all my life since then. With Slow Stitching I can work intuitively, and I just love those “what happens if I do this” moments.
Currently I stitch for my own pleasure but have exhibited one of my pieces in the He Waka Tuia Spring Exhibition. I also participate in the stitching challenges of a Slow Stitching Facebook group which I find inspiring and fun.
Louise Craig
Louise Craig is a multi-media artist who enjoys painting, life drawing and making new and upcycled jewellery as well as hand-made rose petal beads.
Louise also upholsters chairs and makes and commissions felted merino scarves and shawls. Louise is artist and manager at Hanan Gallery, upstairs 130 Dee Street, Invercargill, 027 692 0552.
Teri Linder
Teri Linder is an abstract watercolour painter based in the South Island of New Zealand. Her creative process is intuitive, driven by emotion and a desire to explore the connection between landscapes and the emotions they evoke. Without any predetermined idea in mind, she allows each painting to take on a life of its own. Teri's goal is to create a visual representation of emotional states within her surroundings, evoking a similar response in the viewer.
Teri's art aims to create an emotional connection between the viewer and the environment, inviting them to explore the relationship between their own emotional states and the landscapes around them. Her works have been exhibited throughout the South Island, including in Queenstown, Wanaka, Dunedin, Te Anau, and Invercargill.
Teri's unique approach to watercolour painting has garnered her a growing following on Instagram, where her past and current works can be viewed.
Mel McKenzie
Mel McKenzie is a Southland artist; surrounded by soaring skies, rolling green hills, a few hundred cows and *not quite* as many children.
I’m a lover of the interplay between light & shadow, an incoming storm, avocado- anything, the smell of freshly cut grass, jasmine green tea (never coffee!), the potential of a blank canvas, my Nikon camera… the list could go on!
“Mum” to 4 kids, 1 dog and 2 cats, wife to a 4th generation Southland famer. A self-taught artist on an eternal quest for the perfect light.
From our house on a hill above the rising sun – and the accompanying studio – my eyes are drawn to beauty from dawn to dusk (and beyond!): in the fog cloaking the valley below, the soaring clouds above and the beads of dew on the grass.
I’m an award-winning artist who paints ‘blurry lights’ and am currently building a new studio/gallery – which I’d love you to come visit when it’s finished!
In the meantime, find my work at Facebook | Instagram | Website
Kayleigh Dempsey
Kayleigh Dempsey is a predominantly self-taught artist based in Invercargill. After attending drawing and painting classes through Southland Education, Kayleigh has continued to develop her skills with the help of numerous YouTube tutorials.
Using a variety of media, including graphite pencil, acrylic, oil and more recently watercolour, Kayleigh is inspired by things that make her feel something. Whether that be a flower in her garden, or the beach at her hometown, she aims to create art that conveys the beauty she sees.
While early in her artistic ventures, she debuted her first piece titled “Peace at the Pier” at the He Waka Tuia 2022 Spring Exhibition.
You can follow her journey on her Instagram @kaylescreates
Lynn Brocherie Millar
I was born and raised in Rangiora, North Canterbury. I finished my Fine Arts in 1995 at the Otago Polytechnic – Oamaru Campus.
I moved to Invercargill 22 years ago and put my inspiration to create art on hold to raise my family. Then in 2009 I started my Bachelor of Teaching Degree.
During lockdown 2020 I reconnected to create art where I began to experiment with recycled and reclaimed surfaces to work on. Working on Recycled and repurposed surfaces reflects my philosophy with caring for our planet by finding ways to reduce waste in our environment.
Exploring different surfaces is when I fell in-love with used teabag surfaces. When steeped and dried they each have a distinctive unique surface that creates earthy toned backgrounds, which adds more depth and texture to my work. The surface creates a uniqueness and sense of rawness to each piece of art.
The unique wind shaped native trees and bushes that cloak our local walkways, is my inspiration, so the artwork I produce allows me to express my connection with the land. Most of my work predominantly feature trees, or things that I have grown a connection with.
The black out-lining in my paintings are produced in black pen ink which gives a stylistic approach to my work. This approach gives me freedom to create my interpretation of the subject. The choice of watercolour paints is deliberate as it provides soft gentle colours that brings my drawings to life. In some areas I purposely encouraged the watercolour paints to become transparent to reveal the raw uniqueness of the canvas.
If you would like to know more about me and my work, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. www.lynnbrocheriemillar.co.nz
Catriona Cunningham
I've been involved in the visual arts my whole life graduating with a Fine Arts degree in England then going on to travel the world as an art teacher. I'm now an artist and private art tutor living at the edge of Fiordland National Park. I use my painting practice to explore the natural world and wider cosmos.
Gemma Baldock
The stories of colourful characters and out of the ordinary events that enrich our lives, fuel my imagination to create each collage work.
The collage process reinforces the idea of bringing multiple personalities together in situations to create a new narrative. At first glance it may appear as a painted picture, but on closer inspection the work is an orchestration of many parts. The tactile pleasure of cutting and slicing paper and physically handling every little component satisfies my need to take chaos and turn it into order. This is fulfilled once glued into the composition and detailing is completed. The figures and objects are pared down and simplified, downloaded from memory rather than anatomically correct.
I treasure tradition and celebrate what makes us human by finding humour or angst in both the mundane and the extraordinary which I inject into my images.
Nicola Mcgilvray
Growing up with no TV was the best, it enabled my imagination to sky rocket right from the get go. Painting in oils has been my preferred creative medium, and the images I paint are my interpretation of the day to day people I meet, or are about to meet.
Ceramics are my newest love and I continue my storytelling through my sculptures in porcelain and clay. Dabbling in fabric design and silversmithing jewellery making are also happening at present.
Helen Back
I have been interested in creating in one form or another most of my life. I am a sculptor and have been living and creating in Bluff for 13 years.
Lisa Benson and Kyle Bakker
Living on Rakiura for eight years gave Lisa and Kylie plenty of opportunity to see and hear magic up close.
The forest and birds are an inspiration to them both. Drawings that disappear and the skillful rendering of native flora and fauna, collide in this Fairy Castle entrance, creating a delightful threshold to another realm. May this magical collaboration delight you all.
Terms and Conditions:
Discover our Hidden Fairy Doors runs from Monday 17 to Sunday 23 April 2023. Complete the entry via the Invercargill Central Rewards app under the “win” tab. All valid entries from 17-23 April 2023 will be included in the draw. One entry per person. Our standard competition terms and conditions apply. You can read those HERE.
