Mr G’s cliff with a face
It’s a cliff face with a face. Tauranga artist Graham Hoete - who’s known as Mr G - has spray-painted a face on a vertical cliff at Parawera, near Te Awamutu.
It’s believed to be the first of its kind in New Zealand.
‘‘It’s quite unique, different and presents its own challenges, but it ended up really well and the locals are buzzing out about it.’’
Hoete is doing 100 of these portraits nationwide as part of a book he’s putting together called Mr G 100 New Zealand portraits.
The Parawera cliff face is the fifth.
Before Hoete does any of his paintings, he ensures it’s through the correct protocols - contacting local iwi and elders to make sure he has their support.
‘‘I’ve wanted to do cliffs for a while now, due to it being a representation of whenua [land]. The portrait that I’ve painted is of one of the main ancestors out that way, so I connected with Paraone Gloyne, who is from that way. He’s a respected elder and leader out there.’’
Hoete is appreciative that he could use the farmland of Brian Stevenson.
‘‘It’s a representational painting, as I don’t like copying other artists’ work or photographs out of respect from an artist-to-artist point of view.
‘‘The aim is to paint these portraits in remote, obscure rural locations - for me, it’s not about painting it on a building where everyone can see it right in the middle of Queen Street.
‘‘It’s about real beautiful, picturesque rural New Zealand locations.’’
However, Hoete is perhaps best known for painting on buildings: a massive wall mural of Kiwi hoops superstar Steven Adams unveiled in downtown Oklahoma City and one of Prince in Chanhassen, Minnesota, both in 2016.
But these days he’s more rurally focused.
‘‘There are some stunning locations here in Aotearoa. My aim is to hunt and seek out those locations and if there is an old shearing shed that is broken down that presents itself as a beautiful canvas, to just add my touch to it.
The cliff face took three days to do and Hoete’s confident that it should last for a good 20 years - though it may fade a wee bit.
‘‘It was the most challenging piece I’ve done, purely because of the environment, the terrain. The actual base of the cliff face - below that there was a really steep decline, so I really had to have my wits about me. I couldn’t get a scissor lift up there, so I had to do some rock climbing, ladders and had to do a bit of abseiling to do the very top.
‘‘Basically, every time I had to use the ladder, I had to dig out a level platform on the ground to ensure the ladder wouldn’t move - so that it was 100 per cent stable and safe before I got up there, because the ladder was nine metres high.
‘‘I’ve painted it in a way that the rock texture and surfaces still come through the face, so the portrait looks as though it’s embedded into the rock.
Hoete hopes to get more use out of newly acquired abseiling skills by visiting the Chatham Islands later in the year to tick off another portrait for the book.
‘‘There is plenty of history down there as well. That is one of the highlights for me - a bunch of cliff faces - and I"m getting right into abseiling now. For me, it’s the adventure of it, unique and different, and no one has done before.’’
He learnt to abseil for the project and is very safety conscious.
‘‘You have no second chances with abseiling - you’ve got to make sure you are 100 per cent confident in your approach and skill set. I do use a harness so that both hands are free.’’
Hoete will work away on his book project along with commercial opportunities, including a nationwide project he can’t yet reveal. He also has work trips to China, Miami and Argentina planned.