Paul Forrest
Paul Forrest has been a professional artist for 35 years and lives and works in Newtown, Wellington. He has exhibited widely, has undertaken many artist residencies and his works are held in many private collections both nationally and internationally. Since 2015 the focus of his art practice has been to encourage awareness of the natural environment. In recent years he has been teaching advanced drawing skills to hundreds of 5–10-year-old artists at two local primary schools and curating fortnightly exhibitions of Newtown Primary School artists.
More info about Paul:
www.paulforrest.co.nz
www.thebutterflybowlingclub.co.nz
Paul Forrest, Bring back the natives, 2024, UV varnished ink and acrylic paint on 2mm aluminium, stainless steel and 4.5–6.5m wooden Jarra poles.
The Burrill People’s
Choice Award
Vote for this work:
Sadly, most Aucklanders won’t remember the Red Admiral butterfly, or Kahukura, the subject of Paul’s artwork, Bring back the natives, for Sculpture in the Gardens. Endemic to Aotearoa, these beautiful butterflies were common in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and widespread in the country before the turn of the century. Habitat loss and perhaps the effect of the painted apple moth insecticide has caused it to almost completely disappear from the city.
In Bring back the natives, Paul presents a large installation in the Gardens of his sculptural Kahukura. Brightly painted and in varying sizes, this striking work is sure to provoke nostalgia for and generate a conversation about this all but lost but loved New Zealand insect.
The kaleidoscope is to draw attention to the current community drive to reintroduce the Kahukura Red Admiral population to Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
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