Don Binney: Floor Talk
Last Thursday night, Lopdell House Gallery in Titirangi hosted the launch of Don Binney‘s book Drawing the Waitakere Coast, published by Random House.
This handsome volume is the artist’s celebration of his love for the sea, sky and land that make the Waitakere Ranges, a region he is intimately familiar with, and which has featured in his paintings throughout his career.
The book is a beautifully rambling yarn: walking tracks and places, scenery and birdlife, vegetation and surf, rocks and streams, people and events past and present, melded into one fulsome whole by the author’s musings and deep knowledge of the place. A bonus (in fact, you might consider it reason enough to purchase the volume) are 24 drawings by this renowned New Zealand artist, rendered in delicate coloured pencil, all of them untitled – you recognise the landmarks. The original drawings by Don Binney were on display in the gallery, a delight to behold (on view until June 7).
Friday morning, the celebration continued with a “Floor Talk” by the author and artist, well attended, beyond the gallery’s expectation. Don Binney is a storyteller extraordinaire, speaking from the heart and generously sharing his life.
It would be unfair not to mention the main exhibition which also opened at Lopdell House on Thursday night (and, indeed, Don acknowledged these artworks himself in an enthusiastic way): a selection of 40 of the finalists in the Adam Portraiture awards 2010.
An exhibition of paintings by Don Binney will be held in June, at The Diversion Gallery, Grove Mill Winery, Waihopai Valley Road, Marlborough. More information on the artist is available from their website.
Attentive followers of my blog may recognise the drawing seen in the photo above as Te Komoki (Jackie Peak), shown in my post of December 28, 2009 — the beginning of the journey of Don’s book, from Huia in the South to Te Henga in the North..
Don Binney: Book Signing