Kieran Rynhart Artist

This is a header for a map of Aoeteroa/New Zealand I've been working on for the last wee while. The header featuring Mitre Peak, Kokako and Huia also stands pretty well by itself as well. My intent of the design is to show our endangered and lost NZ species in a certain light where we take their everyday presence for granted, imagining a NZ with its rich native and endemic biology pristine and intact, without introduced predators and the unfortunate destruction wrought by man. It just so happens I also bumped into today and came away with some trapping gear to help me realize the vision of thriving native NZ species here on Mataruahou /Hospital Hill as well. I may not be hearing Kokako or the lost Huia, but every morning I get to wake to the abundant chimes of Koromako/Bell Bird, the song of Tūi, the inviting call of Grey Warbler and the cheerful chatter of Silver Eyes, I hope that wonderful dawn chorus will remain as vibrant and as bright as ever.

This began it's life as a really rough draft which I had printed out wayyy back in the day. I was then going to work over it with pen and ink, however i got busy with other things and left it in a draw. Just this year I was sorting through material for my wee exhibition and I came across the image again, albeit in its rudimentary draft form (wish I had an image to show how rough it was) and saw its potential! I got to work on it as a nice balance to the fairly admin heavy stuff required for the exhibition - here's the end result! Done largely with pen and ink with digital touch ups. Very epic, very Tolkien inspired!

"Standing Kārearea" - 2025 - pen and ink, acrylic inks, gouache

The muse struck a few weeks back and I needed to make an image of the Kārearea/NZ Falcon. It just so happened by some serendipitous quirk the Kārearea won the "Bird of the year" competition for 2025. I guess when the muse strikes she strikes for a reason! The medieval German artist Albrect Dürer was a big inspiration on this one too, the logo on the lower left pays homage to his own "AD" personal logo. I loved working on this piece and see it come to life with paint and brush.

Tomorrow this is happening, looking forward to seeing you there!

Hi all! I've got an exhibition coming up on Saturday the 7th of June at Lockett Gallery in Whanganui. The exhibition will feature a selection of both personal and past published pieces. Things start off at 3pm - so if you are around it would be great to have you there!

This has been a very fun project to work on! It's a feature image for a playroom in a children's hospital ward. The piece is based on the very peaceful, "Peka Peka", a beautiful freshwater wetland reserve here in the Hawkes Bay.

This one is from a while back (I made it 11 years ago! time flies!) and goes under the working title of "The Folk Singer". It's one of the most symbolic pieces I have made. At the time I was taking a deep interest in the civil rights movement, countercultural folk music movement of the 60's and gospel music. I couldn't help but blend these ideas with some spiritual concepts about the transcendent power of art to create a world of hope in an otherwise dark and chaotic place. You may have a faith or you may not so please take it all as literally or figuratively as you like.

- Symbolic details in the image are the flame above the singer, that's that special something in us all, empowering us to move and do good in the world through what we create. The yellow circle around the singer is a "portal" into another dimension, a world that can be only hoped for, a world of peace, justice and equality. The little mountain, I guess that's some kind of "Zion" the "Holy place we are all on pilgrimage towards. The bottles of oil by the singer represent that which sustains us to good in the world. The floating light in the dark waters are those things that guide us to that which is good, be they friends, concepts, relationships, communities etc. The dark waters, in ancient times water was a symbol of chaos but the waters could also represent the "River Jordan" a powerful image used by MLK to encourage those to "cross over" those things that challenge us so that we can enter a "promised land", a metaphorical land where our hopes for a better world can be worked into reality.The flying fish on the guitar, well I just thought that looked cool.

A Kākā scene I've been working on over the last few weeks. I decided to do as much of this via paint as I could. I loved the process but still found the need for some digital touch ups near the end. Looking forward to more painting in the future!

Polyhymnia is the mythic Greek Muse of sacred song and poetry. In this case she is represented here by the graceful form of the Kōtuku / White Heron, a visiting bird native to Aotearoa, which is also considered sacred within Māori culture. In this image I hoped to capture some aspect of the spirituality I often find while I am in and around nature.

The draft was completed digitally but I took the next step to work as much as I could with paints, a process which I thoroughly enjoyed and gave some results I was really pleased with. I scanned everything back into the machine, did a little editing and colour adjustment. Can't wait to print this and experiment with some gold foils for the halo.

Thanks for looking!

I was not too long ago captivated by the Kārearea/New Zealand Falcon and what began as a study became a really interesting composition in its own right. I started out with pencil intending to add ink but the pencil just looked too nice. I hope to do a few different versions soon as I know they will turn out really well besides this one.