This week we chat everyday life, art, mentors and more with the multi-talented Anna Stichbury. Anna is an artist based in Wellington, New Zealand with a background in textile design and a passion for colour. She has successfully been exhibiting her pieces in Auckland's Parnell Gallery for over 15 years, featured in the 'New Zealand's Favourite Artists' book, designs for her family clothing label and finds the time to give aspiring kiwi creatives excellent advice!
What is a typical 'day in the life of' Anna like?
My days often start in a mad flap. Some mornings a quick jog with a friend (some morning a very slow jog or no jog at all). Then it’s the hustle bustle of getting kids up and off to school. After the house is cleared of small people and the chaos has settled I spend some time at the kitchen table with my 3rd cup of earl grey tea clearing emails, responding to enquires, shipping Carrutherbury&Co goodies to customers etc. Then I put my apron on and walk up the path about 6 meters to my studio. I love stepping into the studio in the morning. I take a look at what I was working on yesterday with fresh eyes, sometimes I pick up where I left off or, and this happens often, I get completely side tracked by a new idea or inspiration and head off in a new direction. Then it’s the middle of the day before I know it and often time to head out on an errand to get supplies or drop something here or collect it from there. Home again, a quick bite (same every day as I’m very boring and always in a rush, parmesan and coriander wrap with truck loads of Best Foods mayonnaise and a good dollop of pesto and of course more tea). Then I head back to the studio for the afternoon. Afternoons are a little more structured and I tend to use that time far more productively and stay on task. By 3pm the kids are home and all the hustle bustle starts again!
What is your workplace like? Is it similarly styled to your home?
My work space is a purpose built studio on our property with fantastic light and a great view out over the hills. It is small and usually full of creative chaos. I’m a messy worker and throw a bit of paint around. The floor is supposed to be white but is often covered in layers of paint and inks (then painted white again, then paint and ink, then painted white again...). I work on multiple pieces at a time and often there is little room to walk around as every surface is covered in paintings in varying stages. Then I tidy it all up, paint the floor white again and start all over! It’s a great little functional space. My home thankfully is less chaotic and no paint splattered floor! I work with colour all day so choose a calm neutral colour pallet for our home with a good dash of black and white. I love colour and get a little obsessed at times (yellow is the current crush) but I choose neutrals so we can relax in the space and throw in a bit of colour here or there when we feel like it. Our home is eclectic, its autobiographical and tells the story of who we are. We have a bit of a ‘rocknroll Nana’ style going on. We like masculine simple lines, a bit of gold and the odd antler or taxidermy thrown in, but we also have a real connection with pieces with the patina of age and a story to tell. We have many treasured family pieces like my Grandmothers chair, art from our homes where we grew up, family china, rugs brought home from Pakistan by parents and given as a wedding gift etc. If we set out to fill a home now we might not choose these things but they add to the textures and layers of our home and our lives and there will always be a place for them.
And of course there is art. I worry that we don’t have enough walls for all the art I would love to collect! We have pieces we have chosen together, pieces we have been gifted, pieces we have inherited or ‘borrowed’ from family. And we have pieces we have made. Our kids art is framed and hung in pride of place and we have a few of my works on the wall too. And all our art is forever moving about and being re-curated as our home and how we live changes.
You've had experience in textile, set/props and interior design, what made you choose painting?
I have always been a maker, as a kid my favourite thing was a big kit with pens, pastels, paints etc that I was given one Christmas. I was always making and painting and re-arranging. It was at design school that I sold my first paintings as a way to pay my way (but I had been selling elegant design items like pet rocks, scrunchies and fimo earrings since I was a girl). I painted on the side while studying and when I was first working. However, it didn’t take me long to figure out it was the thing for me. So I filled a big purple rental car with about 8 paintings (and two girlfriends) and drove them up to the Parnell Gallery in Auckland and that was the beginning of my professional career as a painter. I paint every day and I can’t imagine ever not painting. I love everything about paint, the process, the building up of layers and texture, the mixing of colours, everything.
How would you describe your artwork and how has your style developed over time?
I always find describing my artwork challenging. My work is eclectic. I’m perhaps best known for my large abstract acrylics on canvas. I am a colourist. My focus is colour and texture and how they combine to create a sense of place or provoke a feeling or memory. I’m interested in the emotional response to a work. I also create works on paper using screen printing, ink, pencil, gold leaf etc. My work has developed over the years, it’s an organic process as one series leads into the next and I respond to and am influenced by the world around me. I have noticed that my large canvases have become more abstract and my paper works have become more figurative. I have recently introduced drawing back into my works on paper and a few canvases. I tend to work on one or two series in tandem and this way I get to explore the ideas and subjects that inspire me and I’m not confined to one particular colour palate, medium or style.
How did your education help set up your career? How does it affect your working style today?
Studying and completing a bachelor in design in textiles gave me a few skills that have benefited me in my art practice. It taught me to be productive, to set targets and work every day. Some days as a creative are more fruitful than others but it is important to keep ‘normal’ working hours and be productive in that time. It exposed me to a wide range of mediums and gave me the opportunity to experiment and to work with other creatives and make connections that I still have today. I think perhaps the most helpful of all the things I learned all those years ago was that it’s essential to create good work that you are proud of and that you are confident sharing. Being an artist or designer can feel precarious at times. You are sharing your own personal ideas and skills to be viewed in a public space which can be daunting. With luck, if the work is good and well-crafted others will connect with it and that’s where the magic happens. However, there will also be those who don’t and that is just fine to. I meet many truly talented creatives who make beautiful things but lack the confidence to share them.
Tell us a bit about your clothing line, we love that your kids design for the collection too!
Carrutherbury & Co is our family clothing label. My husband and I and our 3 daughters make a range of clothing featuring our designs. Our designs are graphic and simple and often a bit of fun. The kids create their own illustrations for our children’s range and I am the creative for the adults range. Andy is the one who manages the accounts and financial side of things and makes sure we creative’s don’t get too carried away! I’m a Stichbury and they are Carruthers so our family nickname has always been the Carrutherbury’s. Thus the slightly weird and hard to say name.
Did you ever have a mentor who really helped you launch or develop your career/work?
I had to think about this question, it required much tea and cake. I don’t have one particular mentor. I have been fortunate enough through my life to connect with some extraordinarily creative and generous people. My grandmothers were both creative and talented makers and I was exposed to pottery, painting, needle work and floral arranging through them as a small child. I had a teacher in primary school who let me take extra time to illustrate my stories and gave me special paper for the task. At high school my art teacher was so excited about sharing her passion for art it made it my absolute favourite subject! I was also friends with the son of the artist Suzie Pennington. I would spend time at their home (filled with fabulous art) and watch her work in her studio space. She was generous and shared her inspiration and techniques with me. This was also my first exposure to a professional artist. I had a tutor at design school, the textile artist Marian Scott-Rowe. At the time, Marian spoke an entirely different creative language to me but we reconnected in recent years and I was lucky enough to have her tutorship again as I stepped back into my figure drawing. There are others too of course, but one thing I notice when I look back is that I have had some fantastic examples of women who were managing successful creative careers and families. I didn’t know I wanted to be an artist at the time I met them but I did know there was something about these woman that inspired me
What is your favourite piece of work you've ever created?
Oh my 3 daughters! I know just how corny that sounds. But I did make them and they are magnificent......and loud and very busy and a little crazy......but magnificent.
And finally, what advice do you have for young NZ creatives?
The advice I always give is just start. Talking about or thinking about a career as an artist or designer doesn’t get you any closer to that goal. Take a risk, book a space, an interview or make whatever it is in your head and get it out into the world. This sounds simple but may feel really hard. But you can’t get anywhere until you start. Oh and always always have a good cup of tea and piece of cake close by at all times!
All images and artworks are credited to Anna Stichbury. To shop Anna's incredible work please visit annastichbury.co.nz. You can also find her on Instagram here.