Named Wilkie Fine Arts, the R\u0101wene gallery will showcase his art along with others. <\/p>\n
He wants to get people thinking about the issues running through his paintings and murals: land loss, the environment, and history. <\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to take control of it [exhibitions] myself and add to the culture of the Hokianga,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve lived and worked here in Northland for about 50 years so it was about giving back.\u201d <\/p>\n
Wilkie has gone to all corners of New Zealand to capture his subjects. <\/p>\n
He spent a summer in the Murchison Mountains in Fiordland National Park, camping in a DoC hut, to paint the rare takah\u0113. <\/p>\n
In his \u201cdreamy realism\u201d style, he has depicted maunga and p\u0101 sites of the Mid North and has become increasingly concerned with battles between M\u0101ori and early European settlers. <\/p>\n
For one exhibition he bought a boat to visit places the Endeavour did during Captain Cook\u2019s voyage of discovery. <\/p>\n
Ultimately, Wilkie wants to capture what he calls \u201cNew Zealand-ness\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m interested in being here whether that\u2019s ecology or history. <\/p>\n
\u201cI like to think my work has a narrative in it and thinks about the issues in our communities. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want people to think of the bigger issues … how our species are endangered, and how our people have had fights then have come together.\u201d <\/p>\n
One of Chris Wilkie\u2019s iconic murals on the Jack Morgan Museum in Hukerenui.<\/p>\n
Wilkie is also known for creating murals and public works, leaving his mark on walls and buildings from the Far North to Gore. <\/p>\n
They began with the Hukerenui War Memorial Hall mural, a large work featuring settler families commissioned by Jack Morgan, when he was 26. <\/p>\n
Many more followed, including his iconic A & P buildings mural in Whang\u0101rei and a dozen local Kaikohe identities painted larger than life at Marino Place. <\/p>\n
Word of Wilkie\u2019s talents spread, and he was invited to paint murals on the Totara North museum, inspired by family photos, stories, and historical artefacts. <\/p>\n
To Wilkie, art has always mattered more than money. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not much money in the arts, sometimes I get paid sometimes I don\u2019t. <\/p>\n
\u201cI thought bugger it; I\u2019ll leave a heritage. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll leave things sprinkled around to make communities better and leave memories of me.\u201d <\/p>\n
Even creatives have bills to pay, so alongside his paintings, Wilkie has taught art and art history in Northland<\/a> schools. <\/p>\n His teaching career has spanned more than 30 years, mainly at Northland College in Kaikohe, with stints at Bay of Islands College, Whang\u0101rei Boys\u2019 High School and Kerikeri High School. <\/p>\nChris Wilkie\u2019s students from Fiordland College created this award-winning Lighthouse Mural in Te Anau.<\/p>\n