Talented young NZ artist to show iconic South Island scenes in Canterbury art exhibition

A rising young New Zealand artist Hannah Riden will release some of the best iconic South Island scenes at her solo exhibition at the Selwyn Gallery in Darfield next week.

Riden’s paintings for the July 4 opening night include Mt Cook, Akaroa Harbour, Buller Gorge, Hooper’s Inlet on the Otago Peninsula, Banks Peninsula hills, Brunner Valley, Brighton in Dunedin, Robinson’s bay, Mt. Torlesse and Lyttelton Harbour.

Riden has previously exhibited in Akaroa and Christchurch, and her works have been shown in galleries in Queenstown, Christchurch, Sumner, Wellington and Blenheim.

She is focusing more on landscapes and views Kiwis relate best to. She started painting flora because of her strong scientific connection with botany. She has degrees from Oxford and Edinburgh Universities and was part way through her PhD thesis at Massey University in 2005 when she decided to step out and paint fulltime.

``We had classes at university where we studied plants and drew them (with clinical botanical correctness of course), and this enabled me to keep my art going throughout my scientific career.”

``However, despite turning around my original 'botanical painting', and developing a more stylised, contemporary form of floral painting, I found painting flowers to be quite limiting for my development as a painter.’’

``Landscapes and portraits are far more of a challenge. Portraits are particularly satisfying because if you are lucky, you are able to illustrate the 'soul' of the person.’’

Riden’s paintings are now fetching up to $3000 and demand for her works is growing. She is self taught and a little sceptical of being tutored.

``You have to be very careful because teachers or an art school can put you in a box labelled ‘contemporary visual artist’, and this conveyor belt will send you out into the world with strange, convoluted ideas about what art is today. Art must come from within.”

``We all have a choice about what we do with our lives, and sometimes the more desirable road might seem to be the more difficult but ultimately you must believe in yourself.’’

Riden’s mum Joanna Hase, now in Akaroa, went to art school in London, and still paints occasionally. Her father Alan Irving was an architect, who trained at Auckland University, and ended up working in London where they are a number of well-known buildings he helped design. Her grandfather was a part time painter from Hamilton, who painted moody New Zealand landscapes as a hobby.

``Being able to devote my life to being an artist has been the best thing I've ever done. It is so satisfying.”

``I have been on canoes in remote central African jungles; I've trekked through blizzards on some of the highest mountains in the world; I've been chased by gorillas, elephants and lions; and I've sat on the cutting edge of modern evolutionary biology and biotechnology. But this is the biggest adventure yet. I'm really heading off the map this time.’’