Conservation artist Anna Gibbs uses her creative platform to raise awareness about endangered species and the urgent need for conservation, taking her on a meaningful quest to ensure the survival and appreciation of New Zealand’s native birds. Her work is captivating, inviting you to pause and immerse yourself in its beauty.
A conservation artist is someone whose work does more than beautify spaces – they educate and inspire action. Anna’s paintings, primarily focusing on New Zealand’s native birds, are created to help viewers form an emotional connection with these species.
By highlighting the fragility and rarity of birds like tūī, kākāpō and kōtuku, Anna strives to convey their intrinsic value and the importance of safeguarding their habitats.
“My painting style is grounded in what we would consider to be realism,” Anna says. “When I paint birds, I’m largely painting them to be true to reality and highly recognisable, but unlike hyper-realism, which aims to replicate an image with exact photo accuracy, I play around a bit with light and colour to create an image that’s particularly striking and captivating for the person looking at it.
“I will often paint birds in poses that are more unusual and mostly making eye contact to form that connection with the viewer. I hope with the kind of images I create not so much to impress people with their accuracy, but instead to evoke a significant and positive emotional response in those that stand in front of it.”
One signature feature of Anna’s work is the incorporation of pure 24-carat gold in the form of a gilded background. This serves a deeper purpose beyond aesthetic appeal. Anna hopes to create an implicit connection between how we ‘treasure’ gold for its beauty and scarcity and how we should equally, if not more so, treasure the beauty and scarcity of unique and irreplaceable native species.
“I recognise that the process of gold mining can be problematic in terms of its impact on humanitarian and environmental issues, so I have an ongoing process of finding better and better sources so that I can be confident my work minimises potential negative impacts,” Anna says.
“I was recently approved as New Zealand’s first licensed ‘Fairmined’ brand. Fairmined gold is a project through which suppliers have gone to significant lengths to ensure that their mining is focused on ethics, supporting the communities involved with mining and ensuring the preservation of the environment. It’s certainly the highest ethical standard of gold in the world, and I am excited and honoured to be an approved brand with them and the first in New Zealand.
“I think it’s important for artists to think carefully about the materials they use, their sources and the implications of their use. Switching to more ethical alternative materials can sometimes be easier than you might think, and we have a responsibility to improve and educate ourselves regarding the processes and materials that we use.”
Anna has always had a compulsion to create. As a child, she was desperate to use all her free time to make art, and she adored it. As she got older, regardless of what she was doing, she would make the time and space to be creative in one form or another.
“Art is a core part of who I am. I don’t think I could repress it, even if I wanted to,” she says. “When I lived in London in my early 20s, I was in a house share with a bunch of other young people and didn’t have an art studio, so I would paint in the shared spaces of the house. My poor housemates would have to lift my paintings off the oven to use it, but I think they did find my enthusiasm infectious. Sometimes, we would come back from a night out, and everyone would play around with my paints, making abstract art together.”
Anna, who was born in London, travelled to New Zealand and was fortunate to get an apprenticeship working under the esteemed artist Judy Curnow, who herself trained under Tim Wilson, one of Aotearoa’s most successful artists. When a local community-run gallery, Orion Powerhouse Gallery in Akaroa, exhibited some of Anna’s paintings, they were well received, and her art career snowballed, with pieces sold in charity events and exhibited in galleries nationwide.
The life-changing decision to relocate to New Zealand allowed Anna to fully immerse herself in her art and the natural environment that now serves as her constant inspiration. Now living rurally, she finds peace in – and endless motivation for – her conservation work, often drawing inspiration directly from the landscapes and wildlife around her.
“Often, it’s about just getting out there and being surrounded by these amazing species,” she says. “For example, I did a painting of a tūī feeding on red hot poker flowers. The inspiration for that came from observing how sunlight goes through dried grass in the summer and creates a golden glow like the background of my paintings. The striking colour of the flowers with the tūī feeding on them, set against the golden grass, was so captivating I felt compelled to translate it into
an artwork.”
Anna is also incredibly fortunate to have many opportunities to see some less common examples of these birds living in their natural habitat, which she agrees is a huge privilege. Last year, she visited the only nesting site of the kōtuku in New Zealand during the breeding season. “It was a special experience, and I am grateful to the White Heron Sanctuary in Whataroa for enabling me to do that,” she says. “It was amazing to take my sketchbook and do some drawings, and that was the source of inspiration for a number of paintings I’ve started working on.”
One of Anna’s most notable works, Kākāpō in the Forest, encapsulates her dual commitment to art and conservation. This large-scale painting, awarded the Premium Artist Award at the Art in the Park exhibition in 2023, powerfully portrays two kākāpō in their forest habitat. The kākāpō, one of the world’s rarest birds, is a potent symbol of the fragility and resilience of New Zealand’s ecosystems. Anna’s depiction of these birds resonated deeply with viewers and raised significant funds for the Kākāpō Recovery Programme, further demonstrating the tangible impact her work can have on conservation efforts.
The decision to become a full-time artist was driven by Anna’s desire to focus on what truly brings her joy and a sense of connection. As a mother, she finds deep meaning in nurturing future generations and through her passion for conservation. She now draws fulfilment from investing in the planet’s future and her children’s lives. Working from home allows Anna to balance her roles as an artist and parent, allowing her to be present for her children and share her passions with them, fostering their sense of purpose.
Anna’s upcoming solo exhibition, from 30 January to 24 February 2025, at The Little River Gallery on Banks Peninsula near Christchurch, will feature a collection of South Island native bird paintings tied to specific conservation narratives. This exhibition represents the culmination of months of work as she meticulously crafts pieces that showcase her technical skill and amplify the urgent message of conservation.
As you stand before her glowing, golden works, you’ll most surely be reminded that protecting these birds is an investment far more precious than gold.
