Jay Pressnell

Evoke 
Artwork

‘Art should encourage people to share ideas and experiences, to create opportunities to question, create and ultimately help us map our pathway through life by encouraging us to make decisions and judgements about our own existence, and the huge variety of worlds we reside within’.

Born in London, England in the 1970s, Jay Pressnell has grown up with creativity, history, music and storytelling as a major component deeply embedded into his life. His creative path and passions journeyed through drawing, painting, design, film, wildlife, the natural world, travel and music. A formal arts education took him through secondary school, then onto a variety of art colleges and institutes in London, such as Central St Martins, Ravensbourne College of Design. He studied illustration and design at the University of Wales in 1998, before finally studying for his Post Graduate Certificate in Art Education at Canterbury Christchurch University College in 2004.

Jay has exhibited throughout the UK in numerous exhibitions, from The Wildlife Art Annual Show in Westminster, London, to the Kent Artists Association Exhibition. He has illustrated books for Souvenir Press in London and has designed publicity material for numerous agencies in the UK. He has been represented by Fisher’s Fine Arts in Riccarton, Christchurch in 2000 and has exhibited in numerous group shows since arriving in NZ, from Portraiture work to Audio/Visual Representations.

Since emigrating to New Zealand with his family in 2008, Jay has worked at Pukekohe High School in Auckland and enjoyed working closely with other creative educators to establish a strong future-focused approach to the Visual Arts with the establishment of digital assessment, moving image and new courses such as Motion Special Effects, linked to creating pathways into the film and gaming industries for students. Jay has spoken at the last 4 National Art Teachers' Conferences across New Zealand and facilitated numerous workshops and professional learning opportunities for teachers.

Jay continues to exhibit and create new creative opportunities for himself and others. Future based technologies and new pathways for creativity and storytelling are the key elements which drive him and most of those current, past and future projects are represented within this website. 

Glenbrook Railway Section frpm Journey 1