New Zealand Landscape Artist

Some history behind the paintings.

THE TAURANGA BAY PAINTINGS

The reason why Tauranga Bay has been the focus of many of my paintings is twofold.  The Bay is spectacular.  The close proximity of the wild surf,the lingering seaspray and  the untouched headlands give the place a surreal feel.  It is also the place where our family spent a great deal of time growing up.  In those days we had the bay to ourselves.  It was our special place.  

My grandfather ”Poppa” (Percy Foote) built a batch there I guess to escape the demands of being the only Doctor to service a widespread rural area.  

 

At the time he bought the land off a local farmer, Jerald Wall, who owned the land around the Bay.  Jerald reluctantly sold land to Poppa and the local bakers (The Callaghans) based on the logic that in hard times a doctor and a baker would be handy neighbours to have.

 

         Tauranga Bay sunset

         92 cm x 61 cm

         Acrylic on canvas. Completed 2006

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tauranga Bay is one of those special places.  The surf is generally big .  It is one of New Zealand's top surf spots and I guess it accounts for my children's crazed addiction to surfing.  

My childhood memories are of swimming, cooking muscles on the beach and looking for seals.  Tauranga Bay is home to a large Fur seal colony which these days tourists flock to in their thousands.  

One or two surfers have had the odd nip from a disgruntled bull rejected by the colony.  The great whites haven’t bothered anyone yet but surfers refer to the seal colony as the lolly shop.

 

Poppa fell in love with the West Coast.  He came to Westport for six months and stayed. He practiced medicine on the Westcoast for 50 years.

My father has followed in his fathers footsteps (unlike myself) and after time away to study and fight in the second world war returned to Westport where he practiced medicine until the ripe of age of 80.  

Mum and Dad died in 2010 aged 90 and 93 and lived in the big old house in Westport up until the last couple of years of their life.

 

We had a lot of good times at the batch but the regular vandalism caused my father a great deal of stress and he eventually loaned it to the local surf club for a number of years then sold if for a song in 1987.

                                                                                                                       

           Tauranga bay  

          90 cm x 60 cm

          Acrylic on canvas. Completed 2006

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

         Calm before the storm  

         92 cm x 61 cm

         Acrylic on canvas. Completed 2006

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Story has a happy ending though.  The new owners of the batch have turned it into a top class restaurant /art gallery (“The Bayhouse”).  Now everyone can enjoy the Bay from this spectacular vantage point.

It was fitting then that I made my first inroads in to launching a career as an artist by holding my first exhibition at the Bayhouse Gallery.  

The exhibition felt like a homecoming and was a great introduction into the Westcoast art world and the colourful local artists.

I have held exhibitions in Christchurch notably Gallery O in the Christchurch Arts Centre in 2008 before it was tragically closed due to the earthquakes. It is reported that it will be 15 years before this historical heart of Christchurch art will reopen again.

 

I have exhibited and sold paintings out of many independent galleries in Christchurch such as the Bryce, Look and Pegasus galleries.

After 2008 the world financial crisis precipitated a forced return to my work as a mining engineer, working in Mozambique and here in New Zealand.

My Dutch wife, Corien and I, have upped sticks last year and moved from Canterbury to Tauranga in the beautiful Bay of Plenty.

 

We then spent a year of travel adventures backpacking around Indonesia to visit our surfer son and his girlfriend and from there on to Italy and Greece.

Now we are back home in New Zealand.

Some history behind the paintings.

FOX RIVER

 

 

This painting shows the old wooden bridge across the Fox River on the main road between Westport and Greymouth.  A walking track upstream of the bridge along the banks of the Fox River follows what was once the ”inland pack track”  

A trek up river brings you into spectacular harrowing gorges of white limestone cliffs clad with the lush green rainforests.  

A 2 hour walk up the Fox and it’s various tributaries brings you to the “Ballroom Overhang” The ballroom overhang is a 100m long dry rock overhanging some 30m.  It provided welcome shelter for the old timers (and now adventurous backpackers) from the persistent west coast rain.  

I can recommend a night spent camped under the overhang with the rain pelting down, the fire blazing and the river roaring below.

The mouth of the Fox River, where the bridge is located, was the site of a hippy colony settled in the 60’s.  The colony added some spice and colour to the area and some of the initial settlers still remain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some history behind the paintings.

UP AND DOWN THE BULLER

 

This picture was painted up the Buller Gorge from the side of the road at a location called Hawkes Craig.  Hawkes Craig is where a single lane road has been cut using hand techniques into the hard rock bluff (Hawkes Craig Breccia).  

This location is the starting point for the Buller Marathon where competitors run up the Buller Gorge to a pub then turn and run down the gorge all the way into town (Westport).  Hawkes Craig is also the launching site for the Buller Tube Race, a fun event where competitors float down the rapids in tractor tubes.  

The River ranges from a tranquil flow to a ragging torrent and on a fine day the Buller gorge is one of the most pleasant spots in New Zealand being referred to as the gem of the south island.