Running through Dunedin Botanic Garden, artist Sam Foley does some of his best thinking — and possibly some of his most confused.
It was the confused thinking that finally galvanised him into creating his latest exhibition, when he realised waiting for someone to die before painting something did not really make sense.
Foley, who is known for his detailed urban and nature landscapes, has always loved the botanic garden and has fond memories of time spent there as a child.
"Mum used to take us there, it’s firmly etched in my memory as an environment. We spent endless hours in that old playground where the car park is now."
Still living in the North end today, Foley runs every day during the week through the garden, and can often be found there with his daughter at the weekends.
"There is always something new to see. I’ve been to quite a few botanic gardens around the place and this one really stacks up, but maybe I’m biased."
The idea of painting the garden, especially the upper garden, seemed a natural idea. So Foley gave it a go, but each time he did, he felt was "ripping off" one of New Zealand’s most recognisable painters, Karl Maughan, who specialises in garden scenes, even though he paints differently to him.
"It was an issue for me. It was psychological but it was getting in the way of something I wanted to do. It’s been a funny process in that respect. Coming to terms with ‘can I do it?’ Trying to see my way to a situation where I can."
It had not been helped by viewers of those early botanic works asking if they were Maughan’s work.
"People see the subject and that overrides the technique. It’s the subject people respond to."
Then out on a run it came to him; he would just wait until Maughan died, then try again.
"It was a daydream really. You think funny things sometime."
It did not take him long to think the idea was a bit morbid, so he came up with another solution. He would work out a way to meet Maughan and ask him if it was OK if he painted the garden.
So on a visit to Wellington, he did just that.
"It was an experience. I ended up feeling quite sorry for him but he took it really well. He was quite taken aback. He’s a great guy and it was such a random thing to do."
But getting the OK did clear the air and give Foley the impetus to create his latest exhibition of works featuring the botanic garden and in particular the rhododendron dell.
"I’ve been there thousands of times, right, but sometimes you wonder through there [and] you feel a little bit lost — it’s a nice kind of feeling, like a discovery."
His love of the garden meant he had to put parameters on what he would focus on, but he still managed to complete 15 paintings, a large show for him.
The paintings are not just a tribute to a place he loves. The title "Last Light in the Garden" refers to the mythological expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, and to Foley is a meditation of his feelings on climate crisis anxiety.
"I like to go deep into a subject until I reach the point I can’t possibly paint anymore."
He also got the tick of approval from Maughan, whom he bumped into one day in Dowling St, Dunedin, when Maughan was down for an exhibition of his work at Milford Gallery.
"I thought he’d say no — he was busy — but he didn’t. He came up. He was nothing if not extremely positive about what I’d done since I’d last seen him."
As his large works take one hundred-plus hours to complete, he takes many photographs of the sites he wants to paint.
"Doing what I really love to do — wander around with a camera late evening to dusk to early night kind of period."
One of the interesting parts of creating this exhibition, he found, has been picking up a thread from an earlier work Full Moon Queens Drive featuring Queens Gardens in the moonlight without streetlight. It was at the time a deviation from his work, which often featured street lights illuminating scenes.
Instead of the bright whites of the street lights or daylight in those works, this exhibition has seen him discover a different palette of colours — dark blues, greens, purples and reds.
"I haven’t done much of that before. It has been revelatory for me as part of the painting process. You’ve got to have something exciting to keep things moving along in your practice."
Foley, who has a degree in fine art from Dunedin School of Art, mostly paints land, sea, sky, forest or urban landscapes, so the garden’s works fall within that in that they are part of an urban landscape, yet also full of nature.
His last exhibition was paintings of beech forests in the Wakatipu Basin.
"That was different again in a palate sense, they’re very different. It’s a refreshing approach."
Foley admits while he is not one to stand still or repeat themes too often, he does not stray too far from his established style, as it is a progression.
"As an artist you are always turning over the same patch of soil to a certain degree."
Part of using those darker tones is also using thick-textured paint to pick up the light.
"It’s a very painterly approach."
It is the "gift of progression" that is behind Foley’s decision to offer a painting up for silent auction, with the money raised going towards the Friends of the Botanic Garden’s next project.
"He [Maughan] gifted me painting progress so I wanted to gift that on. I’ve got so much inspiration from the botanics, just from running through there.
"When you separate yourself from the studio and go out for a run, that’s often when you get good ideas."
It is hoped the funds raised from the top bid will go towards a project proposed for the vacant field at the top of the garden, a demonstration garden which can be used by schools and the community for workshops and education programmes around gardening.
"It’s a super-exciting idea."
The auction will run the duration of the exhibition, which is taking part first at Foley’s studio in Dowling Street from Saturday for two weeks, and then at the Artists Room for two weeks.
To see
Last Light in the Garden, Sam Foley, from Saturday Dowling St studio and then the Artists Room from March 12.
