Thanks for the Memories!

This isn't actually a farewell post to NZ... yet. that will probably come. This post is actually to say thank you to Pip for these amazing paintings she has done for me!

Pip is a great painter, as I'm sure you'll agree. She asked if I would be interested in having her paint one of my photographs of a New Zealand highlight. Obviously I said yes, and set to the task of finding just the right photograph that would lend itself to becoming a painting. Once I had my short-list, we had a lunchtime meeting to narrow down the choices further, and Pip went away with the shorter short-list and surprised me with TWO of these outstanding works of art!

Her version of this photo of my buddy Dan when we hiked the humpridge track and climbed on top of that rock at sunset. It was a pretty amazing view and experience, now captured on canvas.

Here's the original photo:

I had a feeling she was going to do that one. She just seemed quite drawn to that photo. Plus she met Dan and they seemed like long-lost friends, so the whole thing just made sense.  

I did not anticipate that I was going to get a second bonus painting:

This is me and Evan at the Nugget Point Lighthouse in the Catlins region. She went for a more abstract approach with this one, and I think she took all the right risks. Orange ocean? yes, please. I went to this place with almost every group of visitors to NZ, and each trip was just as fun as the others.

Here's the original of this one: 

I think paintings of photographs are very tricky. It is virtually impossible to recreate the exact photograph, but they are also a way to recreate a moment in a new light, which I think Pip has done perfectly. Things that make photographs nice aren't necessarily the same things that make paintings nice, and luckily Pip has an eye for that sort of thing and instead of trying to do EXACT replicas, she used her artistic license to create a pair of fantastic souvenirs for me, and I couldn't be more thrilled with the outcome. 

Thanks for these memories, along with so many others, Pippy!!!