Artist inspired by natural environments

Otago Daily Times

24-05-2025

Chrissy Wickes has a love for New Zealand's most natural environments.
The former Aucklander and city girl started with Waiheke Island, moved to Haast on the West Coast, Te Anau, and had lived as far as Campbell Island researching the southern royal albatross.
After years of following her love for natives and nature, Wickes landed in Wānaka 12 years ago and has not left.
She says she has found a home because inspiration is in abundance.
"We used to come and play here, this was the play place. When my partner's job came up and we were going to be in Wānaka I was like, 'are you for real?'. We felt like we had won Lotto."
A trained field researcher, Wickes is passionate about keeping our environment, and those who live in it, safe.
Research she carried out in separate stints on Campbell Island, 16 years apart, shows that the southern royal albatross' population is decreasing.
"The numbers are going down. That is conclusive from the last two years."
Numbers show the albatross population has decreased by 28% since the early 2000s, the most obvious reason being fisheries both in the Pacific and around the world, as the albatross is a travelling bird.
"These birds travel the world, so unfortunately they are going outside New Zealand waters, but ... we are all involved in this."
Albatrosses get caught in nets and killed on fishing hooks. Because they are scavengers and surface feeders, they are often around boats and fish nets.
Wickes has brought her passion back to the mainland, where she has hosted several talks about the endangered bird, and has also used it as inspiration for her other great love — art.
"When I go to these places, I feel compelled to share these stories. Unless people know about these places, it is hard for them to care."
"I did a whole lot of art out of that. I did sketches and when I came back I just pumped out art."
Her artwork is always influenced by her environment.
While living on Waiheke Island, she was involved with the local marae and took up flax work.
"I love that slow process of working with flax. It is very time-consuming but quite therapeutic.
"I like slow art. It is why I walk rather than drive ... A place like Wānaka is quite busy, there is a lovely energy here, but it is very much go go, go, go.
"So I like to slow things down, which is very much what art is for me."
Wānaka has improved her drive to create, as well as her desire to build a community with others also tuning their skills.
"My art started flourishing when I moved here, as this is such an open place and very accepting. I was taken by the landscape. I just love those bare brown hills, the colours of the hills contrasting with the sky, which contrast with the lakes. It really mesmerised me."
Since moving here 12 years ago, she has made an impression on the town too, with her brush.
Wānaka Primary School and Dinosaur Park are covered in Wickes' landscapes.
She has been hosting workshops and has two exhibitions coming up, which include the locally inspired artwork of painted skis.
"My belief is that we are all artists and as kids we drew — it is what we did, it is how we saw the world and how we expressed ourselves.
"I really love seeing these people before and after their art because to me they are a lot lighter and a lot more relaxed. It brings them into the present moment and art explores the side of them that doesn't get a lot of airtime."
You can catch a glimpse of Wickes' world and hear more about her experience on Campbell Island at her solo "Home and Away" exhibition in spring at The Old Garage Gallery, Wānaka.