When you marvel at the creativity of the mother-daughter artists, Reina Cottier (mother) and Brielle Cottier-Hall (daughter), you perceive a profoundly enchanting mother-daughter relationship.
With their lyrical names: Reina – named after a beguiling ballerina; Brielle – an exalted goddess; it’s easy to see how this ancestral powerhouse of creativity came to embody the haven of talent that exists in Tairua, the Coromandel.
Reina was not always an artist. Her career started as a hairdresser. She owned a salon and a salon consulting company and went to the top of her profession in all areas. When she decided to have children, she sold all her businesses, had babies, and thought, “Gosh, I love my babies!” But she was really bored, she needed to do something that wasn’t babies and toddlers.
Reina started painting and went to an art class; ‘Awaken the Artist Within’ and it was exactly what she needed. Reina says, “It wasn’t about learning to paint an apple, or a horse, it was about finding what is inside. What your passions are. Soul art.”
Within a short space of time, Reina ditched her class, started a home studio, which was the beginning of a very intense decade of diving into themes and mediums.
Reina paints intuitively, painting her joy, in the moment. She does not pre-plan, or sketch. Straight onto canvas, whatever unfolds, in the moment, in that medium – acrylics, inks, etc.
Reina loves to paint things that make her joyful. She does not paint portraits. No realism of people. She’s depicted Brielle, a mermaid series. She’s done sunflowers, which are her other daughter. She’s done a goddess series and meditation series with female faces but nothing photographic. If it doesn’t bring joy, Reina doesn’t do it.
When did Brielle start singing?
BCH:
“I was three. My sister was one. We were driving somewhere. A ballad came on called, “I want to spend my lifetime loving you”. The notes – I just belted it out word-for-word from beginning to end. Belt!”
RC:
“We’re not even talking like, no, we’re talking this POWER. She had the face. She was singing it, and pitch perfect. I had to pull over. Oh, it was one of those. Oh. My. God.”
BCH:
“That’s when my parents recognised that I could sing. And that’s all I’ve ever really known.
I was playing ukulele for a little while there. And my stepdad, Jerry, really encouraged me to get into the guitar. And I was like, oh, no, like, no, no, thank you. And one day, something changed. It just clicked I was about eight.
I just said to Jerry (my stepdad), can I please use your guitar? And he said, “Oh my gosh, of course go for it.” All the songs were from his era, the 60s onwards and I was like, let’s just pick a random one. I picked, “Knocking on heaven’s door” by Bob Dylan. And I taught myself how to play that [obviously!] with a completely different melody, completely different tunes, completely different… Brielle-style. I taught myself how to play that and was like wow, cool. And from then on, I have been playing guitar and singing.
Then my journey kicked off. It all started. Brendan Finn, the Principal, recognised I had talent. He guided me; he was amazing. I sang a lot at school and Tairua Wine and Food Festival. Yeah, so the prize-giving at the school, I opened the new gardens singing Waiata, I did Tairua wine and food festival for five years and I got a lot of recognition through that, which led onto doing gigs at Flock and other local restaurants and it was about them. Because of that, the food – CFM noticed me.
And then Sebastian Pan (a well-known music producer) reached out. He discovered me on Facebook, and really liked my voice. He asked if I would do a cover Riptide with him.
Because of this, CFM started to want our songs on the radio so they’ve been interviewing me regularly. Everything has just skyrocketed.’
Stay tuned for more news on what is next for Reina and Brielle.
