Artist captures tranquility of rural life
He’s had a lifelong interest in farming but only recently picked up a paintbrush, writes
The farmer is silhouetted while the rising sun catches the backs of his sheep. They will soon lose their wool. Captured on canvas are the creases of the farmer’s trousers as one leg rests on the bar’s foot rail.
Graham Christensen says painting teaches you observational skills: the colours of the light, where clothing creases, and that grass is not one shade of green.
The Ashhurst, Manawatū artist’s exhibition Rural Life at the Coach House Museum in Feilding is a leadup to the town’s 150th anniversary celebrations in March. All 28 paintings are up for sale in the exhibition that runs until February 28.
Christensen has been painting for about 12 years, but before that he had no interest in picking up a paintbrush.
Living on the Gold Coast, Christensen and his wife Sue were talking about retirement. Sue said Graham was not going to be hanging around the house all day.
So in his early 60s, he went to some art classes and, because of the encouragement from some “brilliant tutors”, decided it was for him.
Christensen says he gets so much enjoyment from painting and becomes absorbed in what he is doing. He feels peaceful when he is painting tranquil rural scenes.
While picking up a canvas is relatively new for Christensen, the rural scenes he captures are not. He has a varied rural background and a lifelong love of farming. He says he can feel what he is painting as he has experienced it.
His first job was on Feilding Agricultural High School’s dairy farm during the school holidays. He also worked in a shearing gang as a school holiday job and can still smell the inside of a wool shed — the sheep, the sweaty shearers — and hear the vibration of the handpieces.
He says his knowledge and experience of farming is why he decided to paint art with rural themes.
About 90 per cent of his paintings are done using oils, he prefers the way the paint flows.
Born in Marton, Christensen did his schooling in Feilding and his parents were members of the Feilding and District Art Society, as is he.
After leaving Feilding High, he worked on farms, then did a diploma in agriculture at Lincoln University.
He then worked in animal breeding research for the Ministry of Agriculture and spent a year living on Mana Island, near Wellington, managing a sheep breeding programme.
Christensen later worked at Massey University finding on-farm work experience placements for agriculture, horticulture and vet students.
He also farmed deer at Rongotea for about 25 years.
The couple bought a holiday business on the Gold Coast but returned to Manawatū to be near their family, buying a 12ha farm between Whakarongo and Ashhurst. The old hay barn had been converted into accommodation, and Christensen and his daughter Natasha Christensen have their studios there.
Christensen says he has enough land that he can put his overalls and boots on in the morning to say he is a farmer, but if it’s wet, he doesn’t have to. He’ll check on his Angus cattle and have a chat with them.