Michael Smither talks about Taranaki painting "Rocks with Mountain"

New Zealand Geographic magazine recently published an issue (number 67) focusing on the Taranaki region - and one of the most famous images of Mount Taranaki is the one with the stones and a rock pool in the foreground and a small red tractor on the horizon. This is a painting called Rocks with Mountain by Michael Smither.

I was surprised to read the rather sombre symbolism the artist saw in this painting, Smither is quoted in New Zealand Geographic "I was painting this at the time of the Czech revolution. Looking up, I saw the red tractor, the mountain, and the pool in the foreground with pink coralline on the rocks - and it struck me as being like the blood of martyrs, squeezed out and trickling down into these waters".

I'm not sure that this reading of such a well-known painting has ever been written about before - it certainly isn't an obvious interpretation of what appears today as straightforward representational painting (albeit with a radical viewpoint and interesting composition). Artist Photo Credit: Tom Turner/Art New Zealand

Peter Lambert writes about his Taranaki Surf Prints series and other recent artwork

I recently asked Peter to tell us more about his original prints - what is he trying to show and what inspires his most recent series of prints.  Have a look at the main listing page for each of the screenprints listed in the Peter Lambert gallery to learn more about what Peter has to say about the new artwork from this popular Taranaki artist.

Taranaki Artist Peter Lambert - New Prints

The artist Peter Lambert has been exhibiting for over 30 years. Lambert attended evening classes in painting and drawing at the Ilam School of Fine Arts (now part of the University of Canterbury) whilst competing his BSC in Mathematics. He also studied lithography at Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland and at Long Island University in New York. As a full-time artist living and working in Taranaki since 1982 Peter has had many years experience refining his technique and his new prints that arrived today are particularly fine examples of contemporary New Zealand printmaking. Pictured is Peter's brand new print "Waiting Around" - a hand made edition of 22 screenprints.