Pat Cush and Neddal Ayyad exhibiting their work at Whanganui's Space Gallery

Abstract painter Pat Cush in front of one of his works at Space Gallery. Photo / Bevan Conley

Two Whanganui-based artists - abstract painter Pat Cush and photographer Neddal Ayyad - have exhibitions opening at Space Gallery this week.

Cush, whose exhibition is called Valley of the Planet of the Terminators, said he used colour and texture to "make environments".

"There's always lots of colour and lots of craziness, that's just what I do," Cush said.

"Sometimes they're loose and sometimes they're tight, and I usually apply my paintings with ridiculous titles that are just there for entertainment.

"Sometimes they earn their titles though, for whatever reason.

"I'll have two biggies on display, along with eight smaller ones."

Neddal Ayyad moved to Whanganui from Newfoundland, Canada, two years ago and, after only planning on staying for a year, said he decided to stay in the city indefinitely.

"Whanganui can be a weird, transient kind of place, and Newfoundland tends to be a weird, transient province, so there's a parallel between the two places," Ayyad said.

Photographer Neddal Ayyad. Photo / Bevan Conley

"There's a really good art scene in Whanganui, with a lot of interesting characters, and that tends to draw people here."

Ayyad's exhibition Storm Tossed features photographs taken in Newfoundland in January, after the biggest snowstorm on record.

"The day after the storm me and my friend went to a little fishing village called Brigus, and we ventured down to the beach area there," Ayyad said.

"Some of the fishing boats had been picked up and washed over the dock there, and my friend looked at me and said 'the sea is not supposed to be here'."

Instead of photographing the damage from the storm, Ayyad said he got "hyper-focused" on the patterns in the ice.

"There were winds of over around 120 kilometres per hour, so the spray was coming off the water and freezing.

"That, in turn, created some really interesting, abstract patterns."

Ayyad said people could look at his collection and see similarities between Newfoundland and New Zealand.

Both collections will open at the Space Gallery on Wednesday, July 8, from 5.30pm-7pm. The exhibitions will run until July 18.