Biography

Esther Dexter is becoming a well-known artist in Central Otago, New Zealand. Inspired by Van Gogh, Matisse and even Don Binney, she is recognised by her own unique use of acrylics and vivid textures to evoke graphic local land forms. Accompanying each work is often a brief history of the landscape incorporating human endeavours and geological facts.
Born in England in 1970, Esther is a self-taught artist. Although she is naturally innovative and experimental to her approach to imagemaking, Esther gleans inspiration and ideas from her creative family; Esther’s uncle is an architect and interior designer, and her mother, who studied at Hornsey College of Art, was always setting the example as an illustrator as Esther was growing up. In her early twenties Esther made her living as a portrait artist, and since moving to New Zealand has tutored at the Wanaka Art Centre.
Esther has received recognition at various events. Dexter’s art is often about contrasts – contrasts of texture and theme, man-made versus natural, realism versus abstract, calm versus turbulence and inhabitance versus emptiness.