Sundblom's Santa

Created by Chicago illustrator, Haddon Sundblom in 1931, for the Coca-Cola company. He is the Santa that still lives in our hearts and minds today...

For more on this Santa, please visit our tasart newsletter.

A behind-the-scenes look at the new mural from Nathan Ota and RISK, set to be unveiled at Ota's October 16th opening at Hurley

View this video at Hurley.com

Le Stig Product-Test-Drives

New Feature:

Takapuna Art Supplies' Technical Support Champion, "Le Stig," will be test-driving product and revealing the truth.

NO HYPE!

The first test-drive is down below or, see our tips & techniques page for more....

A Poor Craftsman Blames His Tools

All painted with F.A.S. Poster Paint.

Tasart Newsletter Launch

It's been a long time coming, but we've finally launched our tasart newsletter. Thanks Sean Naden for the design and for your continual help and support.

More than just a newsletter for product advertisement, our hope is to make this newsletter uniquely informative; with drawing & painting tips & demos, business tips for the artist, and artist spotlights. If you have any suggestions on topics, we welcome your suggestions. Please subscribe by clicking on this link and subscribing at the bottom of the page:

http://www.tasart.co.nz/email/mailout.php?content_id=1

Jim Painting Booker Edgerson

For the past 20-some years, The Buffalo Bills Football Team has commissioned Jim to paint their 'Wall of Fame' player of the year. This year, it was old-timer Booker Edgerson. Our customers seem to enjoy watching them come to life in our in-store studio.

Massimo Polello

Thank you, Theresa Cashmore for sharing this amazing inspirational video. It's given us many ideas for The Liquitex Freestyle Brushes! and The Splatter Brushes! Massimo Pollelo's work is beautifully designed and so textural...he certainly makes it look so easy ;-)

Paul Hooker ~Selected Portraits

Don't forget to check out Paul Hooker's Amazing Portraits at Art by the Sea.

We were more than just a bit fashionably late but were able to catch Paul and have a nice chat and view his beautiful work. Paul's newest paintings are fresh and fun to look at!

Football, Hometown & Historical Heroes

Printed Cards by Upper Deck

Artwork by Jim Auckland

Snazaroo Workshop

Good sport, Trish Currie from Jasco, let's Devon paint her into a Tiger.

Jim's turn!

The General Manager of Snazaroo sharing painting tips.

We all had 15 minutes to make our partners into Tigers using a photo "recipe".

Voila!

The finished Streak of Tigers...Grrrrr.

Then, we all got to look through the Snazaroo Book and choose our next character.

Woof!

Thanks SNAZAROO for a wonderfully, fun evening.

Snazaroo was established in 1989 and has grown from its modest roots supplying fancy dress hire shops to become the world's leading maker of water-based face and body paints. Today its UK factory creates and supplies hand-made face and body paints to over 20 countries around the world. We are currently stocking most of the Snazaroo line available to us in New Zealand.

Have fun!!

New~Liquitex Free-Style & BASICS brushes

Arriving late April, the full line of Liquitex Professional Free-Style Brushes and the full line of new BASICS brushes. Takapuna Art Supplies will be the only art store in New Zealand carrying these two ranges. And, we will continue to stock the most extensive range of brushes available to New Zealand artists.

Art Spectrum Night

Thanks to Jack Borland of Art Spectrum and to all those who attended our Art Spectrum evening. It was very informative and successful, and the first of many similar events to come....

Art Spectrum Talk on the 16th of March

Step by Step Painting with Jim

Here are the materials I'll be using for my painting of Daniel:

Crescent Watercolor Board, an assortment of Liquitex and Matisse Acrylics, layed out on an enamel butcher tray on folded, wet paper towels.

Here I've laid in a background acrylic wash using a Hake brush.

Using reference, I start to pick out the negative shapes behind the large Macrocarpa Tree.

I'm working with the negative shapes, using red-orange colors to establish a complimentary color scheme.

Here, I'm starting to define the light areas on Daniel with a dry-brush technique.

The finished painting, after I glazed the entire painting using Liquitex Yellow Orange Azo to enhance the color harmony.

For a closer look, check out Jim's gallery page on our website.

Schmincke Soft Pastels Arriving This Month

The full line (400) of Schmincke Soft Pastels are on their way to our shop, expecting to land in a just few weeks. This should now fulfill the needs of our customers who like a mixture of pastels, ranging from hard to the absolute softest.

We also stock the full line of Faber-Castell Polychromo Chalks, Rembrandt, Art Spectrum and PanPastels.

Please check out our online store for more information.