Hayley Elliott-Kernot

Hayley Elliott-Kernot is a painter and children's book creator here in Taranaki. After taking a two-year break from painting when her studio was turned into a nursery, she has very gratefully returned to painting in her new garage studio. 'The common thread that influences all my creative work is ‘stories’. Reading, telling and re-telling tales has always been an integral part of my life, from my love of reading and making up fantasy worlds when I was young, to illustrating children’s books, to my continuing passion for mythology, history and legends. Portraits are the main subject for my artwork because I am drawn to faces. A person’s face is like the cover of a book, concealing years’ worth of stories all intricately entwined to weave the fabric of who they are. In every human there are countless strands, love, hope, pain, fear, friendship, and a face is the doorway for the greatest and most complex tale of all. '