Three local masters of painting - Brent Redding, Michael Blow and Ion Brown - are showing together at Red Peach Gallery in Ahuriri for the first time.
Redding held his first local solo exhibition in eight years last year at Red Peach. While he has always embraced different genres, forthe past few years he has "learned to embrace" randomness and developed a taste for subtler aspects of light in his personal work, much of it landscapes.
Blow has become known for his realistic landscapes, still lifes and portraits, but has taken a different tack this time.
His paintings' source was a trip to Te Pohue when he joined a film crew documenting a group of "medieval knights" in training, in preparation for representing NZ at the 2014 Battle of the Nations in Luxembourg. "I'm probably doing more portraits than landscapes and still lifes at the moment, but they all require a depth of consideration."
Like the others Brown has been painting for many years, from when he was a child. Dunedin born and raised, he originally moved to Napier 50 years ago to start an engraving business but, following classes with former Elam tutor Peter Brown, became an artist going fulltime back in the 1980s. During the 10 years he spent as the official New Zealand Army artist, he was able to travel to many countries to places of significance in the country's military history, particularly for the 75th anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign, and 50th anniversaries of many battles. One of his most important paintings from that time, The Battle of Chunuk Bair, hangs in Parliament.
One of Brown's favourite places to paint was up the Tuki Tuki valley, and which his renditions of still continue to sell well.
Nowadays he doesn't paint on site as much, but modern tools such as a digital camera certainly help, he says. He often tears down to Ahuriri to take pictures of sunsets.
Michael Blow, Ion Brown and Brent Redding, Red Peach Gallery, Ahuriri, Napier, from Saturday until December 1.
