Respected local painter and art school lecturer Bill Sutton created a body of large paintings in the 1980s that he called the Plantation Series. Featuring vast tracts of introduced pinus radiata – dark abstractions against parched yellow-ochre hills – these began as a kind of protest against the plantations interrupting the underlying character of the land. Somewhat in contradiction, he also developed something of an appreciation of their visual effect and endless array of interacting shapes and patterns. This rapidly drawn pencil sketch lets us into Sutton’s process, recording a motif that could be revisited if required. His addition of a signature shows that he also took pleasure in this drawing for its own sake. (Die Cuts and Derivations, 11 March – 2 July 2023)