Tell us a bit about you.
My name is Graeme Smallfield, and I am a full-time fine artist specialising in oil paintings. Being creative is my happy place. I love the whole process, from coming up with the concepts through to producing the finished piece, varnished and framed. It’s always wonderfully satisfying and such a great sense of achievement finishing a piece, which is often months of work, and then ultimately hanging it on a client’s wall. I’m passionate about producing the finest work I can that people can enjoy for years to come.
Tell us a bit about your art practice.
I have been painting for almost 10 years now, after many years as a specialist retoucher and commercial photographer in the fast-paced advertising industry. I’m self-taught, but was very fortunate to have some wonderful help and direction from a well-known Vancouver artist, Ross Penhall, who helped kickstart my painting career.
I have now come full circle: after starting my career transparency retouching with brushes and dyes, I’m now back painting with brushes and oils, having gone through the full digital revolution. I’m always on the lookout for inspiration through meeting other artists, and travelling and viewing galleries and museums here in New Zealand and overseas. My style of painting is contemporary realism, something that has followed through from my retouching/advertising days. I’m inspired by the old masters and have incorporated some of their techniques, adding some modern twists with the new materials and the expanded colour palate we have today.
How and when did you get involved with the show?
This year will be my first time at the NZ Art show. I was very grateful to have been recommended by a good friend to the show organisers. It’s a wonderful opportunity to showcase my work to a larger audience.
What are you working on right now for the show? What does a typical day in the life look like for you between now and the show?
I’m excited to show a variety of new original oil paintings as well as a selection of limited-edition fine art prints. There is a variety of sizes of the original paintings, some being shown for the first time at the NZ Art Show.
My days are busy, printing my fine art prints, making frames for the original paintings, varnishing the paintings and, finally, photographing the paintings, creating true archival master reproduction copies to be printed on a variety of fine art papers.
What are you most looking forward to about being part of this year’s show?
I’m excited to be involved in this year’s show and atmosphere, and especially to be on the stand for three days – something I haven’t done before. I’m looking forward to meeting the organisers, other artists and future prospective clients. To date, most of my exposure has been showing and selling my work online and through a select couple of galleries. This is a fantastic opportunity to meet and showcase my work to a new and wider audience, and to share my fine art journey.
