'West Coast Sunrise'

Oil painting on canvas by Grant McSherry. 1100 mm x 740 mm.

The West Coast of NZ offers very distinctive landscapes. The West Coast (Westland) is also famous for huge sand flies / mosquitoes, fantastic native bushland and a plethora of one lane bridges. On the West Coast it is relatively common for these bridges to be shared with rail, the tracks run through the middle and crossing can be an unsettling experience for a motorist.

If you have ever been through the Haast Pass in Westland NZ you have been to the place this oil painting depicts. This piece of NZ art reveals the landscape you experience when you are travelling out of Haast and the Haast Pass towards the West Coast. You just may not have seen it this early in the morning…

This oil painting of the West Coast describes the bridge over the Haast River at sunrise after the customary Westland shower of rain.

The Haast Pass (further back on the same road) is the lowest and southern most of New Zealand’s transalpine crossings. It was used by Maori in search of greenstone on the West Coast and was suggested as a route way back in 1880, but the highway was not fully opened until 1965. The 732 metre, one-way Haast Bridge depicted here, stands at the end at the end of the one Kilometre wide Haast Valley.

I don’t think much explanation is necessary as to why I decided to paint this NZ landscape. The natural landscape and the man-made (and almost mandatory one-way) West Coast bridge are lit by the spectacular colour of a sunrise after rain. More than one person has remarked that they are drawn into the painting, just waiting for the next thing to happen…for the sun to rise just that little bit more…

Original painting 'West Coast Sunrise': oil on canvas
Original painting size: 1100mm x 740mm
Arbuckle Art Trust, Christchurch, NZ.

Art prints: Limited edition (offset on paper) 450, hand numbered & signed. Large size: (image area) 727mm x 490mm
Print price (printed offset on paper unframed) NZ $99 + packaging and freight. (Packaging & freight is free within NZ.) See below for exchange rates