Works part of a journey of exploration

The materials used in Golden Bay artist Robin Slow’s works and the stories behind them are just as important as the images in the paintings. Slow, who has a body of 20 works on show at Red Art Gallery, weaves a strong element of storytelling into his works. His paintings are part of a journey of exploration – of places, values, people, histories, materials and processes.

A lot of them depict nga manu or birds, referencing the spiritual connection between earth and sky.

Slow teaches art at Golden Bay High School during the day, as he has since 1981, and by night, he paints. ‘‘It’s a disciplined approach,’’ he says. ‘‘I have to do it that way. I don’t really know whether I paint to live or live to paint. I have got to do it. I’m passionate about it.’’

His works at Red were painted specifically for the gallery over the past couple of months, but the origin of at least one of the materials used to create them goes back before then.

Golden Bay or Mohua, its old Maori name, is a place where kokowai or red ochre was traditionally collected by Maori. It was later used by Europeans, who set up a paint factory there, for railway stations throughout New Zealand.

‘‘People used to come from all over the place to gather it. It’s a very sacred rock and it has a lot of conno- tations. Every railway in New Zealand was painted that colour at some stage,’’ says Slow, who uses kokowai in his paintings, as well as soot, ground stone, gold leaf and harakeke.

The relationship Slow has with the materials – both tangibly and spiritually – is an important part of his painting process.

‘‘Often we take these things for granted . . . you go to the shop and take advantage of the acrylic paint, but you don’t always realise that the paints themselves come from somewhere and have a story of their own.’’

Slow hopes people will look at his paintings, which contain both Maori and European symbolism, and come up with their own stories as well.