Shona Moller
Guest Artist - New Zealand
In a small New Zealand forestry village, there were streets of identical homes provided to all forestry workers’ families. Every four years or so each family was allowed to have their house re-painted the colour of their choice. With many Pacific Island and Maori families within the village, the house colours chosen were blue, they were pink, red, green, turquoise, and so the community was forever known as Rainbow Valley. As a small impressionable child, Shona’s love for colour was established.
Shona’s oil paintings reflect her childhood and her personality today. They are large, free, bright canvases that portray the world around her in a positive light. They can uplift the most dejected, lighten the darkest mood and provide pleasure and goodwill to those who experience the art or meet the artist. Shona’s work is loose and uninhibited yet highly skilled. It is these qualities that have seen her develop from a small-time beachfront hobbyist in a tiny town at the edge of the world, to an established, credible artist held in collections all over the world.
The glossy magazine articles, the front-page newspaper stories, and national television coverage have all followed Shona’s career closely and provided positive critical acclaim along the way. Unconcerned with following rules and conventions, it was her controversial work, back in 2001 that gained her national notoriety when it was banned from public display. Never conventional, Shona is happier following her own path with explosive colours, textures and with high artistic integrity.
