Page 98 - NZ Hereford Magazine 2023

“NOTHING FANCY; JUST A BIT OF PAINT
AND THE ODD BULL.”

Artist Amelia Guild’s first official painting at high school in
Christchurch was an aerial view of cattle in the yards. But she
remembers her teacher’s advice to study them and sketch
them as fast as they moved.
“I fell for that movement. It’s that movement I want to capture.
Animals always prove to be a challenging and dynamic subject.”
Amelia holds solo and group exhibitions around New
Zealand and has her artwork hanging in numerous local and
international collections. One career highlight was Lincoln
University buying a painting of her bulls for its collection.
Another was a commission from Fonterra to do a series of
paintings and prints depicting the dairy industry.
But it is beef cattle rather than dairy she sees from her own
window at home on the farm where she grew up, High Peak
Station at Windwhistle near the Rakaia Gorge, which is now
farmed by brother Hamish. Another brother, Simon, runs the
game estate and partners in a snow tourism business with
Amelia’s husband Tom Dunbar, who is a former big mountain
extreme skier-turned-beekeeper. Their parents still live on the
farm too, as do Amelia and Tom’s children Willa (8) and Rollo (5).
The farm has Hereford cows and Hereford-Angus-cross cows,
with Hereford bulls bought from Nick and Penny France at the
nearby Okawa and Orari Gorge Hereford Studs.
“The bull paddock is just there. We see them every day.
“There are Angus, Hereford and Charolais bulls all together, but
I like painting the Herefords because you can see a different face
every time. Their heads are quite unique, sometimes curly, with
random markings. I like to zoom right in on them sometimes,
just the eyes, or a really big bull’s head, or bums – I’ve done a few
bums!” she says, laughing. “Sometimes there’s a lineup of them,
curious heads all looking the same way at the same time. Other
times I just mash them all up and create my own composition.
“I love animals and I love being around them, so it’s natural
for me to want to paint them. It’s such a lovely way for me to
bring personality out of the paddock onto the canvas and into
someone’s room.”
Her style has evolved over the years, but she has always
loved colour. She doesn’t own black paint, and has recently
been playing with neon paints, as well as mixing media,
charcoal and pastels.
“I really enjoy having that familiar standpoint of the animal;
starting with a subject so familiar to me means I can really
start pushing the other aspects of the creation.”
She did a commission for an interior designer who had a clear Animals are a challenging and dynamic subject for Amelia Guild.
idea of the pinks and olive green she wanted in the artwork.
“It’s huge, and at first glance it’s just pinks and greens, and Amelia is proud of rural New Zealand, even though she doesn’t
pinks and greens, and lines. Then after a while you see the start out to create any sort of statement with the acting or her art.
cows. I really love that it’s not immediately obvious.” “I think it just invariably happens that way because it comes
Amelia won the 2022 Rural Women New Zealand Business from within me. It’s just celebrating rural life,” she says with
Awards. She entered twice – once as Amelia Guild Art and the a smile and a nonchalant shrug. “It’s a positive portrayal
other as professional actress Amelia Dunbar as part of The of the world that I live in. The film is representing the rural
Bitches’ Box – winning the creative section before taking out community in an irreverent, nostalgic, fun and light-hearted
the supreme title. way – less Country Calendar, more Footrot Flats.”
Amelia and her writing and performing partner Emma
Newborn have performed the talking-animals comedy, www.thegullies.nz www.braeside.co.nz
The Bitches’ Box, more than 300 times, taking that and the www.derekmorrison.nz www.kerribackphotography.com
subsequent shows ‘Sons of a Bitch’ and ‘Life’s a Bitch’ on tours www.allenandunwin.co.nz www.ameliaguild.com
of the nation’s woolsheds over the past decade. Now they’re www.erimagingphotography.co.nz
putting together a feature film. www.facebook.com/Ben.Doubleday.Photography

96 HEREFORD MAGAZINE Year 2023