Janet De Wagt

Janet de Wagt is a New Zealand born artist who has lived and painted throughout the world. Janet's paintings reflect the New Zealand landscape she connects with and they are painted on site in all weathers. Her highly expressive landscape paintings are readily identifiable, and often capture the wilder side of the lower half of the South Island - including Central Otago, Dunedin and Riverton. Janet also likes to experiment with different shaped works - including long and narrow, and even angled canvases that project out from the wall.

She is the current artist in residence at Macandrew Intermediate school, and is heavily involved with teaching and promoting art and painting throughout the region. Along with painting and exhibiting her own work, Janet is a very busy artist!

In 2007, Janet diversified from her characteristic landscape painting and produced a show, titled 'Art 'n' mind' at Gallery De Novo. The exhibition was made up of various shapes which relate to her own interests. Each piece from this series are vibrant in colour and bold in shape. Janet uses the imprint of ferns, kete, lace, and twine to make each shape its own individual piece of art. The shapes included hearts, stars, yachts, cars & caravans, 1/4 acres, and state houses - these are available at Gallery de Novo.

Being the artist in residence at Macandrew Intermediate has enabled me to push the boundaries and explore the qualities of oil printing ink in a studio setting. The series of Art'n'Mind is a continuation of a technique I started to do several years ago.
Because of my large studio space at the school I am able to extend the technique and designs. Each piece is individual and can take months to make and dry.
I see this series as an installation that can be added to be designing new shapes that refer to my personal interest.
The Art'n'Mind pieces are very different to make in size, technique and content than the landscape works I am generally known for.