The Good Oil
by Graeme Douglas
The Good Oil is dedicated to long form conversations with Aotearoa / New Zealand painters about their lives and practices.
Podcast episodes
Season 3
EP 29 Darryn George
In this episode, I visit Darryn George at his home and studio in Ōtautahi. Darryn is of Ngāpuhi descent. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Ilam School of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury and a Master of Fine Art from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. His work is held in numerous public and private collections, including The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, The Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and The New Zealand High Commission. He has been exhibiting consistently for over 30 years, with work in over 40 group or solo shows, including in major public gallery exhibitions. He is represented by McLeavey Gallery in Te Whanganui A Tara, PG Gallery 192 in Christchurch and Milford Galleries in Queenstown. There are images of the paintings that we talk about on The Good Oil Darryn George Instagram Post for your reference. In the episode you’ll hear Darryn speak about reconnecting with Maoridom and marae, developing his language through a combination of American minimalist abstract painters, kowhaiwhai patterns and Maori carvers, his willingness to work collaboratively across industries to achieve the best outcome in large scale painting, how his practice is influenced by and explores the intersection of Maori oral, and European written history and some advice from his gallerist Peter McLeavey that he’s never forgotten and still applies.
Season 2
EP 28 Martin Poppelwell
In this episode, I sat down with Martin Poppelwell at the Melanie Roger gallery surrounded by his new work included in a recent group show. Martin has established an impressive multi disciplinary practice, with paintings and ceramics complimenting one another. Martin’s work is held in numerous public and private collections locally and internationally, including Te Papa Tongarewa, the Lawrence B. Benenson Collection in New York, Reydan Weiss Collection in NZ/Germany and Reverend Ian Brown Collection, Australia. He is represented by SPA_CE Gallery in Napier and Melanie Roger gallery in Tamaki Makaurau. There are images of the paintings and ceramics that we talk about on The Good Oil Martin Poppelwell Instagram Post for your reference. You’ll hear Martin talk about how important to his overall practice studying ceramic design and production at the Whanganui Polytechnic has been, the origin of his grid motif and how it contributes to composition and philosophical approach to painting, how Samuel Beckett provided a new perspective on what his painting could be, the challenges he deliberately creates for himself in paintings and the time consuming, multi layered process he follows to prepare the surface of a canvas to make it look like there isn’t any preparation at all.
EP 27 Dame Robin White
For this episode, I visited Dame Robin White earlier this year at her home and studio in Masterton. Robin is one of our most distinguished painters, holding, among other qualifications, a Diploma in Fine Arts from the Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland. She has been appointed as a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to painting and print making and has been the recipient of numerous awards including the New Zealand Arts Icon Award. Her work is held in numerous public and private collections including Te Papa Tongarewa, The Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, The National Gallery of Victoria, The Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art and History, The National Gallery of Australia and The Dunedin Public Art Gallery. She is also the subject of several books, including the excellent ‘Something Is Happening Here - Robin White’ by Sarah Farrar, Jill Trevelyan and Nina Tonga, and has exhibited widely, including a major retrospective show in 2022 and 2023. She is represented by McLeavey Gallery in Te Whanganui a Tara or Two Rooms gallery in Auckland. There are images of the paintings and tapa cloth that we talk about on The Good Oil Dame Robin White Instagram Post for your reference. You’ll hear Robin talk about the power of working collaboratively, her time living in Kiribati, her first encounter with Sam Hunt and their resulting friendship, how geometry and tone sit at the heart of some of her most famous paintings, the Gaylene Preston film about her that is currently in production, and you know that question I ask everyone about ‘what work or artist work they would love to live with? Well, Robin has a particularly insightful answer to that.
EP 26 Gavin Hurley
In this episode I visit Gavin Hurley at his home and studio in Grey Lynn, Auckland. Gavin graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland. His works have been exhibited at, or are held in collections of, the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū and The Suter Te Aratoi o Whakatū, in Nelson. He is represented by Melanie Roger Gallery in Tāmaki Makaurau and Space Gallery in Napier. There are images of the paintings and sculptures that we talk about on The Good Oil Gavin Hurley Instagram Post for your reference. You’ll hear Gavin talk about his inability to paint portraits of any living subjects, a misguided aspiration to be more business like (that nevertheless lead to a great body of work), the close and useful relationship between collage and painting in his practice, his love of old books and their paper stocks as reference and material, how mutton chop sideburns and beards make for great shapes to paint, and how revisiting works in preparation for a show at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery makes him realise how different life was when he painted them.
EP 25 Seung Yul Oh
In this episode I visit Seung Yul Oh at his home and studio in Pt Chevalier, Auckland In the last 20 years since graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and then Master of Fine Arts from the Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland, Seung has established a widely celebrated practice encompassing sculpture and painting. His work can be seen across Aotearoa, including at the Brick Bay sculpture park, as part of the exterior of the Te Pae Ōtautahi Convention Centre, and is held in numerous public and private collections including Te Papa Tongarewa, The Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, The Dunedin Public Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Victoria. There are images of the paintings and sculptures that we talk about on The Good Oil Seung Yul Oh Instagram Post for your reference. You’ll hear Seung talk about how pleasantly surprised he was by his secondary school art classes in NZ, how his Sonority minimalist colour field paintings are an examination of self through colours, the wholly emotional approach to choosing colour for those abstract minimalist paintings, contrasted with trying to be as much like a soulless robot as possible in actually applying the paint to create them, the importance of getting lost to allow discovery, but how difficult that can be sometimes and how he pushes through that, and how new loose mark making abstract works have prompted him to pluck up the courage to return to working with oil paint.