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Artist Profile
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artist statement
awards and merits
artist statement
"My still life paintings are symbolist in nature. I tell quiet stories using everyday objects, often celebrating the small and overlooked. I frequently paint fruits or flowers next to worn manmade objects, highlighting the ephemeral nature of life and the importance of living in the moment.
Centered around beauty, they offer calm in a ch
"My still life paintings are symbolist in nature. I tell quiet stories using everyday objects, often celebrating the small and overlooked. I frequently paint fruits or flowers next to worn manmade objects, highlighting the ephemeral nature of life and the importance of living in the moment.
Centered around beauty, they offer calm in a chaotic world, a respite from the demands of society, a place for reflection and meditative quiet. I am fascinated by capturing things such as the jewel-like colours of fruit, or the mesmerizing shine of metals that burst from the darkness around them. At times I tell more haunting stories, intended to challenge, or provoke. Though uncomfortable these truths are important as they speak to those who understand them, and give voice to the silenced or suppressed.
In my figurative paintings I blend observation and imagination, delving into worlds I build from visions and stories I long to express. At times people are central to the narrative, other times they become akin to a flower - where their form and beauty becomes the focus, as if they were held still in life.
Painting mirrors my experience of living. I often observe life from the sidelines, both as a disabled woman and as the perceptive outsider I have always been. Art provides me solace in a noisy world, and a channel for my observant nature.
I proudly draw and paint all my work freehand - usually from life.
This displays my authenticity as an artist who's practice is built on years of hard work and human skill, rather than tracing/projectors or AI."
"Art has been my lifelong sanctuary where I seek to create beauty as an antidote to suffering" - Jonette Murray.
about the artist
awards and merits
artist statement
1974 - (Born in Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand)
Jonette's love of art began in childhood, where she sketched realism from an early age, often drawing flowers, weeds and portraits of people who had died. Drawing was a tonic in her disruptive and often violent upbringing. Despite her love for art, it was not possible for her to pursue
1974 - (Born in Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand)
Jonette's love of art began in childhood, where she sketched realism from an early age, often drawing flowers, weeds and portraits of people who had died. Drawing was a tonic in her disruptive and often violent upbringing. Despite her love for art, it was not possible for her to pursue an art education, so she set her mind to develop her skill as a self taught artist.
After closing her first business at the age of 27 she decided to invest fully in her practice and began teaching herself to paint with oils. Her early work was focused on portrait and figurative pieces, and she quickly began exhibiting and selling work in a Christchurch gallery, however life would pull her in a different direction when she moved to Upper Hutt, and later started a family.
Jonette picked up the brush again while her children were still young, often painting till the early hours to allow her precious time in the studio. During a health scare, she realized that art was her true calling and she closed her business to dedicate herself full time to her art practice. Around this time she began painting still life, a style that would go on to become her primary focus for over a decade. Painting in the style of traditional realism, her well crafted still life paintings explored the fleeting beauty of life, endurance, and living in the moment. Themes that are ever present for Jonette who lives with progressive and crippling disabilities.
Her work was quickly picked up by galleries in Christchurch, Upper Hutt and Dunedin, as she expanded her practice and began exhibiting and selling regularly in both solo and group shows. She would go on to become a member of The New Zealand Academy of Fine Art in Wellington, where she also exhibited, as well as being selected as a finalist in several notable art awards throughout New Zealand.
Recently she achieved a lifelong goal of creating the deeply personal solo exhibition “Glass Underfoot - Exploring violence against children in N.Z" at the regional art gallery Whirinaki Whare Taonga (Nov 2022-Feb 2023). In this powerful educational show Jonette used cleverly composed still life paintings to demonstrate the various types of abuse and violence children can face in their homes, and the devastating effects this has on them in their adult lives.
Since then Jonette continued to participate in group shows and explore still life through a more relaxed contemporary lens, where modernism, expressionism, and alla-prima styles were demonstrated in her recent solo show "Still Standing" at Thistle Hall in Wellington 2025.
Her recent work focusses on portraiture and figurative painting where she is exploring themes such as disability, feminisim and spirituality, alongside still life projects. Currently Jonette has four paintings exhibiting at DEPOT ArtSpace in the figurative group show 'Between Us'.
All of Jonette's art is created freehand, without the use of grids, tracing from photos/projectors or AI.
She lives in Aotearoa in Upper Hutt - Wellington with her husband and three children.
awards and merits
awards and merits
awards and merits
Jonette has been selected as a finalist in several art awards including:
- The Craig's Aspiring Art Prize 2025
- The Taranaki National Art Awards 2024
- The Tasman National Art Awards 2024
- The Craig's Aspiring Art Prize 2024
- The Wellington Regional Arts Review 2022
- The Craig's Aspiring Art Prize 2022
- The Wellington Regional Arts Review 2021
- The Adam Po
Jonette has been selected as a finalist in several art awards including:
- The Craig's Aspiring Art Prize 2025
- The Taranaki National Art Awards 2024
- The Tasman National Art Awards 2024
- The Craig's Aspiring Art Prize 2024
- The Wellington Regional Arts Review 2022
- The Craig's Aspiring Art Prize 2022
- The Wellington Regional Arts Review 2021
- The Adam Portraiture Award 2020
- The Craig's Aspiring Art Prize 2020
- The Cleveland National Art Award 2019
- The Craig's Aspiring Art Prize 2019
- The Wellington Regional Art Review 2018
- Her finalist painting "The still life artist" was selected as part of The Adam Portraiture Award 2020 New Zealand tour
- Her painting was given a "Special mention" at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Art Group show in 2019
Artist Biography
awards and merits
awards and merits
CURRENT EXHIBITION
- 2026 - BETWEEN US - Group Exhibition - Depot Artspace -16 May-27 June - Devonport Auckland
Past Exhibitions
- 2025 - Group SHow - NZAFA - Wellington Cathedral
- 2025 - Group show - 31 Pieces - A Collection of N.Z. Art - Queenstown
- 2025 - SOLO SHOW - Still Standing - Thistle Hall - Wellington
- 2024- 2025 - (Parlament Buildings) Te
CURRENT EXHIBITION
- 2026 - BETWEEN US - Group Exhibition - Depot Artspace -16 May-27 June - Devonport Auckland
Past Exhibitions
- 2025 - Group SHow - NZAFA - Wellington Cathedral
- 2025 - Group show - 31 Pieces - A Collection of N.Z. Art - Queenstown
- 2025 - SOLO SHOW - Still Standing - Thistle Hall - Wellington
- 2024- 2025 - (Parlament Buildings) Te Papakura Art Gallery - Wellington - Group show
- 2025 - Craig's Aspiring Art Prize Finalist exhibition - Wanaka
- 2024 - Group show - The Artists Room Fine Art Gallery - Dunedin
- 2024 - Taranaki National Art Awards exhibition - Opunkake
- 2024 - The Tasman National Art Awards - Finalist exhibition - Mapua Tasman
- 2024 - Group Show - The New Zealand Academy of Fine Art - Wellington
- 2024 - Craig's Aspiring Art Prize - Finalist exhibition - Wanaka
- 2023 - Group show - The Artists Room - Dunedin
- 2022-2023 - SOLO SHOW - Glass underfoot - Whirinaki Whare Taonga Regional Art Gallery - Upper Hutt
- 2022 - The Wellington Regional Arts Review - Finalist Exhibition
- 2022 - Craig's Aspiring Art Prize - Finalist exhibition - Wanaka
- 2021 - Group show - The Artists Room Fine Art Gallery - Dunedin
- 2021 - Group Show - The New Zealand Academy of Fine Art - Wellington
- 2021 - Group Show - The New Zealand Academy of Fine Art - Wellington
- 2020 - Wellington Regional Arts Review Finalist Exhibition - Upper Hutt
- 2020 - Upper Hutt Arts Trail - Chaplin's Picture Framing
- 2020 - Group show - The Artists Room Fine Art Gallery- Dunedin
- 2020 - JOINT SHOW with Gemma Campbell - 'Still Restless' - The Artists Room Fine Art Gallery - Dunedin
- 2020 - Group show - The Artists Room Fine Art Gallery- Dunedin
- 2020 - Selected for The Adam Portraiture Award N.Z Tour
- 2020 - The Adam Portraiture Award - Finalist Exhibition - Wellington
- 2019 - Group show - The New Zealand Academy of Fine Art - Wellington
- 2019 - Group show - The Artists Room Fine Art Gallery- Dunedin
- 2019 - Group show - The Artists Room Fine Art Gallery- Dunedin
- 2019 - Group show - The New Zealand Academy of Fine Art- Wellington
- 2019 - Group Show - The Artists Room Fine Art Gallery- Dunedin
- 2019 - Group show - The New Zealand Academy of Fine Art - Wellington
- 2019 - Special mention at The New Zealand Academy of Fine Art group show - Wellington
- 2019 - The Cleveland National Art Award - Finalist Exhibition - Dunedin
- 2019 - SOLO SHOW- ‘Composed’ - The Artists Room Fine Art Gallery - Dunedin
- 2019 - The Craig's Aspiring Art Award - Finalist Exhibition - Wanaka
- 2018 - Group show - The Artists Room Fine Art Gallery- Dunedin
- 2018 - Red Cross Charity Art Auction - Dunedin
- 2018 - Group show - The Artists Room Fine Art Gallery - Dunedin
- 2018 - Wellington Regional Arts Review Finalist Exhibition - Upper Hutt
- 2018 - SOLO SHOW- The Artists Room - Dunedin
- 2017 - Group show - The Artists Room - Dunedin
- 2017 - JOINT SHOW “Four on the Floor’’ - Expressions Whirinaki Regional Art Gallery - Upper Hutt
- 2014-2017 - Group shows at Bryce Gallery - Christchurch
- 2005-2007 - Group shows - Van Helden Gallery - Wellington
- 2002 - JOINT SHOW - Article Gallery - Christchurch
- 2001-2003 - Group shows at Article Gallery - Christchurch
Public Speaking
- 2023 - Opening night speech (to 150 guests) at Whirinaki Whare Taonga for 'Glass Underfoot'.
- 2023 - 2 hour Artist talk for 'Glass Underfoot ' at Whirinaki Whare Taonga Regional Art Gallery
- 2017- Artist talk for 'Four on the floor' at Expressions Regional Art gallery Upper Hutt
Press and Publications
- 2025 - Arts Editorial - Wellington Regional News
- 2022 - Glass Underfoot catalog. (Held at the National Library of N.Z and Massey University Library)
- 2022 - Arts Editorial - Wellington Regional News
- 2020- Art Review - Otago Daily Times
- 2019 - Art Review - Otago Daily Times
Memberships and representation
- Represented by The Artists Room Fine Art Gallery
- Member of Toi o Taraika Arts Wellington - The Wellington Regional Art and Cultural Development Trust
