NZ on Screen

"Made for TVNZ arts series Artsville, this short documentary looks at painter Stanley Palmer as he captures the landscapes around Karamea, on the West Coast. The small rural town is located about as far north as it’s possible to go up the West Coast, before you hit the Heaphy Track. Palmer works on a series of five paintings, featuring rural pasture dotted with nikau palms, sandwiched between rugged mountains and the Tasman Sea. He also muses on painting as an artform — what it is, what makes it important, and why it reaches beyond a simple recreation of real life."

 

"Sculptor Neil Dawson — who later created major public art works including The Chalice in Cathedral Square, and Ferns in Wellington’s Civic Square — is profiled in this episode from a 1980s arts series. Dawson is just as enthusiastic and engaged building a tree house for his son as he is preparing an exhibition of his work. These pieces are small and deceptively simple, as they explore texture and optical illusion. But his larger ambitions are also roused by a space on Auckland’s Victoria Street."