Krisdjansen - Artist and Naturalist

The beginning of her creative life began at a very young age when she was staying with her maternal grandmother who was a keen oil painter. When she handed her Kris an oil pastel and piece of paper and told to draw, it began a lifetime love of drawing and painting.

Both sides of her family came from generations of beekeepers and in her childhood, she would join her father on some of his apiary sites, many of which were near native bush. While he attended the bees, Kris would find her favourite native plants and flowers.

When her father died, she took over the honey packing machinery and for the next 25 years she built up a small chain of tourist-based honey stores throughout New Zealand.

During these years, Kris continued to paint. When she was based at her store in Parnell, Auckland, she participated along with nineteen other artists in the Chinese New Year charity event and painted a dog in a 3D honeycomb effect.  The following year she painted a pig inspired by NZ flora and fauna.  

When the COVID border closures and lockdowns impacted her business, Kris decided to change her direction in life and pursue her love of nature and bees through art.  

After spending six months living on the Milford Track as a Relief Lodge Manager and some overseas travel, she began her art business, vowing to become a prolific artist that learns and grows with each piece.

As an adult, she spent many weekends walking in the native bush throughout the country, often chasing the quick flowering periods of pohutukawa, rata, and the rarer mistletoe, and always on the lookout for native bees with her camera at the ready. 

Many of Kris’s artworks are inspired by her own photos taken when in nature, the detail captured with her macro lens, patterns normally hidden to the naked eye exposed.  She then interprets the naturally occurring shapes and patterns and paints them into her works, like the marbled effect of flakey bark on a Kōtukutuku (Tree Fuchsia) and the jewelled feathers of the kāka and kea.

Her paintings are a truly unique and authentic expression of life as seen through her eyes, flavoured from a past deeply connected with New Zealand nature.