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About Lynette Marie
Lynette Marie is an energy painter. While the inspiration for her artwork
comes from deep within, she finds her creativity is also fuelled by her
surroundings, especially the wide blue ocean she overlooks from her clifftop studio in Auckland.
Lynette recalls that her resolve to become an artist dates back to her winning an award for a painting entered in a secondary schools' art exhibition when she was thirteen. It was a vibrant abstract landscape which she titled Chaos. The judges praised her "good sense of colour". For Lynette, even then, painting was a way of expressing emotion and stirring emotion in others. Looking back, she wonders whether studying Van Gogh's works had influenced her. His dramatic and imaginative use of colour and the way his paintings aroused emotion in the viewer intrigued her.
Colour is everywhere in Lynette's life - in her home, garden, in the way she dresses, and above all, in her paintings. In all but her more restrained airbrushed works, she favours bold colours that leap from the canvas. Whether she uses a brush, a palette knife, her hands or a scraper to apply and blend the colours, they're always bright and demanding attention. The walls in her house are white for a reason.
While there were twists and turns in Lynette's work life, there was a creative aspect to each role. When she left school at 16, her father accompanied her to an advertising agency, Saatchi and Saatchi. When they saw her portfolio, they suggested she had a flair for fashion design. Instead, she studied graphic design though soon realised that doing commissioned work for clients didn't suit her. It was too constraining. Still today, she paints what she likes. As she is quite prolific, she finds most customers can find a work in her collection that appeals to them.
"I'm not influenced by trends nor by what others want me to paint. I love the surprise of discovering which of my paintings a person is drawn to."
A period working alongside architects as a draftswoman taught her about perspective, composition and honed her organisational skills. Being outgoing and with a flair for design, led to various roles selling products to architects and a course in interior design.
"Transforming spaces is a passion of mine. I've created two
studios for myself to paint in. The latest is close to perfection.
It has large picture windows and is bathed in light. It looks
onto a rose garden. It's my sanctuary. It's where I in turn
create artworks that will transform other people's living and
work spaces."
Needing to play a part in supporting her young family while still wanting to paint, Lynette set up several businesses. Putting her artistic talents to good use, she trained as a paramedical makeup artist to help people camouflage scars, birth marks and skin disorders. Another business sold products to equip and beautify people's kitchens.
With some control now over her work hours, Lynette had more time for her art. Having always found it easier to retreat to her own space to paint, she hired an old garage in the neighbourhood which she remodelled and redecorated as a studio. It coincided with her finding a group of like-minded people who connected through their art. Members encouraged each other to experiment with different mediums, techniques and styles.
Lynette attended two airbrushing workshops. Accustomed to applying acrylics freely to the canvas, she found the precision required to airbrush not particularly enjoyable. It was a useful tool, though, to introduce realistic elements into her abstract paintings. Lynette also started to use resins to create lace-like effects and add sheen to some of her works.
The most valuable thing she learnt was what sort of art she wanted to create. For her it was, and still is, what she calls "art from the heart" - paintings that wherever they hang - in a home or commercial space - move people on an emotional level, cause them to pause and reflect, perhaps even help them find peace within themselves.
