NZ's top landscape artist Hannah Riden to stage major iconic scenes exhibition at Pegasus Bay

Christchurch's top award-winning landscape artist Hannah Riden will stage a major

major iconic Canterbury scenes exhibition at Pegasus Bay winery in Waipara from September 1.

Her works will include scenes of the Port Hills, New Brighton, the CD brewery, Pink Cliffs, a Banks Peninsula blizzard, the Canterbury coast, the Causeway and Hagley in spring.

Riden was named the top landscape artist in New Zealand at the latest New Zealand Art Awards in Tauranga. This was a remarkable achievement for a young artist who had only been painting fulltime for three years. The award success at Tauranga has increased her status and her works are becoming greatly sought after.

Riden earned a bachelor's degree at Oxford University, gained her Masters at Edinburgh and was halfway through her PhD thesis on molecular biology at Massey in Palmerston North when she dropped all her studies to focus on her brushes, paints and canvass.

Earlier this year Riden was artist-in-residence during her successful exhibition at The George boutique hotel in Christchurch. She now lives on the outskirts of Christchurch and was educated at Framlingham College in Suffolk, the UK. She won the Art Prize and Biology Prize for her year several times. She achieved A+ grades for art and science consistently.

``At Massey, I had done most of the practical work for my PhD, and had written about two thirds of my thesis (I was just starting my 3rd year into the PhD), when I decided that this road just wasn't the one I wanted to go down. At the same time my marriage broke up, and I moved down to my mum's place in Akaroa.’’

She began painting as soon as she got to Akaroa. She had no plans at all, was in a meltdown state, but her usual motivation carried this vague plan to be an artist through to fruition. After her first exhibition she decided that this was what she wanted to do. She found it so challenging, despite all her tough scientific achievements of the past... it was an unknown quantity. Being an avid adventurer at heart, this really appealed to her. She didn’t know if she could be a successful or acclaimed artist, but it was going to be really exciting finding out. There are so many things that govern what is perceived as good art, and it is impossible to quantify them all objectively, so the whole business is a real adventure.

``You never know what’s going to come out of the end of your paintbrush: which is why I like going to the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay, for sheer quality and quantity combined. It’s like heaven for me. I’ve spent hours in them both lost in rapture. If I lived in Paris I would go at least once a week. I wish I could have met Leonardo Da Vinci - he was one of the most knowledgeable people in the Renaissance when it comes to all the different disciplines combined, and his paintings are incredibly beautiful. To spend an hour or two chatting to Leo would be pretty fascinating.’’

Riden started out painting flowers (which seemed the natural choice after all her plant studies), then she moved on to still life and portraits, then landscapes (on the urging of Lorraine Quinn, who was manager of The Art Department gallery in Christchurch, and encouraged her from the very start). She has also done life drawing and some small nude paintings. Her landscapes started as a study of mood, using a dark, limited palette as she learnt her way around oil paints.

``I had never used oils until about four years ago, and there are so many ways you can use them that I just decided to start experimenting based on all the art history I had read, and the old paintings I had seen in Europe (most of which are quite dark). These dark paintings didn’t really have the gutsiness I wanted, so I started exploring the use of colour and light, and my paintings became much brighter and richer. I also tried going bigger, to achieve more of an impact, and learnt how to use glazing to create a deep glow in my paintings. All along the NZ landscape with its wild skies and craggy horizons spurred me on with torrents of inspiration. Now I am developing my style yet further, using more expressive brushwork to give a sense of movement and life, yet retaining the rich use of colour and strong light. Using this technique on cityscapes is challenging, since they are packed full of straight lines and geometry, which limits the use of expressionist interpretation. Watch this space to see how it goes! Salvador Dali once said: `There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad.’ Artists make their own rules.’’

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Photos: www.hannahriden.com