There's always a painting to do

190216PBDonGaye OPEN STUDIO: Gaye Downing and Don Hill will have an array of works in oils on display for Artists Open Studios. PICTURE / PAUL BROOKS

Gaye Downing and Don Hill, painters, are number 57 in the Artists Open Studios brochure.
It is customary for the two to join forces at Open Studios time, displaying their work at Don's No 2 Line home and working studio, in a setting big enough for some of Don's vast landscapes and yet able to display Gaye's much smaller bird paintings to their full advantage. Don says he can and does work on a smaller scale.
"I'm going to have quite a few unframed, small paintings for sale," he says. "I'll do cards like I did last year," says Gaye.
Open Studios is as much about sales as it is widening the artists' exposure to a bigger audience.
"I paint for a living," says Don.
It's good to get known and appreciated in Whanganui but mostly it's the out-of-towners who make an appointment to see your gallery and buy some of the paintings, says Gaye. A lot of the visitors during the two Open Studios weekends are from out of town.
"Most people come out because they appreciate art," says Don. "A small percentage buy, but they keep coming back."
Last year Don and Gaye received a lot of visitors at the studio, about 500 in all, so it was certainly worthwhile.
Gaye's birds and still life paintings are generally small and easy to find wall space for in any home. Their intimate nature and chunky frames are a delight. Don's larger scenes of recognisable rural landscapes are a different matter but certainly sought after. A Kai Iwi Beach vista hangs on the wall, a window into a well-known local scene. In another painting a fisherman tries his luck at a spot in a river familiar to both Don and Gaye.
"There's a hell of a lot of trout in there," says Don. Gaye recalls hooks getting stuck in awkward places.
Both artists treat painting as a job with a certain number of hours in which to complete a task. Don prefers to paint in the afternoon. "I don't like painting in the morning; I find an excuse to do other jobs," he says.
"I paint in the morning," says Gaye. "I have to be in the studio at nine o'clock. I finished today at two o'clock." Gaye's wet-in-wet technique requires a painting to be started and finished in one sitting. Neither of them ever expects to "retire" from painting.
"Because we love doing it," says Gaye. "If we didn't love painting we wouldn't do it. There will always be a painting you need to do."
Gaye expects to have about 20 paintings ready for Open Studios. Don says he'll fill the rest of the space with his work.
Don recently gave a work for Property Brokers to auction for the Cancer Society - not the first time he's done it - and it sold for $1000. He'll still consider donating work to selected charities. Don also has work on display at Fine Arts Whanganui Gallery at 17 Taupo Quay.