Bee Doughty-Pratt, an emerging artist, is based at her home studio on the banks of the Otaki River about an hour north of Wellington city. Bee’s successful oil painting endeavours many years ago were swept aside for decades as family and technology industry business interests took centre stage. For a lengthy period Bee’s creativity found an outlet in interior design and landscape design. She has now returned to the drawing-board (and easel) with an extravagant enthusiasm which is producing some stunning results.

Bee’s preference is to work intuitively in layered oils and inks, on sometimes heavily textured, canvas and board. This creates depth and interest in her contemporary abstract paintings. Bee's artworks employ deep and vibrant colours, many of which are drawn from an earthy palette. Largely self-taught, Bee has recently spent constructive workshop time with two internationally renowned, award-winning artists - Jane Kellahan and Susan Knaap.

''My studio is a former garden shed now dedicated to artistic pursuits. It has good light, plenty of bench-space and at least three easels in residence at any one time. When the roller door is up, it has magnificent river views right down the Otaki Forks river gorge. It is freezing in winter. I prefer to work on large canvases, at least 1m x 1m and often larger - frequently working on several at once, coming back to each one repeatedly to continue the layers over a period of weeks. Mostly these are abstract landscapes. I try to capture the feeling or emotion behind a landscape - imagined or real - rather than actual detail. Sometimes something will trigger me to produce a smaller work which will almost always be completed in one or two quick workshops. Every day is an experiment, every day there is something new to try, some new concept to paint - or sometimes one of last week's efforts to paint over. Every day painting is a pleasure - I even like cleaning my brushes!"

Bee's exhbitis regularly and her work is displayed for sale on this website and in a number of galleries throughout the North Island of New Zealand.

Check out the Exhibitions page for dates and venues of up and coming Exhibitions and Events.

Check out the News & Views page for commentary on past Exhibitions and Events.