Morag Stokes Art Studio

Morag Stokes Art Studio I am a Scottish/Kiwi painter and art educator, running a range of workshops from my art studio in Waikanae, New Zealand. www.stokes.net.nz

I am a Scottish/Kiwi painter and Artist Educator with GOLDEN Artist Colors. As an Independent Contractor I have completed extensive product orientation with Golden Artist Colors. I lead workshops featuring their product lines, in exchange for which they provide me with art materials and supporting literature.

My newest Artist Sessions group member, Annelies Kamp made this with her GelliPlate. At yesterday's Session she showed u...
16/06/2026

My newest Artist Sessions group member, Annelies Kamp made this with her GelliPlate. At yesterday's Session she showed us her series of explorations which lead up to this one, all with their own particular interest. She has also worked some line drawing into it. She only started with her Gelli a few weeks ago and is really doing well with it.

I've finished this one and will be taking it to the framers tomorrow. It's hard to take a good photo of it because of th...
15/06/2026

I've finished this one and will be taking it to the framers tomorrow. It's hard to take a good photo of it because of the high gloss surface. It's was made by collaging a selection of acrylic skins I made on glass with piles of tri-colour drips - my Accumulated Drip Painting process. I'm calling it DripDripDrip and it's acrylic on board.

This is my final post from this years Adam Portrait Awards. This one really resonated with me, especially as I've just f...
13/06/2026

This is my final post from this years Adam Portrait Awards. This one really resonated with me, especially as I've just finished running my weekend portrait drawing workshop. It beautifully illustrates how tiny changes in the painting (or drawing) of a face can significantly alter the emotional expression. The work, by Dita Angeles, is called Citizen. She asked actor Tanea Heke to hold a pose but act out different moments of thought by making tiny shifts in expression such as a softening of the eyes or a slight shift in the eyebrows. This really needs to be seen in the flesh as my photograph doesn't do it justice.

Here's another of my favourites from yesterday's trip to the Adam Portrait Awards - Polly, by Geoffrey Williams. I loved...
12/06/2026

Here's another of my favourites from yesterday's trip to the Adam Portrait Awards - Polly, by Geoffrey Williams. I loved the shimmering appearance of the brush strokes. It looks like he worked this very skillfully with Vario Tip brushes. I have 2 people in my Artist Sessions group (Gavin and Diane Radford) who use those brushes and I sure would love to see how accomplished this artist is with them.

Today I visited the Adam Portrait Award exhibition in Wellington with Viv Walker who came to my portrait drawing worksho...
12/06/2026

Today I visited the Adam Portrait Award exhibition in Wellington with Viv Walker who came to my portrait drawing workshop at the weekend. It was great to view these paintings with a professional artist who likes to chew the cud in front of them as much as I do. The standard of work was amazing and we were enthralled with the diversity of technique and concept. The show is still a bit on the conservative side though, and I wondered if any of Frank Auerbach's portraits would have made it into the finals.
One of my favourites was Bronwyn Copeland's work called Facing Behavioral Variant Front Temporal Dementia. It draws directly from her professional life as a geriatric psychiatrist and depicts a Pāpāmoa couple she has worked with through Tauranga Hospital’s memory clinic for about a year. The husband developed behavioural variant fronto-temporal dementia in his 50s and this painting, viewed from different angles, depicts both the clarity and confusion the couple live with. Viv and I thought it was brilliant.

My painting is in this Hamilton show - A Glimpse of Abstraction - opening on Saturday at Chartwell Gallery, Artspost.
11/06/2026

My painting is in this Hamilton show - A Glimpse of Abstraction - opening on Saturday at Chartwell Gallery, Artspost.

Here are some of the many portrait drawings made during my weekend workshop. Lovely to see so many styles explored by a ...
09/06/2026

Here are some of the many portrait drawings made during my weekend workshop. Lovely to see so many styles explored by a very diverse group, from beginner to professional artists.

It was great to have professional children's book illustrator, Viv Walker, in the weekend portrait drawing workshop. She...
08/06/2026

It was great to have professional children's book illustrator, Viv Walker, in the weekend portrait drawing workshop. She made loads of studies, followed by three or four final drawings of her own face, which showed a real willingness to extend her drawing repertoire based on the previous day's studies.

Day 2 (yesterday) of my portrait drawing workshop had everyone sitting in front of a mirror to make a self portrait whic...
07/06/2026

Day 2 (yesterday) of my portrait drawing workshop had everyone sitting in front of a mirror to make a self portrait which incorporated something of the style of one or more of the artistic styles they studied on Saturday. I'll post a small selection of their finished drawings tomorrow.

Address

Waikanae
5036

Telephone

+49273803282

Website

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