Taupō woodturner Robbie Graham's art rules supreme at exhibition

Taupō wood artist Robbie Graham with his Art of Wood Exhibition winning artworks. From left: Chalice 2, supreme award winner Nexus 5, Ragged 8 and Leaves 3 (foreground). Photo / Laurilee McMichael

Walk into Robbie and Sue Graham's Wildwood Gallery at Waitahanui and there's an entire wall covered in award certificates.

Last week Robbie was able to notch up five more for the wall of fame, including one particularly prestigious one.

His stunning wood-turned artwork Nexus 5, of black maire with pyrography and iridescent paint, was named Supreme Exhibit at the Art of Wood Exhibition recently.

In addition, Nexus 5 won first place in the Ornamental category of the awards.

Three more of Robbie's artworks also won in the Ornamental category - third place and two Highly Commendeds. In all, four of the seven artworks he submitted won a placing or a judges' nod.

Considering just under 300 pieces were entered into Art of Wood, it was a pretty good outing for Robbie. He says he doesn't enter awards as often these days because the prize money is not worth the effort involved in sending away an artwork to be judged.

But with Art of Wood being run online only, all Robbie had to do was supply decent pictures of the artworks - not a problem because this artist is also an accomplished photographer.

Run by the National Association of Wood Workers, Art of Wood was open only to New Zealanders. And Robbie wasn't the only local artist to find success. Taupō wood artist Troy Grimwood won a third place and a highly commended in Bowls and a highly commended in the Natural category.

Robbie says winning the supreme exhibit was "a real buzz".

The award was selected from the winning piece in each category but initially he didn't notice that he had snagged it. It wasn't until a friend messaged him with congratulations that he actually found out Nexus 5 was tops.

Robbie Graham's artwork Nexus 5 was named Supreme Exhibit at the Art of Wood Exhibition. Photo / Robbie Graham

Robbie says winning was a thrill, even more so because there were three international and one national judge involved, all world-renowned woodturners in their own right.

Nexus 5 is an artwork Robbie made for Wildwood Gallery's 25th anniversary exhibition earlier this year.

Robbie has been working with wood for 40 years after an original career as an engineer which he threw in to become a commercial woodturner in Perth making pieces for furniture.

"We [he and wife Sue, also an artist] had come back to New Zealand to get married and someone had given us some totara goblets and when I went back to Australia I thought 'I can make some of these', and I started woodturning. I started making stuff straight away and selling it.

Leaves 3, made of matai with pygrography, gained a Highly Commended in the Ornamental category. Photo / Robbie Graham

"I was self-taught, read some books and learned by my mistakes and I was lucky. I knew a guy who was doing a little bit of woodturning at the time and he gave me one of his clients. I had that client for 10 years, doing product turning for a furniture manufacturer, and that was all I did. I didn't start my art woodturning until 1994, just before we came back here."

The couple moved back to New Zealand in 1995 and opened their own gallery. Robbie says that over the years his style has evolved, particularly in embellishing his work with pyrography, which he has become known for.

"It's really coming up with a design of your own that makes the difference,something that sets you apart from others so people can recognise your work straight away. If I post my work on a world forum people can see that it's mine by looking at the designs."

Ragged 8, made of olive wood, gained a Highly Commended in the Ornamental category. Photo / Robbie Graham

Besides woodturning, Robbie also does photography and mixed-media sculptures made of metal and wood and his giant metal sculpture outside the gallery on State Highway 1 in Waitahanui has become a local landmark.

He says what he likes about woodturning is that he can take a hunk of wood and create something beautiful, special and unique out of it. When he's making something for a competition he wants to create a work that's out of the ordinary and push the boundaries.

He makes his own pyrography blades, which are heated up to create the designs on the wood art. He uses different-size blades for different effects and then carefully airbrushes or hand-paints them with iridescent paint. On Nexus 5, the pyrography alone took around 10 hours.

The piece is on sale at Wildwood Gallery at Waitahanui for $1250.

Robbie's winning pieces

Supreme Exhibit: Nexus 5, a sculpture made of black maire with painted pyrography

3rd place: Chalice 2, a sculpture made from rhododendron wood with painted pyrography

Two highly commended pieces: Ragged 8 which was turned and carved from olive wood and Leaves 3, a turned carved piece in matai with pyrography and iridescent paint.