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I recently found myself walking through a scene straight out of Grace Butler's 1946 oil painting.

I was lucky enough to recently acquire my own copy of one my favourite books, Rodney Wilson's two-volume, case bound Catalogue Raisonne of Petrus van der Velden.

As might be expected, the Gallery's collection is primarily made up of complete works; prepared, resolved and sent on their way, as ready as they'll ever be for public exposure.

One of the great benefits of living in Christchurch, especially post February 2011, is the amazing alpine playground that lies within easy reach of the city – the mighty Southern Alps.

While scenes like this – the full-scale Civil Defence occupation of our gallery spaces - are thankfully a distant memory now, this photo does remind me of how disappointing it was to see some excellent shows cut short barely a couple of weeks into their run in February last year.

Van der Velden is leaving the building.

This week saw us begin the return of Petrus van der Velden's Otira paintings and drawings to public and private collections throughout New Zealand.

We had three great exhibitions on display in February. De-Building, Van der Velden: Otira and Leo Bensemann: A Fantastic Art Venture all opened within three weeks of the earthquake, and all three had their runs cut very short.

Visitors to the Gallery will soon have the chance to see one of Petrus van der Velden's earliest works.

In preparation for the Gallery's forthcoming exhibition and publication, Gallery photographer John Collie is busily photographing Petrus Van der Velden works.

Gallery conservator Edward Sakowski describes several years work making Petrus van der Velden's painting Jacksons, Otira ready for exhibition. The painting was purchased at auction in London.

This procedure was also described in issue 157 of Bulletin.

Things are not always what they seem. What looks like the result of an artistic foray into exotic lands is, in fact, an 1894 portrait of a Christchurch busker who posed in the studio of Petrus van der Velden.

In 2014 we purchased an important landscape work by Colin McCahon. Curator Peter Vangioni speaks about this new addition to Christchurch Art Gallery’s collection.

The way a work of art is framed affects our perception of the piece. A bad frame can detract and distract, a good frame enhances and even extends a work. While the Gallery has been closed we have updated frames for a number of works in the collection.

This article first appeared as 'Mighty kauris inspired McCahon' in The Press on 10 February 2015.

On a recent printer's residency at the Otago University's Otakou Press Colin McCahon's huge mural painting Waterfall Theme and variations dominated proceedings.

Today is the centennial of the death of one of New Zealand's most treasured artists, Petrus van der Velden.

This article appeared as 'Divine Innovation' in the The Press on 31 August 2012.

Oh yes he does.

After many, many months in the 'Darkness' of the empty gallery, I can think of no better words than those of Colin McCahon to signify the opening of the new gallery shop at 40 Lichfield Street.

Drop in Mon-Fri 10am-5pm, 10am-4pm Weekends

See you all soon!

An Easter-themed excerpt from an article published in 2010 in The Journal of New Zealand Art History...

Nothing made it into a W.A. Sutton painting by accident, and the white line that rises diagonally through the sky in Plantation Series II is no exception.