Pete Morris Art blogger www.sunlive.co.nz

Artists Jos and Hilly Coufreur have moved to Papamoa Beach after 12 years of living in Cambridge.

They had been pondering the shift for a year, and now seemed the right time as only one of their four children still lives at home.

Jos, who has 40 years of award-winning work behind him, is well known in New Zealand. Before moving to Cambridge in late 2000, he had established the ‘Animals in Art' Gallery at Kaiwaka in Northland.

His horse portraits led him to Cambridge where they opened The Equine Image gallery.

Jos became the in-house tutor at the Cambridge Society of Arts and taught weekly art classes and occasional workshops throughout the country.

Hilly began painting only a year ago after much prompting by husband Jos. She has already developed a distinct style with her bold, bright abstracts. Her use of bright colours led Jos in a new direction with his work.

Hilly Coufreur with one of her abstract paintings.

"I started adding more colour, bolder brush strokes and found I had developed something quite different for me,” says Jos.

"Recently I have been painting spontaneously, letting the colours form the picture.

"I cannot predict what the end result will be when I start the painting.

"Over the 40 years that I have been working as an artist I have built up the knowledge and technical skills to do this.

"It helps me to react spontaneously with colour to the subject I am painting.

"At the moment I am painting my 'Famous' series, but I also do 'people on the beach' and 'children playing' in this style.

"I am planning to do some local scenes as well.”

Jos describes the new works as ‘spontaneous realism', which have proved very popular.

Jos working on his portrait 'Marilyn' acrylic on canvas 2013.

Subjects include Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Munroe, Humphrey Bogart and many other famous identities.

The paintings are on canvas often 1220mm x 1220mm and larger.

After looking around the area for premises to work and sell from, the couple have opened a new Gallery and Studio at ‘The Palms' on 157 Domain Road, Papamoa.

Pop in and see them at work or contact Jos if you are interested in his soon to begin art classes.

You can see more of Jos's and Hily's work on www.jos-coufreur.com and www.jellyfi30.wix.com/hillycoufreur

Jos can be contacted at joscoufreur@slingshot.co.nz

Pete Morris is an occasional painter and an art lover. He is a freelance writer who has a particular interest in promoting the visual arts in Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty.