News

November 2023: Selected for New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts Fantastic Beasts Exhibition, 1 December – 7 January 2024, Academy Galleries, Open 10am - 5pm daily, 1 Queens Wharf, Wellington. Available to purchase at the exhibition (collection on conclusion of exhibition).

A busy tui breaks from feeding on flax flower nectar to briefly survey its surroundings. Behind, the mature plantings and fields along the river corridor provide a ready source of food for a variety of bird life. Original acrylic painting on stretched canvas. 12 inch X 16 inch (30.48cm x 40.64cm).

Image: Louise Thomas.

November 2023: Selected for New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts Fantastic Beasts Exhibition, 1 December – 7 January 2024, Academy Galleries, Open 10am - 5pm daily, 1 Queens Wharf, Wellington. Available to purchase at the exhibition (collection on conclusion of exhibition).

Grey teals love to rest in the shady gloom of trees around lakes and wetlands, waiting for dusk when they begin feeding. Here a pair of teals rest on a fallen trunk over the water, shaded by a canopy of bare twigs filtering the light. Original acrylic painting on A3 360gsm acrylic card.

Image: Louise Thomas.

November 2023: Selected for New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts Fantastic Beasts Exhibition, 1 December – 7 January 2024, Academy Galleries, Open 10am - 5pm daily, 1 Queens Wharf, Wellington. Available to purchase at the exhibition (collection on conclusion of exhibition).

Many birds are cryptic in their environment, you often don't see them at first, but suddenly your focus changes and there they are. Original acrylic painting on A3 360gsm acrylic card.

Image: Louise Thomas.

October 2023: LESS THE 10 LEFT - ORDER NOW. The Wild birds of New Zealand 2024 Calendar is available to order and ship now, with payment by bank deposit (GST tax invoices available on request). The 2024 calendar features the stunning wild blue ducks/whio from Mount Ruapehu as well as 11 other native New Zealand birds. Large A3 (297mmX420mm) portrait calendar on 150gsm gloss art paper, with the cover on 300gsm gloss art board. Printed on one side and spiral bound. Excellent Christmas gift for the bird-lover in your life.

Email Louise if you would like one, NZ$29 each inclusive of GST, plus NZ Post courier at cost (if required). Click here to see a PDF of the complete calendar. Cash on pick-up from Woburn, Lower Hutt or deposit to bank account prior to shipping or pick-up.

Blue duck/whio at Whakapapanui Stream, Mount Ruapehu. Image: Louise Thomas.

September 2023: Tui can be surprisingly late night creatures, often active and singing well past sun down. This urban tui dines late on flax flowers while street lights reflect off the wet road and dark park woods behind.

Original acrylic painting on A3 360gsm acrylic card. Comes unframed or in smart budget black frame with white matt card and D rings for hanging. Unframed: NZ$750; Framed: $810.00 (budget), plus shipping if any (I can deliver for free around the Hutt area, or you are welcome to collect from Woburn, Lower Hutt).

For queries and/or to view please send Louise an email on louise@louisethomas.co.nz with your address for shipping, etc. and we will send you an invoice for payment.

Image: Louise Thomas.

August 2023: SOLD. A blue duck/whio whistles upstream to his mate at the Whakapapanui Stream at Mt Ruapehu. Original acrylic painting on A3 360gsm acrylic card.

This painting is sold, but for queries about commissions or any other paintings please send Louise an email on louise@louisethomas.co.nz

Image: Louise Thomas.

August 2023: A number of Louise's photos are now available as Adobe Stock photos. Check out her Adobe photo portfolio.

You can also purchase photos directly from Louise from a very reasonable fee. For queries please send Louise an email on louise@louisethomas.co.nz.

Image: Louise Thomas.

• Adobe Stock

A limited amount (only 20) of stunning kererū/wood pigeon prints drawn by Caitlin Thomas-Riley are now available. Slightly smaller than an A3 size, these cost $50.00 each inclusive of GST, plus postage at cost (or free pick-up from Woburn, Lower Hutt). All prints numbered and signed. ONLY FOUR LEFT

Send Louise an email on louise@louisethomas.co.nz with your address for shipping, etc. and we will send you an invoice for payment.

Image: Caitlin Thomas-Riley.

September 2022: (SOLD OUT) 2023 Wild Birds of New Zealand - Available to pre-order now, with invoice for payment and calendar sent in October 2022. Email louise@louisethomas.co.nz for more details or if you would like see a PDF of the complete calendar before your order. $28 each plus courier at cost, or pick up from Woburn, Lower Hutt. The 2023 calendar features the stunning North Island Robin/Toutouwai from Whanganui (shown above) as well as 11 other native New Zealand birds. Large A3 (297mmX420mm) portrait calendar on 150gsm gloss art paper, with the cover on 300gsm gloss art board. Printed on one side and spiral bound. Excellent Christmas gift for the bird-lover in your life.

Robin/Toutouwai, Bushy Park, Whanganui. Photo: Louise Thomas.

February 2021: A rare sighting on Valentine's Day made the local paper.

July 2020: Caitlin Thomas-Riley's'

A study examining the voices of kiwi in the Paparoa Range hopes to identify unique voices of individual birds and shed new light on their territorial roaming and other interactions. Image drawn by Caitlin Thomas-Riley.

June 2020: My photo of a tui (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae) in the rain, taken December 2019 featured on the cover of the 2019 New Zealand Garden Bird Survey published 19 June 2020.

June 2020: This stunning bellbird (Anthornis melanura), aka Korimako, feeding in rare flowering red mistletoe (Peraxilla tetrapetala) has just been provided to the Ōhau Conservation Trust for use in an interpretation panel to be published in September 2020.

May 2020: This job was a favour for a school-teacher friend who is trying to get her junior school (five and six year olds) students moving. We came up with a coffee-card style idea where students get a star clipped or a small sticker on their card for every 500m completed. Completed cards can go in the draw for a prize. Apparently it was a hit.

May 2019: Southern black-backed gull (Larus dominicanus) with party balloon fragment - highlighting the dangers of plastics and party balloons in marine environments. Image published in Artists Down Under magazine - May 2019.

January 2019: Overhaul of the Centre for Minerals and Environmental Research (CMER) website to make it mobile friendly.

CMER members have been doing some amazing research into how to regenerate, restore, and detox old and existing mining sites. Did you know, that despite our clean, green image, New Zealand had one of the most arsenic-contaminated sites in the world at the old Prohibition Gold Mine site on the West Coast? CMER members have been involved in the research to clean it up. They are also currently working on the Bellvue Mine site near Greymouth, cleaning up acid mine drainage using, of all things, mussel shells. The results are looking good.