Museum Talk: Percy inspires painter

Rotorua residents have the opportunity to hear an exclusive talk about acclaimed New Zealand artist Graham Percy.

Writer and painter Gregory O'Brien will be in Rotorua to give an insight into Percy as well as his own career.

O'Brien, who is the curator of The Imaginative Life and Times of Graham Percy, will host a talk sharing the stories behind this exhibition and his own career.

O'Brien has excelled as a writer, poet, editor and painter winning several awards for his books. He won the New Zealand Post Book Award for Children and Young People in 2009 for Back and Beyond: New Zealand Painting for the Young and Curious.

O'Brien has edited and contributed to reviews, books, magazines and annuals across the world.

He said his inspiration for developing and curating The Imaginative Life and Times of Graham Percy was drawn from an opportunity to live in the Percy family home in London the year after Percy's death.

This experience of living among Percy's artwork, book shelves and files motivated O'Brien to write A Micronaut in the Wide World: The Imaginative Life and Times of Graham Percy.

He said he was struck by Percy's imaginative flights launched by the ordinary details of his everyday environment.

Percy, who was an artist, designer and illustrator, travelled widely and built a career based on closely observed detail. Born in Taranaki in 1938, Percy spent his apprentice years in Auckland before moving to London.

His colour blindness meant the bulk of his work was in black and white, while any colour works were a complicated matter requiring meticulously ordered and named pencils and paints.

Percy considered himself a Kiwi artist working in Great Britain.

O'Brien's exclusive talk will be at the Rotorua Museum on Sunday, July 1, at 2pm.

The exhibition, The Imaginative Life and Times of Graham Percy, will run at Rotorua Museum until July 16.

Entry to the talk is $5. Contact Rotorua Museum for bookings on (07) 350 7829.