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About us
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Emma Cowan
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After a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Auckland University (Elam), Emma Cowan began exhibiting her work in Auckland and then Melbourne. Emma developed several design-based art businesses in Australia, focused on the potential for art and creativity in everyday life.
Working alongside permaculture educators, Emma deepened her relationship with plants, exploring their potential for food, medicine, and soil regeneration. This hands-on experience inspired her return to a studio-based practice, where her research focuses on creating high-quality art materials from locally sourced natural resources. Emma believes that an artist's actions in practice can embody integrity and align with broader environmental goals of sustainability and regeneration.
In her work, Emma emphasises the significance of the artistic process itself, prompting a re-evaluation of the materials used. In a world where images can be generated instantly through technology, she champions the value of natural materials, viewing the act of finding, harvesting, and processing these resources as integral to the artwork.
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Sarah Nicholson
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Sarah Nicholson is an artist and award-winner illustrator, with a BDes(Hons) from Massey Wellington. She has illustrated mainly for children's publishing, as well as being commissioned for advertising and magazine work. She has also sold fine art prints of her paintings. (All under her maiden name: Sarah Nelisiwe Anderson)
Sarah is an avid gardener, with her large permacultural garden being featured in NZ Gardener and Pip magazines. Her work with Wild Studio beautifully weaves together these two passions, alongside a long-time love of foraging and crafting with natural materials.
Tired of the largely digital-based world of commercial illustration, she has found that experimenting and creating with the natural materials around her has given a fresh aliveness to her art making. She loves empowering others to begin their own natural art making journeys, and especially enjoys sharing the deep satisfaction that comes from meeting our needs with our own hands, and forming active relationships with the plants around us.