Lotte Hawley –  Artist / Storyteller

A multi-disciplined creative specialising in illustration, brand identity, storyboarding, murals, and photography.

BACKGROUND

Lotte Hawley is a New Zealand artist/illustrator who makes marks on street walls, interior walls, and the traditional pencil or paint to paper. Born and bred in Wellington NZ, Lotte moves where the work is and has spent the last 5 years developing her brand and skill as an artist as much as the final works themselves.

Two distinctive styles personify her work; a detailed, pencil rendered illustrative style, and the other, a contemporary pop art linework style. Lotte enjoys the ability to work both small and large scale, creating intricate detailed drawings and illustrations, to large expressive mural work.

Lotte signs all her original works and limited edition prints with a beautifully designed signature seal logo of her preferred nickname – ’Lots.’ She continues to produce original prints, illustrations and new artwork purely for the love of creating.

CURRENT WORK / 2021-22

Right now, set up in a studio space in the Wairarapa, Lotte is committing to the development and explorative process by returning to the sketchbook, and other ways of mark-making gained from her fine art training. Over the past two years, Lotte has also been honing her skills with the camera and finds herself refining her focus purely on storytelling both digitally and in analogue.

By returning to a gestural and personal style in her projects; stepping away from the conventional and reclaiming the freedom of simply drawing from the imagination and creating ideas in the sketchbook, Lotte is forming fresh ideas and slowly developing a new body of work. These days, Lotte has a mix of illustration, storyboarding, oil painting, digital design work and photography briefs on her schedule, and naturally finds herself becoming a storyteller.

“My drawings and illustrations are an exploration of the imagination, nostalgia and feelings of childhood. They step back in time to a place of simplicity, make-believe, and a self-reliant state of play. These ideas recall a moment in our lives in which anything is possible. A memory, or a favourite pastime, is then expanded into an almost surreal, fantastical dimension. We run away to explore… knowing that we must be home before dark.”

When Lotte is not in the studio creating and working, you will find her hiking in the mountains, (usually with a camera and dog in tow), or working remotely while discovering a new adventure somewhere in New Zealand.

“Getting out into nature on a daily basis is an absolute necessity for me. It’s where I do all my creative thinking. Nature gives me perspective, clarity, and space to think. I now design my life purely around these moments.”

Lotte is currently working on her first exhibition series ‘Home Before Dark’ which will be ready in Oct 2022.

REPRESENTATION

Endemic World | Auckland NZ
Quirky Fox Gallery | Hāwera NZ

PRESS LINKS
Wellington City Council
Stuff
NZ Herald
Habitat Mag

• BDes – Visual Communication Design, Massey University Wellington