New Zealand Artist
SEAN FIETJE
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IMAGE VAULT E BOOK SERIES
At Image Vault we want to celebrate our artists. New Zealand has a wonderful community of amazing artists. This e book series celebrates their lives and their talents. Sean Fietje is a Kiwi based who is currently overseas. What follows is a conversation with Sean where we learn more about him and his family and his passion for art and his love of teaching the next generation.
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INTRODUCING SEAN Kia-ora! My name is Sean Fietje and I am a painter. I have been a painter for the past 15 years and paint primarily New Zealand landscapes in oil. My style is realism but I also enjoy playing around with unusual processes and dabbling in abstract. I’m also a full-time primary school teacher so it’s been a balancing act trying to juggle my job with my love of painting. I live with my wife Daniella and baby Leo, so time is increasingly limited meaning I can only paint during the weekends and occasionally in the evenings. In 2014 I switched from my role as a primary school teacher in New Zealand, to teaching art at an American International school in Johannesburg, South Africa. After six years, we’re now moving to the Hong Kong International School in August 2020 where I will continue teaching art for at least two more years before heading back to New Zealand so I can pursue my painting full-time. This the current plan, although don’t be surprised if it changes. This is the most recent plan anyway. WWW.IMAGEVAULT.CO.NZ WWW.IMAGEVAULT.CO.NZ
MY ART I have painted animals, buildings and still-life but my favourite subject to paint is snow-capped New Zealand mountains, in beautiful locations that resonate with me. I grew up tramping around Arthur's Pass in the South Island of New Zealand and this is my favourite area to paint. It may sound strange but I love the shape of the mountains there and the way the light unlocks their striking features at different times of the day. The morning and afternoon light is especially stunning! I use a wet-on-dry technique, meaning I often need to wait a few days between layers. Paintings typically take 100 hours or more. The longest time I’ve taken to complete a painting was a commission of a historical home in Tasmania. The photograph I worked from was extremely detailed and included blossom trees and loads of intricate woodwork. It took more than two years and 200 hours. I felt bad for making the clients wait so long, but they didn’t mind once he received the finished work. I hope I never take that long again though.
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ME AS AN ARTIST I have wanted to be an artist for as long as I can remember. I was always the arty kid through school, won a few awards and was often asked to draw cartoons for my friends. I was particularly good at drawing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
I think it’s hard to make it as a full-time artist with a mortgage and other commitments, and I’m still trying to learn about the business-side of it. I think I will know when it’s right time to make the leap into being a fulltime artist, but teaching art is a great stepping-stone and it’s fun inspiring the next generation.
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INSPIRATION I’m inspired by Grahame Sydney and my mum, Julie Fietje. My Mum has her Fine Arts Degree and always had a wet painting on an easel somewhere in the house. She talked about Grahame Sydney a lot as we were growing up. His books were always around the house, so naturally I began to like his style as well. I have a few of his books myself now and I flip through the pages often. If I can paint half as well as he can one day, then I would be stoked!
I often tell the children I teach that they are not learning to be artists, because they already are. Art is a journey and we’re all at different stages. I am thoroughly enjoying my journey so far. It’s exciting to look back and see my work evolve so much over the past 15 years. I hope I continue to learn and improve over the next 50, and I hope to be able to paint a lot more regularly than I have in the past.
Thanks so much for your support and for taking the time to learn little about myself and my art-making. Sean
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