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Toni Duffy was born in Christchurch in 1966, leaving at age 7 and not returning until 30 years later, where she and her family settled at Waikuku Beach in North Canterbury.
She was educated in Nelson and on leaving school trained to become a nurse. Nursing provided the opportunity to travel extensively and it was in England, as an adult student that Duffy attended the “Surrey Institute of Art and Design”, undertaking a diploma in foundation studies. Thus, fulfilling a lifelong dream to pursue a career in the arts.
A return to New Zealand in 2003 saw the realization of this dream when she was asked to be part of a group exhibition at “Heart of Art “gallery in Christchurch. Since then, Duffy has been exhibiting successfully in shows and galleries throughout the South Island. She also accepts an increasing amount of commission work.
Duffy is also a member of the WAI group, who holds a highly regarded and successful exhibition in Waikuku each February.

Duffy’s early works reflect a figurative style, working with acrylic paints. However, she has made a gradual progression to a more expressive style and now works in oils on canvas.
She applies her paint in thick layers, manipulating it with a variety of tools and brushes. This creates abstract images with texture, depth of colour and movement, all of which captures the mood of the subjects she paints.
Duffy paints a variety of subjects. Her early works feature sensitive figurative paintings of people. These works ranged from the quirky and humorous to images of people feeling pain and despair. Duffy wanted to achieve a connection and understanding between the viewer and painting.
 Later works show a progression towards more abstract images of landscapes and people interacting with the environment they live in. When she paints people within these landscapes, they often appear part of the fabric of the land. These paintings capture an organic interrelationship between landscape and people and their impact on each other.

“My aim is to capture the essence of a place or person. I aim to scratch the surface and paint how I feel about the subject through my own experiences. I don’t want to reproduce images but interpret what I see and feel.
My interpretation of a place or person will be as individual as that of the viewers; however I hope to create something that the viewer can relate to on some level.”

Toni has been teaching for the past 4 years.Painting is taught to all levels of abilities in acrylic and oil mediums. The emphasis is on teaching students the skills to paint while developing their own artistic style.
Toni teaches from her Waikuku based studio to both adults and children. She also holds regular workshops teaching landscape painting at various locations around Canterbury.