A visit to see Iris' creations, original paintings, prints and greeting cards can be arranged. Just get in touch for an easy going tour through the home based gallery, the only recently established and somewhat pop up gallery.

The space, originally called "climbers bunkroom", has been developing into a gallery at the base of the Alpinism & Ski guiding operation, so Iris is basically taking over some of the mountaineers' quarters for her arty new post covid career. 

"I have dabbled in a variety of art, some time ago even pottery was part of my life and some pieces made it to Wānaka from Leysin in Switzerland. My passion for painting rekindled when settling in Aotearoa New Zealand towards the end of the last century. For a while, the study of NZ native plants, a newly discovered passion while living amongst the highest mountains of NZ, took precedence over art. Also, my body was still in alpine climbing mode and time for painting was not so much available just yet.

My creations are mostly watercolour paintings though occasionally I venture into mixed media, having dabbled in oil and acrylics. The subjects of my paintings, drawings and sketches range from botanical native - and not so native - plants through to landscapes and abstract, the rare structural and a few bird paintings.

I have always wanted to create ‘Affordable Art’ and sometimes I enjoy creating the frames for the paintings too. Second hand frames are fun to find and I love using them as well, applying the popular motto reuse/recycle.

In particular, I love the pleinair painting excursions around beautiful Wanaka and further afield and this media of watercolour suits me perfectly for such excursions. The 2020 covid year provided the exact chemical mixture needed to catapult me into my new career as artist and I'm loving it.

Looking forward to show you my creations in my home gallery or you can find them online on Insta, facebook or the website, just look for AlpinIrisArt"