October 17 @ 10:00 am - November 4 @ 3:30 pm

Opening Saturday 17th October 10am – 4pm

Special Plein Air (outdoor) painting tour & demo:

Wednesday 28th Oct 12-2pm

To participate arrive at the Depot Artspace by 12:15pm where John will disembark for Plein Air outdoor demo

Artist on site with live demo (1-2pm):

Sundays 11-3pm

Wednesday 21st Oct 12-2pm

Plein Air (French for outdoors) painting is the act of painting outdoors.

John Horner has spent many years on the North Shore. As a student of Owen Lee Owen Lee at Takapuna he was encouraged to go to Elam where he was a student of Colin McCahon and Garth Tapper. He was head of the art department at Westlake Boys High School in the 70’s and 80’s and then a senior lecturer at the Whitecliffe College of Art and Design for 30 years. John is now retired from teaching and painting fulltime.

This exhibition, Plein Air and More, is a series of Plein Air works done in the Auckland district in the last year. These studies were inspired by an interest in the Canadian Group of Seven, the field sketches of Constable and Turner and also by the early works of Matisse with his richness of colour.

Some of these plein air works have been worked on in the studio and another series of larger works developed from these themes. These further works try to capture the expressive gesture and vitality of the small works.

In 2018 Horner was selected by the Eden Arts Trust as an artist in residence in Karekare house, This experience inspired a series of West Coast works, some included in this exhibition. Horner has traveled widely and a trip to Europe was planned earlier this year to get material for this exhibition but due to Covid, this was cancelled and this exhibition resulted. Some of the images included were inspired by cycle rides and walks during lockdown.

During this exhibition John Horner will do a series of painting demonstrations in the gallery and it is hoped to do some local plein air works in the local district dependent on weather. See top of description for dates and times.

This exhibition was partially funded by Auckland City Council Arts Funding.

View John’s website: Johnhorner.co.nz