“But I thought it might be interesting to go back to the part of the iceberg under the surface and tell the story of how an untrained artist got to where he is now. So the show is basically a story with pictures.”
But Beginnings is more than the series of 31 artworks. It includes jewel-case-like vitrines loaded with paperwork, memorabilia . . . accoutrements that tell the tale of an artist's journey.
It's all pulled together by a publication that is not just a catalogue; it includes a comprehensive essay that follows Ireland's journey and inspirations from a boy growing up in the West Coast town of Hokitika, to a mature artist already well established in his career.
To be accurate, Ireland has only been painting full-time since 1976, staging his first public show five years later and having been involved in close to 100 exhibitions in the years since.
But he believes those earlier years were critical to both his inspirations, and his burgeoning passion around art and, more specifically, painting.
That the pieces included come to a halt in 2004 does not mean that is when the work dried up. Ireland says he's created 340 works in the 18 years since then.
In fact, he has a brand new series of 22 small works, to be exhibited at Hastings City Art Gallery from the end of this week.
Collectively entitled Essentially Medieval: What Did Rita Angus Mean?, the work showcases his particular passion for taking the language, history and examples of religious painting in European tradition, and inserting it into an incongruously colonial landscape.
Ireland is the first to admit his recent workload has been a trial; the two exhibitions created and organised during a period where he has undergone two hip replacements, with all the inconvenience — and pain — that entails. But the prospect of taking a breather never occurred to him.
“At almost 75 I'm very aware of time hurrying by. There's just not time to stop and rest as I still have so much to do,” he says.
“And during the past year's medical challenges, being able to concentrate on further work was a helpful distraction to keep my focus away from pain and disability.”
Beginnings is not the first survey show Ireland has staged in Gisborne. In 2013, he mined local private collections to pull together a collection of 12 previously unexhibited paintings, by both himself and other artists.
That wasn't about him, he says. The idea was to trace a web of social connection and ties that bind the Gisborne community.
Those ties certainly were strong. Having grown up in Hokitika and, as an adult, lived mainly in the Wellington region, Ireland moved to Gisborne in the mid-1980s and remained for more than a decade before relocating to Whanganui in 1995.
In 2020 he returned to Gisborne where he lives en route to Wainui Beach, surrounded by the inspiration of his extensive library of historical art.
For Ireland, being geographically detached from the art scenes of the bigger centres gives him the space to develop his work free from commercial pressures.
“And that's a gift beyond rubies,” he says. “I have seen so many artists ruined by being driven to crank out the sort of imagery they're associated with. That is just not for me.”
Almost entirely self-taught, Ireland believes there is no one template for becoming an artist and Beginnings is simply his journey, one driven by circumstances, mentors, commitment and sheer determination.
“While there have been many zig-zags in the course of my career, I've never lost sight of that urge to just do it,” he says.
“You have to be really driven to do this work, and that I was clear by the age of five about what I really wanted to do has been a huge advantage.”
Beginnings: The Origins and Progress of a Painter, is on at Tairawhiti Museum until November 13. There will be a floor talk from the artist at a date yet to be finalised.
