Nature's Own Voice
6 February – 26 July 2009
Nature's Own Voice features watercolours and oil paintings by artists with an interest in recording nature directly through painting en plein-air, a French expression meaning 'in the open air'.
Drawn entirely from the Gallery's permanent collection the exhibition includes examples of New Zealand's most accomplished plein-air painters and highlights their interest in painting nature through direct observation outdoors; recording the fall of natural light and various atmospheric effects in different weather conditions.
The exhibition also includes the painting Cornfields by the nineteenth-century French artist, Eugène Boudin, and rare film footage of Bill Sutton completing a watercolour of Lyttelton Harbour outdoors.
