Vashti Johnstone
Vashti Johnstone’s prolific body of work is an organic evolution, mimicking the processes of nature and exploring timeless beauty in every layer. Each artwork and each series is inimitable. A contemporary New Zealand painter, living and working on the South Island’s West Coast, Vashti has been a student of visual language forever, formalising her innate need to express and articulate with a Diploma in Painting, Aoraki Polytechnic (2001).
Fuelling her compulsion to root down and rise up, a mantra Vashti embodies and constantly seeks to visually recreate in her work, Vashti’s essence is balanced, drawing on her strength to be courageous and authentic, both in life and in art. Vashti’s oeuvre applauds the vitality and importance of making art. Respectful of and roused by the lineage of creators who have gone before her and create alongside her, Vashti pushes her practice in energizing and innovative ways, layering her charcoal and her paints into a colourful language that transcends beyond words. Exploring. Offering. Challenging. Risking. Capturing. Simplifying. Unravelling. Always her artwork gives back more.
While the rural plains of Mid Canterbury were her muse for years, the West Coast is now home - the pulse of the earth, the rivers, the roots, the veins, branches, ridgelines and creatures that inhabit these wild heavens reflected in her bold and confident work.
‘I love making and being shifted by art’ – Vashti
Fuelling her compulsion to root down and rise up, a mantra Vashti embodies and constantly seeks to visually recreate in her work, Vashti’s essence is balanced, drawing on her strength to be courageous and authentic, both in life and in art. Vashti’s oeuvre applauds the vitality and importance of making art. Respectful of and roused by the lineage of creators who have gone before her and create alongside her, Vashti pushes her practice in energizing and innovative ways, layering her charcoal and her paints into a colourful language that transcends beyond words. Exploring. Offering. Challenging. Risking. Capturing. Simplifying. Unravelling. Always her artwork gives back more.
While the rural plains of Mid Canterbury were her muse for years, the West Coast is now home - the pulse of the earth, the rivers, the roots, the veins, branches, ridgelines and creatures that inhabit these wild heavens reflected in her bold and confident work.
‘I love making and being shifted by art’ – Vashti
