Anita - Story - Anita May Blanchett

Anita May Blanchett

"The life experience that art has given me, the journey that it has taken me on and the extraordinary people it has connected me with, I consider to be a profound blessing."

Image by Ann Orman

Story

It was an epiphany in Florence that reawakened the dream to be an artist. Then a chance meeting in Auckland in 1997 with the late Tim Wilson, renowned NZ landscape painter, whose challenge to take up painting, was the catalyst to begin.

Originally self-taught, the next seven years were an exploration of mediums and grounds, always returning to oil paint. After a successful first solo show in 2000 at Somerset Grand Metropolis Hotel in Auckland, Anita continued to stage exhibitions of her work privately. A keen proponent of the written word, her works have also included painted poems and those of poet and friend Janine Phillips, inspired by the collaborations between NZ painter Colin McCahon and NZ poet John Castleberg.

In 2004 Anita was tutored by NZ painter Mathew Browne, attending his year long Painters Progress class exploring works in abstraction. 

At the end of 2004 Tim Wilson invited her to work in situ with him and to develop her growing interest in painting realism in oil. The result was a six year one on one apprenticeship, learning Tim’s unique oil painting techniques and forging a great friendship.

From 2010-2020 Anita worked both as a sales consultant at Wilson Gallery and exhibited the boat series, and still life works alongside the landscape paintings of her mentor.

When Tim passed in 2020 his business partner, beloved husband Vaj, relocated the gallery to their private residence and continued to represent Anita’s work.

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