Staff Reporter
An exquisite range of oil paintings on jute is decorating the walls of the Fo Guang Yuan Art Gallery at the Fo Guang Shan Temple in Flat Bush, East Auckland.
Inaugurated on Saturday, March 4, 2017, the paintings, created by New Zealander Dean Buchanan and his son Rudi, extols the beauty and bounty of Nature with a difference.
The paintings are on jute instead of the normal canvas base. They bring out the passion and penchant of the artists, who are arguably tired of the materialistic urban world.
Buchanan Sr said that his journey was aimed at seeking Nature and immersing himself in the quiet of the countryside of New Zealand.
“I find the urban chaos difficult to comprehend,” he said.
Dean is constantly on his journey, discovering and rediscovering Nature.
That has been his wont for the past 40 or more years.
Mountainous Supremacy
“The power of the mountains and the supremacy of the clouds and the purified air stirs my imagination. My work benefits from climbing in the mountains but I also learned much from tramping & walking in the forests, being close to nature,” he said.
Dean said that his works have, since the beginning of his journey, been directed to his feelings for the landscape and his attempts to convey those feelings.
“Striving to gain the essence of the places to which I go and how those places resonate within me. It is about feelings. This has always been my direction and further the journey, the more motivation and inspiration gained,” he said.
The gallery will be open from 10 am to 4 pm From Tuesday to Sunday until April 2, 2017.
The Inaugurators
More than 100 people attended the opening ceremony at which Abbess Manshin of Fo Guang Shan Temple and the Curator of Fo Guang Yuan Art Gallery spoke of the talent of Dean and Rudi Buchanan and said that the exhibition was a tribute to the beauty of New Zealand.
Among the other speakers at the inaugural ceremony were Taipei Economic and Cultural Office Auckland Director General Dr Chou Chung Hsing, Advisor of Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA) North Island Chapter Yuanyong Yang, Dean and Rudi Buchanan and the Editor of this newspaper.
