ART@RANGITANE
AFFORDABLE NEW ZEALAND CONTEMPORARY ART
(only 12 minutes from Kerikeri, in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand)
“A fine work of art—music, dance, painting, story—has the power to silence the chatter and lift us to another world.” ~ Robert McKee
Painting, writing and creating, is an opiate for me. Even when I feel sad, when I create, I feel transported to a happier realm. My wish is that people who hang my paintings in their home, bach, business, or office will feel happy too.
I was born and raised in Wellington, New Zealand—once voted ‘the coolest little capital in the world’. In 2015 my partner and I left the ‘big smoke’ in favour of a 10-acre lifestyle property, overlooking the sea in the beautiful Bay of Islands. It is this sublime setting that inspires my creativity. In 2021 New Zealand House and Garden profiled our move, our house and my art. You can view the article here>>
My artistic influences include the master colourists Pierre Bonnard, Max Gimblett, Helen Frankenthaler, Mark Rothko and more recently, Brian Rutenberg. I once had a business, The Colour Girl—inspired by the desire to bring more colourful joy into a world that seemed enamoured with black.
One of my favourite quotes comes from Picasso, “Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life.” The power of creativity to positively impact people’s lives is the force that inspires me to create. I am an award-winning artist, transpersonal art therapist, author, and Reiki master. I infuse my work with positive energy and light.
I was the supreme winner of the Wai Art Awards, and a finalist in the Adam’s Portrait award. Having participated in various overseas workshops including a Sumi–E ink painting workshop in Hawaii with ex-pat artist, Max Gimblett, my latest works embrace the simplicity of pleasure and personal experiences that create flow and incite joy.
As an intuitive artist with a passion for following my ‘inner joy’, I hope my work captures and celebrates the ‘life-giving’ aspects of art, and leaves viewers with a feeling of pleasure, contentment and peace.
Feedback from collectors
“Your work speaks to my soul in a major way,” Lisa, Dallas Texas
“The pieces inspire such positive feelings.”
“Wow! So amazing to see your pieces in reality. They have so much life in them.”
“Your work has a magical, spiritual quality. I just love them. Really love them.”
Commissions are welcome – especially for large scale work. I love BIG!
“EXCITING” Series (2021)
Illusion
“I want my paintings to take me to a place I’ve never been”
~ Emily Mason
2021 New work
30 inch x 30 inch x 1.5 inch deep
(70cm x 70 cm x 4 cm deep)
Acrylic on canvas
Inspired by the different frequencies our brain transmits as we experience a myriad of emotions… a landscape of the mind
$490
Reflections
“Waves whisper to the solid coast: “All will be made whole.”
~Pablo Neruda
I hope you enjoy this beautiful abstract which was inspired by the beauty of New Zealand and the view from the studio—real and imagined.
Acrylic on Canvas, 2021
17 inch x 17 inch mm x 1 inch
(H 45cm x L 45cm inch x D 4cm)
$485
Return to Love
“Give me the sorrows of the world. I will transform it into hope”
-Pablo Neruda
I hope you enjoy this beautiful abstract which was inspired by the nature calming beauty of New Zealand and the view from the studio—real and imagined.
Mixed Media Acrylic, oil crayon, graphite on canvas
H 45cm x L 45cm inch x D 4cm
17 inch x 17 inch mm x 1 inch
$285
Here Comes The Sun
“I found you after the storm, the rain washed the air and in the water your sweet feet gleamed like fishes.” – Pablo Neruda
Acrylic on canvas
51cm x 40 cm x 4 cm deep
$485
Age of Aquarius 1 & 2 (Diptych)
“Painting is an act of surrender the strongest paintings are those which escape the intentions of the artist and allow the viewer to grow more powerful.” ~ Brian Rutenberg
Each 20 x 24 inch 16mm deep on canvas. $825 each until Jan 6 or $925 each in 2021. Can be purchased separately
Acrylic on canvas
Think Pink 1 & 2 (Diptych)
“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.”
~ Georgia O’Keeffe
Each 20 x 24 inch 16mm deep on canvas. $825 each until Jan 6 or $925 each in 2021. Can be purchased separately
Acrylic on canvas
“NEW BEGINNINGS” SERIES (2020)
Ode to Georgia O’Keeffe
“Nobody sees a flower – really – it is so small it takes time – we haven’t time – and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.”
~ Georgia O’Keeffe
I hope you enjoy this beautiful orchid which is sitting in my studio and inspired this painting
Acrylic on Canvas
H 18.11 x L 13.7 inch x W 1.57
350mm x 460mm 40mm
2020
Click here to view and purchase
Delightful
“I want to capture a moment of beauty” ~Dries Van Noten
Painted in the colour-soak style, inspired by Helen Frankenthaler and Mark Rothko, in a fluid moment I brought into being all that delights me: spontaneity, beauty, colour, joy, creativity, spirituality—and more!
Acrylic on canvas
1020 mm 1020 mm
New Leaf
901mm x 901 mm
35.51-inch x 35.51-inch
Acrylic on canvas
$1200 USD
Sunday Surprise
“Roses do not bloom hurriedly; for beauty, like any masterpiece, takes time to blossom.” ~ Matshona Dhliwayo
This painting was inspired by the fragrant roses given as a ‘surprise’ gift, and the colour palette of my local, and favourite, spa—Pure Day Spa. I loved painting with a deeper palette than I normally would, especially purple-greys.
Be pampered, soothed and delighted with seductive, sensuous pinks.
Playful, happy and spontaneous gestural strokes imbue this painting with joy.
Acrylic on canvas
910mm x 910mm
35.51-inch x 35.51-inch
Acrylic on canvas
$1200 USD
Love Story
This painting was inspired by a previous commission. The short brief was compelling…”I would love to commission you to conjure up an exquisite piece of art…Love all the vibrant memories my special lady brings. Love, sea, sand, salt and pohutukawas.”
People often ask where do I grab my inspiration from. In this case, it was the beautiful image of the abstract pattern on the dress of the gentleman’s beloved wife. She passed several years ago from cancer. This painting was such a joy to paint as I know the healing power art can bring, a loving hug during times of sadness and a big vibrant reminder of love which endures.
901mm x 901 mm
35.5 inch x 35.5 inch
Acrylic on canvas
$1200 USD
I Promise
“In a world where vows are worthless. Where making a pledge means nothing. Where promises are made to be broken, it would be nice to see words come back into power.”
~
How many times have you heard the words, ‘I promise to love and to hold?” This beautifully rich painting is a promise keeper. Inspired by CY Twombly’s use of poetry and words scrawled with passion in his abstract paintings. The style is playful, intuitive and heart-felt. I hope this painting uplifts, renews and inspires.
My desire was to imbue the painting with the reminder that we must love each other, and ourselves, in sickness and in health….the old vows seem forgotten…but then sometimes we must also make a leap for freedom.
“A beautiful, impactful piece. Well done.”
“Profound…and beautifully depicted. Love the pallet as well.”
901mm x 901 mm
35.5118-inch x 35.5118 inch
Acrylic on Canvas
$1200 USD
DM if you’d like me to customise a painting and palette for your home, business or office, or commission one as a gift or to suit your space xxx
THE BEAUTY OF RESILIENCE GROUP EXHIBITION
I was blessed to have been part of a group show in September 2020 at a local Bay of Islands gallery, in Kerikeri, The Little Black Gallery. The gallery owner, Anna, rang me to see if I could assist by creating works to exhibit for a show called The Beauty of Resilience.
The exhibition’s name is a reference to the importance of beauty and art in these chaotic times and how needful it is for our resilience to have beauty around us.
You know this, right!
Comments from people who have seen my artworks “Your work speaks to my soul in a major way,” mean the world to me. They speak to my heart. As does “Your art is so healing. I saw the flyer and just had to come and see the paintings in person.”
Many of my works from the Soften Series were created for this exhibition, including one of my larger works, Te Ataroa (The Long Morning). The Beauty of Resilience Group Exhibition @littleblackgallery ran until mid-October 2020. I showed alongside the incredibly talented Jody Hope Gibbons, Louisa Millet, Wendy Galbraith, Catherine Dunn, and Parisian woodturner Guy Du Toit.
THE “SOFTEN” SERIES
Paintings in the Soften series offer an antidote to life’s harsh edges. Created with passion and infused with love the palette embodies pinks, lavenders, ethereal warm whites and sunny yellows. It’s the gentle blush of a fragrant rose in bloom. The unfolding of a magnolia dripping with rain in winter. The scent of a fragrant orchid prolifically flowering in damp conditions. It’s the smile of a baby blowing a kiss.
Created as the world was reeling from Covid-19 the Soften collection embraces GO-LOV 20, the antidote to fear offered by Neuroscientist Dr Joe Dispenza. As Leonardo da Vinci said, “Without love, what is there?
Layered in soft, sultry glazes Soften speaks to the heart.
The Awakening Dawn* 
“You are indeed the colours of the awakening dawn, the movement of the branches in the brush, the drops of dew upon the window sill, and the morning bird’s sweet and mellow song of joy.” ~ Ramtha
Encaustic, oil crayon, pastel, mixed media on board
400 mm x 400mm
$360 USD
Resilience Rising
“If your heart is broken, make art with the pieces.”
― Shane Koyczan
Resilience Rising
New beeswax landscape inspired by the natural beauty of The Bay of Islands, New Zealand
Mixed media
Encaustic, NZ beeswax, pure pigment, oil, crayon on board
250 mm x 600 mm
LOVIN’ THE LIGHT
NZ beeswax, pure pigment, oil on board.
400mm x 400mm
“From Here to Eternity”
“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment,” ~ Thoreau
soft and silent and steadfast like an Italian fresco
900 mm x 1200 mm, Acrylic on panel
contemporary float mounted in Ash by Peter Sharp
FEEDBACK FROM ADMIRERS
“Deeply delicate, boundless beauty,”
~ Maxwell R.
$2600 USD
“Silver Linings”
Lovemarks
“The future is fluid,” Dr. Mark Epstein
A beautifully large painting inspired by New Zealand’s beautiful Far North landscape and the joy of colour field painting.
1200 mm x 900mm
Acrylic on panel
contemporary float mounted in Ash by Peter Sharp (not shown in image)
$3600 USD
Smell The Roses
“Where there are no thorns there are no roses.”
~ Matshona Dhliwayo
$1160 USD
760mm x 1110mm
Acrylic on canvas
Te Ataroa (The Long Morning)
Named after the beautiful baby born three months ago to a very proud young couple. They had lost a little girl earlier who passed before she could be held in their arms. Te Ataroa is an added blessing. Translated her name means “the long morning”. Spring is nearly here in the Bay of Islands and the mornings are getting longer and they are nearly as beautiful as that wee baby
1200 mm x 900mm
Acrylic on panel
“Serene and beautiful and makes me feel like I’m in a spring garden. Love it!” ~ Jo
contemporary float mount in Ash by Peter Sharp (not shown in image)
Dance With Life
No knowledge as wise as the heart
We all need reason to care
Sweep you away into the night
When there is no one else around
I will make every day count
We need to dance with life
Swim in the soul of your eyes
’til we melt into the night
We need to dance with life
And we leave a brilliant light behind.”
Encaustic, oil crayon, pastel, mixed media on board
250 mm x 600 mm
$360 USD
Large Commissions welcome
Transcendence
“Love goes very far beyond the physical person of the beloved. It finds its deepest meaning in his spiritual being, his inner self. Whether or not he is actually present, whether or not he is still alive at all, ceases somehow to be of importance.”
~
I am absolutely loving the divine simplicity of my new work, “transcendence”
Thank you, Agnes Martin, for inspiring me
Acrylic on canvas
600 x 600 mm
Colours are dreamy- like a french sunset 💓
TRUE LOVE
“We offer a world obsessed with velocity the gift of slow seeing and slow thinking, perhaps the most sublime gift one human being can offer another. We are dreamers. Our job is to glow in the dark, and the world needs more people who glow.” ~ Brian Rutenberg.
True love is complicated, multi-textured, layered. So it seems appropriate that my current work in progress is taking on multiple dimensions. I never know where or how the painting is going to end, I just work intuitively and try to put my feelings on the canvas. The definition of abstraction, I’ve come to learn, means to take away.
If I’m to label myself it is as an abstract expressionist – expressing often feelings I wish to take away, or rather transcend, like sadness or grief or overwhelm. Replacing them instead with beauty, compassion and transcendence.
I hope that people who look at my works will feel the same sense of beauty that I have infused into them as they were created.
Acrylic on canvas
600mm x 600mm
$660 USD
“Definitely beautiful. Very soft and gorgeous,” ~ J Woods.
Flow Gracefully
“Grace will take you places hustling can’t.” Elizabeth Gilbert
Reminiscent of Monet’s water lily series, transcendent glazes of ethereal whites, rose quartz and Lemurian blues spark peace, contentment and joy.
1200 mm x 900mm
$3500 USD
Acrylic on panel
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Dreamy
“Be soft, do not let the world make you hard,” Kurt Vonnegut
New Zealand beeswax 🐝 fire, oil crayon, and molten alchemy
artboard 600mm x 400mm
Handcrafted in New Zealand
“Wow! it is so dreamy and lovely.” — Theresa Stirling
She Smiled Softly, 2020
“I have witnessed the softening of the hardest hearts by a simple smile,” Goldie Hawn
Diptych
Crayon, lead pencil, watercolour, acrylic on canvas
W 1420 mm x H 560 mm
$1350 USD
Your Love Is My Love
“Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.” Rumi
New work in progress from the “soften” series “ ‘Your love is my love’. 💗 inspired by Turner’s landscapes
Awash with the warm shimmer of romantic rouges, sandy ochres and dazzles of misty light on water.
Encaustic, NZ beeswax, crayon, gold leaf on board
400x 400mm
“Absolutely stunning—you are unbelievably talents!!! My oh my!”
~ Theresa Stirling
“Open into gratitude and you soften into joy,”
SHADES OF GREY SERIES
In a world that seems increasing polarised “Shades of Grey” offers an antidote to life’s linear black and white thinking. Seek sanctuary. Retreat to a place where neutrals take centrestage to create a feeling of peace, calm and tranquillity.
Drawing inspiration from the natural environment, grey offers an abundance to nurture, soothe and delight. Soft sandstones, sultry skies, smoky fires, and the silvery greys of a glistening winter sunrise…let the decorating staple of monochrome’s signature palette envelop you and your interior in layers of unpretentious beauty, minimalism and softness.
Scribe
Acrylic, oil crayon and mixed media.
760 h x 1200 w
Scribble⠀
“I never really separated painting and literature” ~ Cy Twombly
Mixed media, oil crayon, acrylic, passion
Canvas 760mm x 1200mm
Handcrafted in New Zealand
Let Go⠀
“Every line is the actual experience with its own unique story” ~ Cy Twombly
Mixed media, oil crayon, acrylic, passion
Canvas 760mm x 1200mm
Handcrafted in New Zealand
Infinity
“If you have a sense of limits then you are free to break out of them.” ~ Helen Frankenthaler
Beautifully vibrant and texturally rich, abstract painting in colours designed to uplift and inspire.
Dimensions: 1210mm(W) x 610mm (H) x 40mm(D)
Medium: mixed media – ink and acrylic oil on canvas
Note: signature, date and title information on the back of painting
$1750.00
“I just stumbled across your video. Your creative process is very inspiring! Your painting “Infinity” is fabulous!!! It evokes a lot of energy, emotion and spirituality speaks through this piece fluently. Thanks so much for sharing. Love and light.”
~ comment made on my YouTube channel
“SHADE OF GREY – AFTER JACKSON POLLOCK 2020″
Gesso, acrylic and vinyl polymers, epoxy, aqua size, Japanese pink coloured pigment, epoxy resin on board
$4,500
ALCHEMY SERIES
Love Language
“Kind words are like honey—sweet to the soul and healthy for the body” l Kenn Butler l
Mixed media, molten New Zealand beeswax, encaustic, oil crayon, passion
Pro-panel artboard 400mm x12mm
Handcrafted in New Zealand
This beautiful piece can be yours now… message me:)
Peace, love, joy
Custom beeswax art- made with molten beeswax applied on canvas board, fused with sultry flame, finished with love. Art that smells divine and soothes the soul
Wisdom of the golden snake
Another new work. Feeling inspired during COVID-19
beeswax and fire. Custom-made on hardboard
Colour field painting in my studio and outside
Available now. Shipping worldwide
DREAMTIME SERIES
Orange Bird 11
“The painting can take over. Marvellous accidents can happen.” | Piera McArthur |
Orange bird 11
new watercolour, now available. 🔥
I love the spirit and energy of this piece. Infused with many happy memories🔥
Commissions welcome
Heavenly sleep
watercolour on paper
May your nights be peaceful
“Thank you for sharing your magnificent Dreamtime series. Wishing you lots of inspiration for further artworks!”
Sunny, Assistant Manager Fafa Island Resort, Tonga
Love is a Superpower
‘Water is the driving force of all nature.’ | Leonardo da Vinci |
new watercolour,, now available. 🔥
Big love!🔥
“Just beautiful.”
Julia, Resort Manager, Fafa Island, Tonga.
The Energies of Love
new watercolour, now available.
Waterflowers
‘The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.’ | Leonardo da Vinci |
new watercolour, now available. 🔥
in my heart forever. 🔥
“It’s very transcendent… it reminds me of Monet’s waterlilies. There’s so much light coming through.”
~ Peter Sharp
SOLD
Gone to happy homes
Bay of Islands
Mixed Media on canvas (Diptych)
Marsden Cross (sold)
Blue Light (sold)
Mixed media
To purchase and have shipped anywhere in the world, email Cassandra@cassandragaisford.com
Commissions welcome
Discover more about the philosophical and spiritual beliefs that guide my work >>https://www.thejoyfulartist.co.nz/bio-cassandra-the-artist/
Subscribe to my blog and check out this post on the power of creativity to heal depression, anxiety and addiction>>
https://www.thejoyfulartist.co.nz/powerful-creativity-how-making-room-for-hobbies-is-the-ultimate-cure-for-addiction-stress-anxiety-depression-and-more/
* I have used a mockup tool to show how beautiful the paintings would look in your home or office. Sizes may vary and can be customised to suit your wishes.
Some of my many creative inspirations
This video is about the varied sources that inspires my creativity. As an intuitive artist with a passion for following my ‘inner joy’ I hope my work captures and celebrates the ‘life-giving’ aspects of art, and leaves viewers with a feeling of pleasure, peace and contentment. Discover more here:https://www.thejoyfulartist.co.nz
