Angela Croft - ARTIST
|
I have always been a person who 'needs' to draw. It's the purest form of joy for me and brings me immense happiness.
I started a BA (Hons) in Fine Art Illustration in Harrow, London but found the 'fine art' element too unstructured for me, so I left part way through and found a job in local government. First as a draughtsperson in a Planning department, then as a landscape architect and then because I found that computer aided design was 'my thing' I was invited to teach CAD to other landscape architects in my spare time. It took me a while to realise that design is simply art with a purpose. |
My first role as a graphic designer in New Zealand was like an epiphany. Once again I could be creative while earning a living.
Having less time to devote to my own art made me more focused and determined I took part in several shows, was accepted onto an artist in residence collective in Rotorua and then became an artist in residence at the Incubator in Tauranga and had my first solo show. Finding a way to combine my love of travel, animals and art by housesitting was a huge game changer and turned out to be the light at the end of the tunnel after my divorce. I'm a firm believer that things happen for a reason! |
Please feel free to contact me to commission a drawing or painting
Pencil pet portraits...
|
Most of the drawings here were done while housesitting and given to the host after each housesit to say thank you for choosing me to take care of their homes and pets while they were away.
|
One or two of the hosts went on to pay for another drawing. This helped to fund my food and travel costs while moving from NZ to Australia and on to the UK.
|
Painting
|
Following the success of the joint show at The Incubator, (scroll down to see this show) - I booked a gallery in Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty, NZ and gave myself 3 months to produce a body of work
|
The show was called 'Fictional pub signs' and took inspiration from the English pub culture. it was great fun making up outlandish names for fictional pubs. Acrylic on board. A1 size.
|
Prints
|
In 2015 I was invited to hold a joint show at The Incubator with my studio partner Adam who had just emigrated from the UK...we called it 'Invasion of the Poms' - these are the black and white wood cut/digital . hand finished prints that I produced for that show. They are all buildings in the Historic Village, Tauranga, NZ that surround The Incubator.
|
The inspiration for these works was the 'Kelmscott Chaucer' published in England during the Arts and Crafts movement by William Morris and Burne Jones.
The first 9 'black prints' were A4 sized. The second 9 'white prints' were A3 size. |
