Nature's own voice,6 February – 26 July 2009

Alfred Walsh was an early advocate for plein-air painting in New Zealand and developed his own distinctive style –famously described in 1904 as ‘aggressively splashy’. He worked predominantly in watercolours and enjoyed travelling to the Kaikoura coastline and the Arthur’s Pass region on summer camping and sketching trips with other artists. Walsh was one of the foremost plein-air painters in Christchurch and encouraged a generation of Canterbury artists, including Sydney Lough Thompson and Raymond McIntyre, to paint outdoors.