For nearly 40 years, Tony Adamson pounded the pavements delivering mail.
"It’s a hell of a good job when I was young."
As he got older, the physical toll of lugging heavy bags of mail began to make itself felt and he began to reassess his future. He took a job in a post branch to give his body a break.
Left with more energy at the end of the day, he built a cabin on his property. One day, he picked up a leftover piece of board, black paint and a brush and started painting.
He had always been a keen doodler and drawer, but until he was 46, he had not painted.
After a few years of experimenting, his wife urged him to seek out the help of former longtime Logan Park High School art teacher Roy Almond, at Macandrew Bay. He was able to assess Adamson’s work and point him in the right direction to find his own style.
"Roy really helped me."
Straight away, he gravitated towards painting portraits. Why? He is fascinated by people’s expressions.
Painting from photographs of a wide variety of people, including criminals and sports people, that he found in magazines, on the internet or even in the news, Adamson slowly began to find what he loved to do.
"They have to have the right expression. Sometimes it takes a lot of work to find the right face. It’s got to have personality coming out of the face."
He often paints a series on one subject and often favours musicians. The facial expressions of old-time blues singers such as John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson has got him in its grasp at the moment.
"They’ve got it written all over their faces."
He was most chuffed one day when he was in a gallery to see a woman look at a work and comment how the person looked like a criminal.
"I didn’t have to tell her, she was right — she didn’t like it, but I loved what she said. She got it, from just the expression on his face."
Ralph Hotere (1931-2013), considered one of New Zealand’s top painters, is another face Adamson has found people enjoy. So he entered his most recent painting in the "Otago Arts Society Annual Exhibition".
"He’s got a great face, a look.
"I’ve painted a lot of Ralph. I gave him a bit of a grin this time; usually he is a bit more serious than that."
It won the Hughes Family Trust award for excellence, judge and Dunedin Public Art Gallery Society president Ross Currie saying the dark background references Hotere’s work, enhances the face and allows it to dominate.
"Although the subject is not looking at us directly, there is a strength and connection in this striking portrait of an icon. The light is in the face and there is wisdom and warmth in this portrait."
Discovering he was the winner came as a "big surprise" to the artist who does not like the limelight. He declined to be photographed for this story.
Adamson’s signature dark backgrounds have been with him since the start. He always paints the background black and then paints in the lighter elements, sometimes adding a little red.
"I don’t know, I just did. It just stuck. My palette’s pretty basic."
However, when he paints on board, usually smaller pieces, he finds himself using more colour.
"It takes time but I enjoy the process. You’ve got nothing there and it slowly comes out."
Rather than the usual canvas, Adamson, who was a finalist in the 2012 Adam Portraiture Award, prefers to paint on hessian most of the time and board occasionally.
The different surfaces call for different styles due to their textures, he says.
"Hessian is a more moulding style and when I paint on board it’s a different texture so I can’t paint that way."
The idea to use hessian came from looking at the work of leading New Zealand artist Tony Formison (1939-1990), who often painted on hessian.
"I gave it a go and found it really suited me straight away. I very rarely paint on canvas; I don’t like the feeling. Canvas doesn’t do it for me."
Adamson took redundancy from New Zealand Post a few years ago, so now spends about 25 hours a week painting — when not procrastinating — although he does not tally the time up.
He has outgrown the cabin and works from a studio in his house.
"I need more space and really good light. I can’t paint for more than three hours tops as I’ve got a bung shoulder, an old postie overuse injury."
He admits a lot of "painting" time is more like staring time.
"You sit there and look at all the mistakes — you walk away from it thinking it’s good and come back and realise it isn’t that good."
He often has a few works on the go at a time. Pieces are sometimes put aside, especially when they are not working, and then he gets them out when the urge takes him.
"I did that yesterday — pulled a work out that I’d made a bit of a mess of and seem to have fixed it, I think. It’s a funny game."
One of his favourite pastimes is reading about art and artists. After he drops his wife at work each day, he spends part of his morning reading at the University of Otago library.
"I’ll grab anything. It’s so interesting to see other artists’ styles and read about them. I’m fascinated by how other artists work."
The introduction of painting into his life has changed it dramatically — even their holidays are now spent vising art galleries, Adamson says.
"My house is clogged to bits with art.
"It’s a totally different life, instead of coming home exhausted every day ... "
TO SEE
"Otago Arts Society 147th Annual Exhibition", Dunedin Railway Station, until July 22
