Whanganui artist Sheila Pearson pokes fun at pomposity with gallery of goats

Sheila Pearson's Lineage exhibition at Rayner Brothers Gallery is guaranteed to make visitors smile. Photo / Bevan Conley

Playing the goat takes on new meaning with Sheila Pearson's Lineage exhibition showing at Rayner Brothers Gallery in Glasgow St.

They say you can't choose your family but the artist has chosen a line-up of interesting ancestors for this portrait gallery and every one of them is a goat.

"I love goats - they are so expressive and they make me smile," Pearson said.

"I wanted to poke fun at my English ancestry and the pomposity of old portraiture."

Her beautifully painted portraits in the style of old masters' realism would look right at home hanging on the walls of any stately home if it weren't for the species of the subjects.

Sir Ernest Balderdash of Twattsbury Downs by Sheila Pearson. Photo / Bevan Conley

She collects the ornate frames from second-hand shops and online markets and says they have become something of an obsession.

"A friend of mine recently dragged my collection into my living room to show me just how many I have and it did motivate me to use them."

The frames often inspire the paintings and she imagines the character that will look at home in each one.

Pearson adds to the humorous quality of her works by giving her subjects preposterous family names such as Balderdash-Smythe or Balderdash-Twattersly.

There are great aunts and uncles, distant cousins, knights, members of the clergy and even a concubine.

The largest painting in the exhibition is a shameless re-imagining of the 17th century Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres painting La Grande Odalisque.

An elegant goat reclines on her chaise lounge with little back hooves resting in the manner of the model's feet in the original painting.

The painting has sold but other works in the Lineage exhibition are still for sale and, at the very least, this exhibition is guaranteed to make you smile.

Next door at Gallery 85 in Glasgow St is an exhibition named Arthouse which includes works by a wide array of Whanganui artists.

"A local collector is moving to a smaller home and needs to downsize," curator Paul Rayner said.

"There are some fabulous works here and some have been expensively framed so the prices are very good."

The exhibition includes works by Rick Rudd, Rachel Garland, Katherine Claypole, Katie Brown, Ivan Vostinar, Rena Starr, Sarah Williams, Bernie Steyn, Lauren Lysaght and more.

Both exhibitions are showing at 85 Glasgow St, open from 11am to 3pm, Wednesday to Saturday.