Steve Tollestrup

Artist Statement - a discovery in becoming.

As a landscape painter, I observe land and coast as a sacred  presence full of memory and message, with a challenge for us to enquire further about its deeper ecology, and our responsibility to and connection with it. Painting has always been for me a contemplative practice that lets me observe the natural world and my own inner one with fresh eyes and clarity. As a painter I am exploring the possibility of a visual language that moves beyond the decorative, creating a type of wilderness iconography that presents to the observer the possibility of the natural world as a living, responsive, and wise companion. one capable of awakening our spiritual instincts, sense of wonder, sacred imaginations, and collective well-being. 

Whāia te iti kahurangi ki te tūohu koe me he maunga teitei

Seek the treasure you value most dearly: if you bow your head, let it be to a lofty mountain

Squall approaching hillside Muriwai

Immigrating to Aotearoa fifty years ago from San Francisco, I consider myself a New Zealand painter. Primarily, but not exclusively my subject is the Waitakere Ranges, the West Coast and north-west Auckland including the Kaipara. The light, geography, atmosphere and embodied mana of this landscape are remarkable and received by me as a gift. Whenever I paint I learn something new about this captivating and seductive land.  I am also encouraged and strengthened by a unique New Zealand artistic whakapapa: Lusk, Wollaston, McCahon, Bensemann, Angus, Palmer, Sidney, Sutton, Wong, Hotere, Binney, Gossage and so many others.

I am a self-taught and self-directed artist working in all mediums but with a preference for oils. I have completed an Associate of Arts from California in design specifically painting. I have further studied at Brownes School of Art completing years 3 and 4 painting and I am currently working with artist Zarahn Southon. in their mentorship programme. I study 19th and 18th century European and North American landscape painters as well as an interest in Japanese, Korean and Chinese landscape traditions. My style reflects elements of both