Jody Hope Gibbons

Jody Hope Gibbons is a contemporary New Zealand painter with works held in private collections both here and throughout the world.

She has been privately tutored in art and has completed several mastery contemporary painting courses in Auckland. Jody Hope Gibbons has been published in “New Zealand’s favourite Artists” Volume 2, and has been featured in lifestyle publications such as “NZ Life and Leisure” and “Next” magazine.

Artwork technique

Jody Hope Gibbons’ work is “materials based” where the research occurs through the actual exploration of the materials ; pushing the boundaries of traditional painting practice and techniques by exploiting  the use of paint, stains, rust, inks, leaf and varnish. The actual application of the mediums and the natural reactions of these products is where the work is made when working within the moment.

The alchemy found within some works make them evocative and ethereal and seemingly organic with the fluidity of the marks. Many of the works are subtle and could be quite easily be overlooked  – but upon closer inspection are about light, depth, tone space and joyous layers. Works that take you away from realism and where chaos resides just beneath the surface.

Layers of paint  that are fluid, instinctive and are revealing, yet also concealing with the magic being of painting in the moment, and the continuous instinctive decisions as a painter as to what to keep and what to discard. Paring back is essential.

The revelations of these moments become the driving force of Hope Gibbons’ practice and the element of chance in the making becomes the idea behind the work.

This new freedom is also seen in the more gestural movements and instinctive mark making but always underpinned by the natural tendency and need to put in order, composition and control – a response that is not always welcome.