Our Tutors
Nancy McLennan Hughes
I am a Dunedin artist who works in a variety of media, but I specialise in drawing and painting.
My art journey began with a night class at a local high school in 2009. Since then I have gone on to study full time at the Dunedin School of Art, graduating with a BVA majoring in Painting in 2019, and winning multiple awards for my works. I also enjoy teaching through the Dunedin WEA, the Dunedin Art Show and Central Art Space in Hawea.
With every work I complete, my aim is to capture the ‘essence’ or beauty of a particular moment in time – the joy of the present! The vivid, flowing properties of paint are used to create a sense of movement, energy and vibrancy, and to reflect the spontaneous beauty that can be found in our lives every day.
Dr Sue Cheer
Sue Cheer is a freelance writer and mixed media artist. She has run art journaling classes for several years and has sold original paintings through De Novo Gallery in Dunedin.
Sue is passionate about using mixed media techniques to create original bound journals and altered books, along with combining image and text for personal story telling. This passion led her to establish Story Pieces, an online learning platform helping people to record their life stories through art and creative writing.
Sue’s writing has been longlisted at National Flash Fiction Day NZ and she has been published in Flash Frontier.
Ron Esplin
Ron Esplin has had a lifetime exposure to art as both his late father Tom, and his brother Clark were painters, jointly referring to their involvement in art activities as “The family Firm.”
As soon as he could hold a pencil, Ron was drawing, and he was soon in demand at school doing posters and stage sets for school productions. He continued to paint recreationally, attending evening classes at Otago Polytechnic Art School before embarking in 1995 on a serious effort to develop his painting.
Ron has a studio in central Dunedin where he paints in acrylics and oils, and of course he has continued to develop his watercolour painting.
An Artist Member and Council member of The Otago Art Society, Ron has also served on the Council of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery Society.
He exhibits regularly in Dunedin, and has also had work exhibited in Otaru in Japan. Ron is also represented in the Dunedin City Council art collection and in the prestigious Forrester Gallery in Oamaru.
Mary Geary
A fabric artist and keen quilter, I first attended night classes in the early 90’s and knew from night one that I had found my passion. A love of fabrics combined with an interest in sewing has meant hours of enjoyment and pleasure.
An active member of the Quilters and Patchworkers Guild of Otago, I co-convened a highly successful national symposium in 2016. Since then, I have supported guilds and clubs by tutoring a range of classes and have had the honour of travelling to Australia and the Pacific to share my skills and enthuse others.
I like to explore a range of methods and techniques and love nothing better than a new challenge. In 2015 I was honoured to win the Arrowtown Quilt Challenge with my little ‘Golden Splendour’ Quilt.
My latest exciting venture is the establishment of WEA in Dunedin. It is an honour to work with a small group of people keen to see WEA established in our beautiful city. I have been teaching patchwork beginner classes and am stunned at the amazing achievements of my students. I hope they will go on to have the passion for fabric art that I have enjoyed for many years.