Paul Hutchinson has steadfastly refused to follow trends in painting. Completely self taught, he has been working full-time as an artist since he was 17, developing the skills and techniques of painting and continually exploring new mediums, most recently reviving the ancient technique of painting in encaustic wax - ground pigments mixed with molten beeswax and resins and applied hot to the canvas.
| PAUL HUTCHINSON - C.V. | |
| Born Middlesbrough. | '58 |
| Family emigrated to Vancouver Island, Canada. | '62 |
| Was encouraged to paint and draw from a young age by his father who painted watercolour landscapes. | '64 |
| Family emigrated back to Britain, living in Diss, Norfolk
and Huddersfield, Yorkshire. Enjoyed painting and drawing at school, not much else, started using acrylics. | '70 |
| Family emigrated to New Plymouth, New Zealand. Enrolled in full-time architectural draughting course at Taranaki Polytechnic; however, more interested in art than architecture and spent all his free time sketching in Pukekura Park. Won a prize in Bernard Aris Painting competition for young artists in Taranaki. | '74 |
| Left Polytech and supporting himself with part time jobs and the support of parents, began painting. | '75 |
| Joined the Taranaki Society of Arts and exhibited in their annual exhibitions. | '76 |
| Had first exhibition of work at TSA's gallery on Brougham St. Was encouraged by Michael Smither. | '77 |
| Started to paint in a "hard-edged realism" style. Won an award in the "Centre Gallery Memorial Painting Competition for Artists 21 Years of Age and Under". | '78 |
| Started painting the "Plastic Animals" series. With other artists formed the Taranaki Artists' Co-operative, TACO, and held the first "Renonsense" art exhibition and mini arts festival. Won the TSB Review at the Govett Brewster Art Gallery. | '81 |
| Learned screenprinting techniques from Bill & Michael Smither. TACO set up screenprinting workshop in old dairy factory on Puniho Road. Won Montana Art Award. | '82 |
| Worked in studios at King Street with Michael Smither
and Tom Mutch. "I found this time instructive -
seeing other artists' working methods." Met Dale Copeland. Started to work with collage. | '84 |
| Met Dale Copeland and moved to Puniho where their daughter Toby was born | '85 |
| Took time off painting to make building alterations to the house and reassess the direction his art was taking. | '86 |
| Commissioned to paint mural on New Plymouth
Mobile Library bus. Won second prize in B.R.L. Art Award. | '87 |
| Painted the first of the "Hand" series. Moved away from hard edged realism style and started using thicker impasto and painting with white lead. Became interested in the work of Lucien Freud. | '88 |
| Exhibition with Dale Copeland, Roger Morris and Marianne Muggeridge in "A Couple of Artistic Pairs" at the Govett Brewster Art Gallery. | '89 |
| Started working with Chalk Pastel. | '90 |
| Part-time tutor in oil painting for Art Start programme. | '91 |
| Commissioned to paint large murals for Taranaki Base Hospital psychiatric ward working with staff and clients. | '92 |
| Continued with the Hand Series. | '93 |
| With four other artists toured Christchurch, Nelson and Wellington | '94/95 |
| Spent two months in Europe studying art. With Dale Copeland set up Virtual TART Internet art site for Taranaki artists. Became interested in the ancient tecnique of encaustic wax painting, combining this with collaged material printed out from the early internet. Exhibited at the Lincoln Center New York. From this show was invited to exhibit work in "The Unbearables" Arts Festival in New York. Exhibited large figure paintings in Lorne, Australia, and exhibitions throughout New Zealand | '97 ... |
| Finalist in Biennial National Portrait competitions in Wellington | 2000-2010 |
| Painting-a-day project - started painting small postcard paintings of everyday objects exhibiting and selling them from an online blog postcardfrompuniho.blogspot.com | from 2006 |
| Cities-of-Art, Port Moody, Vancouver | 2006 |
| Won first prize for painting with his large diptych of his parents' portraits in encaustic, Taranaki Review | 2006 |
| Won first prize for painting in watercolour, Taranaki Review | 2007 |
| Shared Life is an Everday Thing exhibition with Anne Holliday, New Plymouth | 2010 |
Photo by Cathy Dee
Paul's studio can be found at Puniho,
Surf Highway, Coastal Taranaki, New Zealand
More of his work can be found on his home site at paulhutchinson.co.nz
email Paul at PJHpainter @ gmail.com (remove spaces)
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