Dame Cindy and Sir Grahame Sydney, KNZM
Sir Grahame Sydney, of Oturehua, KNZM for services to art
Sir Grahame Sydney’s art career spans five decades across mediums including oil painting, watercolour, egg tempera, lithographs, etching, and photography. Sir Grahame is best known for his landscapes of Central Otago, which for many have defined their responses to Central Otago and the South. His works are represented in the collections of all New Zealand’s major galleries and in private collections both nationally and internationally. His exhibits have attracted record crowds. His 1999 ‘Regions of the Heart: 25-year retrospective’ toured New Zealand’s public galleries for two years, setting record public attendances. Tens of thousands attended the ‘Down South – Recent Paintings’ exhibit at Porirua’s Pataka Art and Museum Gallery in 2011. His photographs comprise two books, ‘White Silence’ and ‘Grahame Sydney’s Central Otago’. His works are the subjects of several books including ‘Grahame Sydney Paintings 1974-2014’, and his own publications have included ‘Promised Land: From Dunedin to the Dunstan Goldfields’ (2009). He was a driving force behind the creation of the Henderson House Artists in Residence Programme in Alexandra and he now chairs the Henderson Arts Trust. Sir Grahame has advocated on various environmental issues, including the successful ‘Save Central’ campaign, and he was a founding member of the Central Otago Wilding Conifer Control Group.