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Life has been very hectic here at Christchurch Art Gallery over the past few weeks so here's a quick round up of our latest Outer Spaces offerings.

On a recent trip to the Manawatu I took time out to visit John and Allison Brebner who run an amazing print studio called Homeprint tucked away in a suburban street in Feilding.

Check out this amazing Columbian printing press that was recently discovered in an English garden.

While currently curating an exhibition titled Pressed Letters: Fine Printing in New Zealand since 1975, which examines not only beautifully designed hand-printed books but also the collaborative nature that often exists between poets, artists and letterpress printers, I was...

Recent research has illuminated a fragment of medieval manuscript

Portraits of former Chief Justices of New Zealand hang in the No 1 courtroom at the Wellington High Court.

Madras Street is open again! And we're very pleased about that, as the front door to our Outer Spaces gallery upstairs at NG happens to be on the one-way heading north, so it's even easier for you to get there and see Breathing Space.

Today is the centenary of the birth of Canterbury artist Leo Bensemann and Peter Simpson, Leo's biographer, has contributed an insightful article on the Christchurch Art Gallery's collection of Leo Bensmann's work which you can read here. 

It was with much sadness that we heard of William McAloon's death last week.

A wonderful collection of paintings by Leo Bensemann opened in Christchurch last night at W.T. MacAlister Gallery.

If any of our blog readers are in Melbourne over the next month or two we recommend a visit to the excellent exhibition Art and Adventure: the Fine Press Book from 1450 to 2011 which opened at the University of Melbourne's Baillieu Library last week and runs through to May.

'Still, but never static' is how one writer described the work of local artist David Cheer, who died on 4 February, aged 80.

The Gallery was very fortunate to receive a collection of books from Leo Bensemann's library this week.

Located at the top of the South Island's West Coast, near Cape Farewell, Wharariki Beach is a stunning area where the land meets the sea in dramatic fashion.

Some people fear them, others revel in the unforgiving dry heat – love them or hate them the legendary Canterbury nor'wester is one of the defining features of this region in the summer months and there is a real doozy blowing outside at the moment.

Working in an art gallery, I have been lucky enough to have art readily available to enjoy as part of my everyday work life. Unfortunately, with the Gallery doors closed and the collection safety stored away, it's not the case for us at the moment. So it was time to view someone else's collection, and see how it enriches their working environment.

Is it sheer, poetic coincidence that the number of the latest Landfall journal is 222?

Ralph Hotere's recognition as a Member of the Order of New Zealand in the New Year was a fitting tribute to an artist whose work has truly reflected social, political and environmental issues relating to New Zealand and the wider international community throughout his career.

Two recent additions to the Gallery's library highlight letterpress printing is alive and well in Australasia.

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.

With Leo Bensemann: A Fantastic Art Venture set to open at the Gallery in February, I've been working on Bensemann's St Olaf to get it ready for exhibition.

In 2008 I was employed as an Art and Object Handler at the National Maritime Museum and Royal Observatory, in Greenwich, London. About halfway through my year working there I was sent on a course which focussed on the safe handling and movement of oversized, heavy sculptures. The course involved workshops, lectures, and a very interesting array of people from galleries and museums throughout the UK, and was held at West Dean College, which stretches over 10kms along the Sussex South Downs and Lavant Valley in Chichester, South East England.

The Gallery's Watercolour Collection had modest beginnings, but over the past 70 years it has grown steadily by gift and purchase and, of all the Collections, still maintains a largely traditional emphasis. When the Gallery opened in June 1932, just 28 of the 128 paintings on display were watercolours and, of these, 11 were by British artists and 17 by New Zealanders. Among the mostly nineteenth century British watercolours were those by Helen Allingham, Edgar Bundy, Matthew Hale, Laura Knight, William Lee Hankey and Ernest Waterlow. In contrast, the New Zealand watercolours were by mostly contemporary or early twentieth century artists and included works by James Cook, Olivia Spencer Bower, Margaret Stoddart, Maude Sherwood, Eleanor Hughes and Alfred Walsh. The foundation Watercolour Collection included two paintings of larger than usual dimensions. William Lee Hankey's We've been in the Meadows all day (1184 x 878mm) and Charles N. Worsley's Mount Sefton (996 x 1105mm) are still greater in scale than any other work in the Watercolour Collection.

This article first appeared in The Press on 28 December 2005

"Malt is the soul of beer and yeast gives it life but the kiss of the hop is the vitality of that life." Tom Inglis

Nelson has long held a strong reputation for growing excellent hops with a substantial industry based on the crop being developed in the region in the late 19th century. Motueka in particular has an extremely suitable climate for growing hops and the majority of New Zealand's hop production occurs within close proximity of the town. By the 1940s commercial production of hops had fully developed into a successful horticultural enterprise which Rita Angus has in part captured in her 1941 watercolour Untitled (Hop Kilns, Motueka).