BRECON-based artist Robert Macdonald is travelling to New Zealand this month for an exhibition of his work in the South Island city of Dunedin. Robert first went to New Zealand as a boy of 10 in 1945 when his father, a veterinary surgeon, was asked to work in the far north of the country. He grew up in the Northland province and trained as a journalist in New Zealand, but in 1958 returned to Britain and studied painting at the Central School of Art in London.

In London Robert met two other painters from New Zealand, John Drawbridge and Don Peebles, and they shared a house and studios for a while in St John’s Wood. John and Don returned to New Zealand where they both became well-known in the Down Under art world – John creating the murals which decorated the new Parliament buildings in Wellington while Don over the years became the country’s grand old man of abstract painting and senior lecturer in the Canterbury Art College.

Robert remained in Britain though he maintained strong connections with New Zealand and in the 1970s worked on a series of large canvas paintings relating to 19th-century Maori chiefs. These were shown in New Zealand House, London, when the Queen Mother attended a ceremony to raise a huge totem–like pole in the centre of the building carved by the Maori opera singer, Inia Te Wiata. In the 1980s Robert returned to New Zealand for a period and was invited by the Tainui Maori people to accompany them on a historic march up to Waitangi in the far north where they presented representatives of the government and Crown with their political demands. He wrote about these experiences in a book, ‘The Fifth Wind’, published in 1989 by Bloomsbury, and illustrated the book with his own linocut prints.

Robert returned to Britain to write his book and made his base an isolated cottage in the Brecon Beacons which had been rescued from dereliction by his Welsh-born wife, Annie. After its publication he remained in Wales having begun to paint the landscapes of the Usk Valley and take an interest in the legends of the area. His paintings were exhibited widely and he became an established figure on the Welsh arts scene, becoming Chair for a period of the Welsh Group, the senior association of professional artists in Wales. At present he is also president of the Royal Watercolour Society of Wales and a director of the Swansea Print Workshop.

Robert remained closely in touch with his New Zealand painter friends despite spending most of his time in Britain. Photographs taken of Robert, John and Don in their St John’s Wood studios in the 1960s were reproduced in catalogues in New Zealand and aroused the interest of Cecilia and Megan Mickelson, owners of the Fe 29 gallery in Dunedin.

Sadly both John Drawbridge and Don Peebles have died in the past decade but the gallery owners decided to bring together the works of all three painters in an exhibition which they have entitled ‘Three Friends – Three Paths’.

In preparation for the exhibition Robert sent a large portfolio of his paintings and prints to Dunedin which have been framed there, and he also sent a large cardboard roll containing three rolled up canvases – the last remaining works from his Maori chiefs series of the 1970s. One of these paintings has become the main publicity image for the exhibition and has even been used to decorate a car driven around Dunedin to publicise the event. Among his prints are a etchings relating to the legend of Llyn-y-Fan Fach and other Welsh legends. Dunedin is the centre of New Zealand’s Scottish community and he has also sent a series of prints exploring his own family’s Scottish background ( he began these some years ago in the Edinburgh Print Workshop where he worked for a period as part of a Swansea–Edinburgh printmakers exchange).

After arriving in New Zealand Robert is making his way to Wellington to meet with John Drawbridge’s widow, Tanya Ashken, now a well-known sculptor, and together they plan to fly down to Dunedin for the exhibition opening on the Friday, September 21. Robert will also meet up with other old friends and relatives including his daughter Rachel and three granddaughters who live in Auckland.