PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Otago

EXHIBITED
Grahame Sydney: Down South Recent Paintings 2001 - 2011 Pataka Museum of Arts and Cultures, 2011/2012

Grahame Sydney: Down South Recent was a survey of Grahame Sydney's landscape paintings of the decade 2001 - 2011. St Bathans Downs Road 2 featured on the front cover of the exhibition catalogue. It was the artist's first major public exhibition since On the Road, which toured New Zealand, including Pataka Museum of Arts and Cultures, in 2000. Sydney's chosen subject matter is Central Otago where he lives in the Cambrian Valley. His luminous, transcendent paintings capture the silent beauty of the landscape with its vast open spaces, treeless tussockclad hills, snow covered mountains and endless skies. They eloquently express his lifelong passion for the area. The consistency of his vision affirms his deep sense of connection to the region. In an interview at the time Grahame Sydney said; It's difficult to explain why. I just love it in a deep and compelling way. I really don't need to be anywhere else. Sydney has become the definitive painter of Otago's landscape - you can't see Central Otago now without being reminded of his work. Sydney paints landscapes that have a deep and particular meaning for him - old, weathered, 'muscular' landforms that he knows and understands intimately. The Dunstan Range, Mt St Bathans and the Hawkdun Range, the visual backdrop to his home in the Cambrian Valley constantly recur in his paintings. He revisits them over and over again, never tiring of painting them in a seemingly infinite variety of incarnations. The artist stated; I like paintings to come out of an absolute emotional connection and that builds up over a long time - years and decades sometimes.