Bruce Hunt: Coast to Coast

“Through high, encircled vantage points and the establishment of multiple lines of sight, my work has focused on landforms and patterns formed by New Zealand’s complex geomorphology. My intimate physical communion with the landscape has been central to this work.

Characteristic of my stylistic delivery is that my painting is about more than the skin and substance of the earth, mountains and rivers; I’m also painting air and the role it plays in what we see.

The articulation of light and how it falls, informs and radiates in these landscapes continues to be an important factor in my work.

Raised in Wellington, the wild and rugged coastlines of the region greatly influenced my earliest work; however, later the great expanses of certain South Island landscapes inspired a move to Dunedin as my voice as an artist evolved.

A desire to convey the muscular southern landforms, its rhythm of line, form and interlocking structures with its casting of light has remained a firm foundation in my painted work and has functioned hand in hand with my ceaseless desire to physically challenge our rugged landscapes.

Photography has always informed my painting but has developed into an important creative medium where I can build narrative about use and environment, time and natural processes and the role we play in our changing landscapes - aspects expressed in my recent exhibitions and photographic work that culminated in the ‘Tussock’ book and progresses in current book projects.

A bringing together of painting and photography, ‘Coast to Coast’ describes a journey from our mountains, uplands and plains to the coast. Journey and exploration have been important elements expressed in my work through the years.

Now, perhaps, it also conveys change, ageing, nostalgia and my shifting pictorial viewpoints reflect my present physical capabilities.

Now living in coastal Northland, I am forever confronted by weather — violent and wet, calm and warm. The landscape and its vegetation bend and bow to the evolving climate. But this new environment also throws up intriguing aspects of our New Zealand culture and history, nestled within a very different landscape to the one I have immersed myself in for 30 years.

The camera allows me to see like a documentarian, but I think like a painter.

I’m excited and curious about what comes next.”

Bruce Hunt 2025