Congratulations to Auckland artist Sean Beldon! 

Sean was awrded the second Regional Finalist place in the STUFF Art Aotearoa Gold Award for Art Excellence at at the  Opening Night of The Wellington Art Show 2024!

Sean is one of four finalists who are being progressively selected and announced at each of our 2024 Art Shows throughout the art show exhibition year - with the ultimate WINNER being selected after the final 2024 Show in Queenstown in October.

Sean is an Auckland artist best known for his large New Zealand landscape paintings. Sean’s award entry "Just Past Taihape" impressed the judges across the board.

Sean says “I paint New Zealand landscapes and places with a style that leans towards painterly with a modernist feel, swinging between representative and abstract.

Since Aotearoa became my new home in 2007, I have travelled up and down the country photographing moments and scenes from the far North to the deep South. These early journeys later became the inspiration and material for my paintings, when in 2015, I found my way back to the brush and canvas. This is still my creative modus operandi.

Taking time in shooting photos that tell a story of the place, ensures my compositions are embedded in and flow from my photography of the landscape. By using the viewfinder as my primary canvas, I decide very early in the process if the emphasis will be on light, form, colour or the emotional connection and just where the balance lies. Even though my compositions will be quite abstract at times, I only paint places I have been, places where I have made a connection.