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A Lifelong Practice: Maxine Burney’s Artistic Journey
Russley Events
For Christchurch-based artist Maxine Burney, becoming a full-time artist was a natural progression of passion and productivity. Her creative journey has never followed a single path, but reflects a lifelong practice shaped by craft, travel, art history and an ongoing exploration of materials and styles.
“I love to create. It’s both my passion and my profession. I work hard at it,” says Maxine, whose love of making began in childhood through craft-based learning, including embroidery and design at school in Christchurch and later at Otago Girls’ High School in Dunedin. These early experiences sparked a lasting interest in making by hand, which has continued to evolve.
While on her OE, that interest was reignited when Maxine studied embroidery and design at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in India, where she also began sharing creative skills with children, and later at the Royal School of Needlework in London. Time spent in Europe, including working as a nanny in Paris, exposed her to galleries and sparked a deeper interest in art history.
Back in New Zealand, she continued to study art across a range of media, much of it at Nelson Polytechnic, where she completed a Certificate in Visual Arts along with Certificates in Adult Teaching (Levels 1 and 2). During this time, she also developed her portraiture skills, taking her work into the marketplace.
Following her return to Christchurch in 1997, Maxine began working at The Arts Centre, establishing her own studio practice. After a break following the 2011 earthquakes, she returned in 2021. “It’s been a natural place for me to work, with its community atmosphere and focus on promoting individual creativity.”
Over the years, Maxine has worked with visitors, students, locals and fellow artists across group and solo exhibitions, contributing to others’ creative growth while continuing to embrace what she describes as the “artistic challenge”: staying relevant, adapting to the unpredictable nature of an artist’s life, and remaining both grounded and creatively open.
Maxine has been involved with Arts Canterbury since its early days and is a long-standing member of the Sumner Art Society and the Otago Art Society, exhibiting regularly with both.
She has exhibited in around five shows at Russley Village, which she describes as enjoyable, low-key exhibitions in a warm, familiar environment close to home. “I like them. They’re relaxed. You get to mix with interesting residents, Arts Canterbury peers and visitors. There’s a café on site, and it’s very comfortable.”
Maxine worked in pastel for many years but now primarily works in acrylics, which allows her the flexibility to move between detailed, structured work and more free-flowing, intuitive approaches. She is drawn to variety in her practice and rarely works in a single style or subject for long.
“I’ve always enjoyed variety in my art-making. Genres, subject matter, everything. I’m not fixed to one thing. I often have a few works on the go at once, including abstract, landscape and intuitive work. These are pieces that need time to settle and evolve. Each painting is a new challenge, a new learning.”
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