The Good Oil

In this episode I visit Dick Frizzell in his home and studio in Mt Eden, Auckland.

Dick is some six decades into a practice that is as diverse in output as it is long. He is responsible for some of the most iconic contemporary images of NZ art that reflect a drive of restless creativity that embraces artistic impression and applied art.

Dick holds a Diploma of Fine Art from the Ilam School of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury. He has had countless exhibitions in the last 50 years and has also authored or illustrated several books. His work is held in numerous public and private collections including The Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, Te Papa, The Fletcher Collection, The Ballin Collection and at your cousins house.

Dick is represented by Gow Langsford in Auckland, Page Galleries in Wellington, The Central Art Gallery in Ototahi and Milford Galleries in Dunedin and Queenstown.

In this episode you’ll hear Dick talk about how landscape painting offered a new subject and important salvation at a critical point in his life and practice, how his time at Ilam in the early 1960’s intersected with some of Aotearoa’s most influential painters… the steady flow of cease and desist letters arriving in his letterbox, the presence of Colin McCahon in his paintings… his fear of professionalism and how dumb the word ‘cauli’ is.

Links

Dick Frizzell Instagram

Gow Langsford Dick Frizzell Artist Web

PageMilford Galleries Dick Frizzell Artist Web Page

The Central Art Gallery Dick Frizzell Artist Web Page

It’s All About The Image book

The Good Oil Instagram Page

In this episode I visit Arie Hellendoorn in his home and studio in Lower Hutt, Wellington.

Arie holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Massey University. He has exhibited in galleries in Australia and NZ for over 15 years and is held in several public and private collections including the Chris Parkin Collection and the Wellington City Council Collection. He is represented by Suite Gallery in Wellington and Auckland.

You’ll hear Arie talk about how he came to his hybrid approach that mixes representation, abstraction and portraiture, his interest in the microscopic and human anatomy informing his practice, the careful optical considerations of colour and colour mixing to create the effects he wants, the diverse range of unlikely tools he uses for applying paint and sourcing his favourite brushes by stealing them from his daughters watercolour set.

Links

Arie Hellendoorn Instagram Page

Suite Gallery Arie Hellendoorn Artist Page

The Good Oil Instagram Page

In this episode I visit Stanley Palmer in his home and studio in Mt Eden, Auckland.

Stanley has established one of the most enduring practices in NZ, now into his 7th decade of painting and print making. He has been exhibiting regularly since 1958 including in NZ, Australia, Italy, Japan and India. In 2002 he was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to fine art.

His work is held in countless public and private collections including Te Papa, The University of Auckland art collection, the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu and the The Govett Brewster Art GalleryStanley is represented by Melanie Roger Gallery in Auckland, Solander Gallery in Wellington and The Central Gallery in Christchurch

In this episode you’ll hear Stanley talk about the influence of writing in his practice, the inspiration of encountering tapa cloths at the Auckland Museum early in his career, his distrust of commercially manufactured paints and painting water colours for his aunts to get out of having to instead mow their lawns.

Stanley Palmer Wikipedia WebPage

Melanie Roger Gallery Stanley Palmer Artist Web Page

Solander Gallery Stanley Palmer Artist Web Page

The Central Gallery Stanley Palmer Artist Web Page

The Good Oil Instagram Page

In this episode I visit Hannah Ireland in her home and studio in Mt Eden, Auckland.

Hannah is Ngāti Hinē and Ngapuhi. While still an emerging artist, she has quickly established herself as unique painter, employing a fresh and gutsy approach to every aspect of her practice, from supports, materials and mark making that made an immediate and lasting impression on me the first time I encountered her work, and every time since.

Hannah holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honors from the University of Auckland. She has won several awards, including being Molly Morpeth Canaday Award Supreme Winner in 2021 and the University of Auckland Chancellors Award for top Maori and Pacific Scholars. She will present her first public solo show at Te Uru Gallery in Titirangi Auckland in August this year, and has several dealer gallery shows to her name since 2020. She is represented by Jhana Millers in Wellington and Laree Payne in Hamilton.

In this episode you’ll hear Hannah talk about how her nana’s family photo albums inspired an interest in portraits as an outcome of observation, a determination not to be pigeonholed and using that as a motivation to keep experimenting in materials and supports, learning to embrace not being in control of materials to let surprises happen, that silliness is always very important, and a key moment of discovery in her practice born out of squishing her art school peers faces into a photocopier.

Hannah Ireland Instagram

Jhana Millers Hannah Ireland Artist Web Page

Layree Payne Gallery Hannah Ireland Exhibition Web Page

Sanc Gallery Hannah Ireland Exhibition Page

The Good Oil Instagram Page

In this episode I visit John Walsh in his Wellington home and studio to sit by the fire and drink tea… and talk about his practice.

John is of Aitanga Hauiti and New Zealand Irish descent. His work is held in numerous public and private collections including Te Papa and Sargeant Gallery Collection, he has exhibited widely including at City Gallery Wellington, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, at the Dowse Art Museum and Pataka at Porirua. He is represented by Gow Langsford in Auckland, Paul Nache gallery in Gisborne. Page Galleries in Wellington, the Diversion Gallery in Picton and Central Art Gallery in Christchurch.

In this episode you’ll hear John talk about how painting portraits of his community elders allowed him an unexpected opportunity to learn about his whakapapa, how he learned more about what paint can do from house paint and painting houses than he did at art school, the creative license he applies to mythologies to bridge cultural gaps, his occupation of the twilight zone, the deliberate variation of surface of a support he prepares to paint on… and how he is an intuitive abstract painter, accidentally making representational paintings.

Page Galleries John Walsh Web Page

Gow Langsford John Walsh Web Page

Paul Nash Gallery John Walsh Page

The Central Art Gallery John Walsh Web Page

John Walsh Wikipedia Web Page

John Walsh Instagram

The Good Oil Instagram

In this episode I visit Karl Maughan in his Wellington studio.

Karl has built one of the most immediately recognisable practices in NZ art, painting almost exclusively garden scenes since his first solo exhibition in 1987. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland. His works are held in numerous public and private collections including Te Papa, The Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu, The Fletcher Trust Collection and the Suter Art Gallery. He is represented by Page Galleries in Wellington, Gow Langsford in Auckland and Milford Galleries in Dunedin and Queenstown.

In this episode you’ll hear Karl talk about the deep history we all have with gardens and the control we exert over nature, the influence of his artist father and landscape gardener mother, encountering and being influenced at a young age by Phillip Trustam garden paintings, his subtle but constant experimentation, the slightly surreal experience of work being collected by Charles Saatchi and… narrowly avoiding a life managing the flow rate of sultana’s in cereal packets in the food technology industry.

Gow Langsford Karl Maughan Web Page

Page Galleries Karl Maughan Web Page

Milford Galleries Karl Maughan Web Page

Karl Maughan Instagram

The Good Oil Instagram

In this episode I visit Katherine Throne at her Wanaka home, studio… and garden.

Katherine has only seriously committed to a painting practice in her 40's. Despite that, her work has been in high demand since self represented sell out shows at the Allpress Gallery space in Freemans Bay Auckland in 2018 and 2019. Katherine holds a MFA from from Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting with Honors from the Kendall Collage of Art and Design in Michigan, in the United States.

She is represented by Sanderson Gallery in Auckland.

In this episode you’ll hear Katherine talk about accidentally finding her way to painting through interior design, a want to resurrect the flower in paintings after it’s demise at the hands of modernism and industrialisation, our attraction to beauty and connection to nature, the anthropomorphic projections in her work and the importance of the first layers in a painting.

Katherine Throne Web Page

Sanderson Gallery Katherine Throne Web Page

Katherine Throne Instagram

The Good Oil Instagram

In this episode I travel to Michael Dells home and studio in Nelson, where he conducts a practice that works with both representation and abstraction.

Micheal holds a Bach of Fine Arts from Ilam at the University of Canterbury. His work is held in numerous public and private collections, including The Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, The Suter Gallery Collection, The University of Auckland Art Collection and The Ballin Collection. He has won several art prizes including the Parkin Drawing Prize and is represented in Auckland by Foenander Gallery.

In this episode you’ll hear him talk about the transition from print making and drawing to painting, how those two first disciplines inform his work now, how he’s more concerned with creating an object from a landscape rather than purely representing it, how his preferred support of linen is as much a material for him as paint… and is fear of taking a reference photograph that might be a little too good.

Foenander Gallery Michael Dell Page

Michael Dell Website

Michael Dell Instagram

The Good Oil Instagram

In this episode I travel to Otorohanga to visit Hiria Anderson-Mit-ah at her home and studio. Hiria is Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Apakura, Rereahu.

Hiria graduated from Whitecliffe Collage of Design & Arts with an MFA, first class honours. Her work is held in numerous public and private collections, including the University of Auckland Art Collection, the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and The Waikato Museum. She is represented by Tim Melville in Auckland and Page Galleries in Wellington.

Sitting down to speak with Hiria was entertaining, fascinating, funny and disarming. You’ll hear her speak with a comfortable frankness about challenges that she has faced personally and those that still exist for her community. She talks about what is and isn’t tapu to paint for her, why cooking pots are an important subject in her practice… and about the pivotal role a naked man jumping out of a birthday cake has played in her career.

I started by asking about her childhood and first encounters with art.

Tim Melville Hiria Anderson-Mita Page

Page Galleries Hiria Anderson-Mita Page

Hiria Anderson-Mita Instagram

The Good Oil Instagram

Welcome to episode three of The Good Oil, conversations with Aotearoa painters. In this episode (part two of two part interview) I return to my conversation with Grahame Sydney. If you haven’t heard part one of this interview, I suggest you go to episode two of The Good Oil to listen to that first.

In this episode you’ll hear Grahame talk about how honesty and accuracy have little to do with his landscape painting, how key it is for him to trust his own instincts, contrasted with his battles with his confidence and his imposter syndrome, despite being 50yrs into a hugely successful practice. He talks about how deeply he loves where he lives, while not pulling any punches speaking about the changing landscape at the hands of industry and environmental mismanagement, the importance of finding the right home and guardian for each painting and what painting he’d like to steal if he thought he could get away with it.

Sir Grahame Sydney Web Page