Works by renowned New Zealand expressionist painter Philip Trusttum have gone on public display in his home town of Raetihi.
Trusttum, who recently celebrated his 80th birthday, was born in the Ruapehu town and lived there until the age of five.
"My dad was a lay preacher there for the Methodist Church there for a while, and he played rugby for King Country," Trusttum said.
"He played with King Country, Waikato, and Thames Valley against the 1937 Springboks as well."
Trusttum said it was in Raetihi where he did his first drawing, of a reindeer and Father Christmas.
"Apparently the teacher was quite impressed with it and word got back to my mum, so I went home and did another one on the blackboard to show everyone.
"I was only at school in Raetihi for three months before my family returned back down to Christchurch."
Whanganui's Bill Milbank, who has a large collection of Trusttum's works and curated the exhibition, said there were two things that he tried to do when selecting the paintings.
"One was to try to be expansive as possible without calling in work from anywhere else," Milbank said.
"There is work from the early 1970s through to 2019, so it covers a very significant period of his life.
"Then what I tried to do was get two or three pairings of things, so people could see that he would make a painting and then quickly do another one.
"Philip tends to say that he makes his next work from the mistakes he sees in his last work."
Milbank said Trusttum's work dealt with "the vibrancy of life".
"He's still working frequently, with big pieces too," he said.
"The works will be two to three metres high and one and a half to two metres wide.
"He works on the floor, working around the painting as opposed to being in front of it, so frequently his perspective will be quite unconventional, what you would describe as 'God's eye'."
Trusttum said his father quit the Methodist Church as a preacher when he was told to stop "fraternising" with local Māori in Raetihi in the 1940s.
"He said 'well in that case I'm not preaching at the Methodist Church'.
"He read from the Māori bible and he was way ahead of his time."
After his family had moved to Christchurch, Trusttum said he next went back to Raetihi around age 21 or 22.
"I caught the train from Wellington and got off at Taumarunui, and slept overnight in the bracken because it was summer.
"Then I walked to Raetihi the next day and went to the old picture theatre there and slept in the rugby fields the following evening."
The works will be up at the Raetihi Arts Trust Gallery until mid September.