ARTIST OF THE MONTH

The New Plymouth photographer whose work captures that most special of childhood bonds.

It’s a beautiful portrait; a perfect representation of innocence, purity and chicken love. It’s also full of delightful little surprises. Like the fact that this painterly old master-style work is a photograph, by self-taught mum-of-three Lizzie Gilmour. The subject (the unfeathered one) may have Little Lord Fauntleroy written all over him, but ‘he’ is actually the photographer’s six-year-old daughter Finlay. And the chicken’s name is Optimus Prime, but she’s a girl too.

“Finn’s a real tomboy and just LOVES her chicken. She’s got her fingernails painted pink and it’s all chipped off. It’s part of the story,” Lizzie tells dish from her lifestyle section in Ōakura, New Plymouth. “I grew up being really influenced by the old Western paintings. Like the Charlie Russells, the old-style portraits. Kiwi-born artist Mike Ponder was a huge influence too.”

Lizzie studied mechanical engineering, and worked on her beef and sheep farm before starting to take photos of her own kids. She now also ‘dabbles’ in weddings and newborn portraits, but children with their pets is her first love.

Check out the work on her website and you’ll see ducks and chickens perched on shoulders, even a boy with a pony. We don’t wish to be rude… but are these Photoshopped? “Most are holding the animals,” says Lizzie, not a bit insulted. “There are some that are composite. They’ll be done at the same time but separately, always under the same light. But the connection is always there, between the child and the animal.”