Dannevirke: Painter draws on NZ history in series seen around world

Producer and interviewer Graeme Stevenson talks with painter Mike Harold, filmed by Sophia Stacey.

"Visual narrative storytelling," is how Dannevirke painter Mike Harold describes his art. He likes to pursue a theme and capture the story in a series of paintings which record an aspect of New Zealand life.

He is currently working on the 21st of 24 planned paintings covering the 1950s when aerial top-dressing transformed the New Zealand economy.

"It was an era of amazingly skilled and often cavalier pilots who had the Kiwi No8 wire know-how to get things done," he said.

He grew up in that era at Glengarry and as a youngster the topdressing pilots were his heroes. Many, like Vic Christie, developed into local legends and there have been great stories told about them. Many of the stories were humorous and Mr Harold has used this humour in his paintings.

His major source is possibly the rarest book in New Zealand aviation - The Topdressers, by Janac Geeden, published in 1983. The paintings bring these stories to life for those unable to find a copy.

He has done several series of paintings over the years, including Last Foxtrot in Mangakino about the exploits of George Wilder. For his series on World War II called Peas and Onions for Tea, he took eight months to decipher and record the stories in his dad's war diary before he picked up his paintbrush.

The latter series featured at the Waiouru Museum in 2012 for a year and featured on Jim Mora's National Radio programme and a series on Maori Television called The Art of War.

It was this work which attracted the attention of Graeme Stevenson, owner, producer and interviewer for TV documentary Put Some Colour In Your Life.

Operating out of the Gold Coast Australia, the programmes on artists screen world-wide on Foxtel in Australia, 48 channels on PBS in America, on Sky NZ and YouTube.

Stevensen is an artist himself with 30 years experience, many in the US, and he saw an opening to promote other artists. Starting in Australia, he featured that country's best artists in short documentaries which soon gained an enthusiastic following.

Six months ago he filmed a series of South Island artists and he approached Mike Harold to be in one of his North Island series which already includes Craig Primrose QSM and Jacky Pearson.

For Mr Harold the timing was perfect having just announced his retirement from teaching technology at Dannevirke High School. It means that he has the chance to reach a global audience, from a small rural town, and with the extra time he will be able to create more work.

He believes our history is "our taonga" and needs to be told before its participants die off.

"Art is story-telling," he says. Some of his series cannot be broken up and sold as they are part of New Zealand's heritage, he believes.

He has a selection of limited prints from key images of previous exhibitions and plans to sell them along with his current series.