Snapshot: GRAHAME SYDNEY

Past: Dunedin-born and educated, Grahame Sydney has lived most of his years south of the Waitaki River. Dreaming of a career as a painter, in the early 1970s he spent 18 months in London and Europe but instead learned what homesickness was; that period hardened his resolve to try to make something of his powerful sense of belonging to New Zealand and the south. Since 1974 he has wandered the Central Otago landscapes as a professional artist and occasional photographer, trying to give permanent form to his love of his home territory. Present: Grahame lives with his wife, Fiona, in the Cambrian Valley near St Bathans, facing the glorious Hawkduns every day, never tiring of the natural dramas of each season in that quiet corner of what was once officially known as ‘The Wasteland’. The family’s wire-haired fox terrier, Milo, now sadly blind, continues to demand three walks each day and an open passenger window in the car so he can get high on the smells of the world. Future: Occasional excursions to the great galleries of the world, or lazy resorts in the tropics, break up the Sydneys’ year, but the Call of Home is insistent and loud, and many paintings remain to be done. Photographs by Grahame accompany his friend Owen Marshall’s poems in the new collection View from The South which was published in August, and his paintings can be seen at grahamesydney.com