Don Peebles doesn’t mind what people see in his paintings, but he does want his works to have presence: “The good painting pumps its energy out from the wall.”

Peebles explores the relationships between shape, colour, real form and illusion. Within the structure of a grid, vertical and horizontal fins of painted canvas seem to move and alter as the viewer moves around them. Peebles was born in Taneatua. Following service in World War II, he studied art in Florence, then at the Wellington Technical College School of Art. He taught for many years at the University of Canterbury. He was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit in 1999 for his services to New Zealand art.