When Pat Hanly died in September 2004 his friend, Christchurch artist John Coley, said 'it was as if his death turned a dimmer knob on daylight.' For so many of the generation who had grown up and into a love of New Zealand art in step with Pat's adventuring as an artist, those words rang deep and true. No matter how dark the subject he was treating in his art, he always managed to give his work a luminous quality, full of energy and light, often with joyous primary colours.

Pat had visited me just before he died, when I was checking the proofs of my first art book for children, With My Little Eye—What Michael Smither sees. I told him I wanted to follow up on that book with a similar one, based on his work. 'Too late,' he said. 'Too late. Can't be done.' But Gil, his wife, said 'take no notice.' When Pat died, I became all the more determined to do a book on his work for my grandchildren's generation. I so much wanted them to grow up with his vivid colours and quirky forms laid down early in their mindscapes—such images last a lifetime, I know.

But where to start? Pat's body of work was so wideranging, from The Fire Series, Figures in Light, Pacific Ikons, to his Garden series and New Order. His murals graced walls in Christchurch Town Hall, Auckland's Aotea Centre, Auckland Airport and many other public and private buildings. His vitality and generosity of spirit, combined with his constant artistic inventiveness, gave us iconic images that celebrate life, while warning us about the perils of how we live.

As a member of the Peace Foundation Council, I was aware that the twenty-first anniversary of the legislation making New Zealand nuclear free, passed on 8 June 1987, was approaching. And I knew at first-hand Pat Hanly's enthusiastic support for the Peace Squadron, the flotilla of small craft from surfboards to yachts and motor boats that did its best to block the visits of American nuclear-armed vessels to our harbours. (Some of the most colourful stories of Pat's life revolved around his love of the sea and sailing, even though he never learnt to swim and succeeded in terrifying most of the family and friends who dared to venture out in his little boats.)

His long story of painting in protest about nuclear issues began in London in the early 1960s when he and Gil joined the marches for nuclear disarmament. Pat's paintings then included Deluge of Fire and Escape Vessel, which are in the BLAST! exhibition. I wanted to pay homage to an artist whose work i loved and admired, not least for the messages embedded in his brilliant surfaces. And what better way could I find to tell a new generation something of the anti-nuclear passions and protests than through the courage and colour of the man who is one of our most cherished artists? I was quite horrified during my informal market research to realize how few people under forty had heard of Pat Hanly or the anti-nuclear grassroots movement in new Zealand.

From the moment I took my precious project to Kate Wells, curator at Lopdell House Gallery, everything came together. there, at Titirangi on 'the fringe of heaven', where Colin McCahon cubed his kauri trees, the whole BLAST! package was picked up with vigour: Gil Hanly gave her endorsement and protest photographs, Claudia Pond Eyley her DVD No Nukes is Good Nukes, and willing loans were made by owners of some of Pat's most powerful paintings. Lesley Smith, who multitasks as general manager of Lopdell House Gallery and designer for books (what a combination!) was terrific to work with. Kate Wells kept her curatorial eye on us—and the resulting exhibition will now tour to ten galleries throughout the country over more than two years.

I still get tears prickling my eyes every time I walk into a gallery with these Hanly works hung together. the impact is overwhelming. And I am thrilled to report that, thanks to a grant from Padet, the Peace and disarmament education trust set up with Rainbow Warrior compensation money from the French Government, a copy of BLAST! Pat Hanly: the painter and his protests has been sent to every primary and intermediate school in the country. Thousands of school children have been to art workshops based on BLAST!Grandparents, parents and teachers are taking the young in hand; looking, talking. the story is still being written...

Trish Gribben

Trish Gribben is author of Blast! Pat Hanly: the painter and his protests, the book behind the exhibition.