Sign In / Register
Adventurer and former British Merchant Navy sailor, David Haigh, will be one of the artists exhibiting in a national pastel exhibition in Orewa next month.
The annual show will feature 68 paintings by 42 artists from across New Zealand.
Haigh, who has lived on Kawau Island since 2017, has been painting since he was a boy.
“I used to put my little paintings in the local fair. I was never a prodigy, but I just enjoyed doing creative things”, he says.
Many of his artworks were inspired by the places he visited during his time in the Merchant Navy.
“I’ve always been a landscape painter – I paint what I see in the natural world,” he says. “In art, everyone can be creative, but not everyone has the intention to engage with it. When I’m painting, I’m completely absorbed, there’s no point talking to me. I really love that feeling. I think it’s the secret to a long life: just enjoy what you’re doing at that moment, right in front of you.”
David joined Pastel Artists of New Zealand (PANZ) around a year ago and says that it has changed his approach to painting. His entry for the national exhibition is a work he created before joining the association featuring a scene captured while visiting Australia.
The free exhibition will be hosted at the Estuary Arts Centre in Orewa, on Hibiscus Coast Highway, from May 1 to 24.
The exhibition is divided into two categories – a General Entry and Master Circle for members who have achieved Distinguished Member (DPANZ) or Master Pastelist (MPANZ) status.
The judges for this year’s exhibition are US Master Pastelist Susan Kuznitsky and New Zealand artists, Ingrid Boot and Paul Hooker.
