Philippa Bentley is an Auckland artist whose art practice incorporates limited edition fine art prints, paintings, private commissions and design projects. She works across a range of media, from traditional printmaking processes to currently exploring new technologies in her art.

Philippa exhibits regularly, has work held in New Zealand and international collections, and has won awards in painting, printmaking and design.

My work is usually inspired by nature, often with a twist, and celebrates our flora and fauna, our land and sea. I love the idea of retaining a sense of wonder in the world and the themes of Wonder and Discovery recur in my artworks.

I also love visiting natural history collections and marvelling at the dinosaur fossils, giant bird eggs and beautiful, colourful exotic butterfly collections, one hundred year old plant specimens and more.

I believe our natural history collections are as much about our social history and the context of the time they were collected in, as they are about the natural flora and fauna preserved; the collector as well as the collected. I use natural history collections as a metaphor for presenting my themes and thoughts. My artwork reflects this duality. My works can be simply enjoyed aesthetically yet they function on different levels, with both personal and social meaning. I enjoy watching people do a double take and peer into the works when they realise there is something more in there. I aim to build up layer on layer and often include an image within an image.

I have a growing interest in the intersection of art, design, science and technology. New technologies bring amazing possibilities to art.

Augmented Reality is now bringing some of my fauna to life! You can download the AR app of my Monarch Butterfly for free and get a sense of this yourself, watching the butterfly emerge and fly around the room in front of you. Wonderful.

2017 offers new horizons and a sense of exploration- both literally, and in my artistic focus and already a new series of prints and paintings are emerging.

I am loving working out of a studio at Arthaus Orakei and appreciate the opportunity to work alongside other professional creatives in such a stimulating environment.

I always aim to bring something of beauty in to the world through my work, a sort of small celebration, and I am deeply pleased knowing when others respond to this and it brings them joy, reflection or enrichment in some way too. I have a real sense of gratitude when people choose to purchase my works, knowing that it has touched them somehow and it will live with them. I have letters such as those for whom my Monarch Butterfly reminds them of a childhood memory of their mother, and of a traveller visiting New Zealand who has my Huhu Beetle tattooed in to her skin to remind her of her time here. Beautiful.

philippa@philippabentley.com

021 1194664

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