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Robin Midgley will put the finishing touches to his latest work, featuring Orewa Estuary, in public at Estuary Arts Centre. This painting depicts Robin’s vision of how the Puhoi River could have looked, back in the ‘dirt road’ days.
After more than 20 years as a professional artist, Robin Midgley of Orewa is about to hold his first solo exhibition at Estuary Arts Centre.
The exhibition, which opens this month, will feature the large, super realist style paintings that Robin is already well known for. Most depict scenes from around this region. Waterways are often central in the paintings – a recurring theme that is only natural considering Robin’s lifelong love of boating.
He first spent time on the water as a child, on family fishing trips – and he continued boating, fishing and diving even after he broke his back in a fall from a roof in 1990.
After the accident, the former sheetmetal worker, who says he’d always been able to draw, took up painting. NZ landscape painter Jonathan White took Robin under his wing. “He literally showed me how to put one tree in front of another, and I never looked back,” Robin says.
The process begins with photographs that Robin takes himself; the recent purchase of a drone has opened up even more possibilities for the artist, who is confined to a wheelchair.
Robin’s paintings are built up in layers, an intricate and time consuming process that people can follow on his Facebook page. You can also watch Robin at work as he puts the final touches to his painting of Orewa Estuary at Estuary Arts Centre during the Arts Trail, on March 11 and 12.
The exhibition, Painting by Robin Midgley, is on at Estuary Arts Centre, Western Reserve, Orewa, from February 17 to March 12.
