Gareth Williams

My mother had called me and told me that she and my father wanted to see me. So I planned a three week visit to New Zealand. When I got there and assessed their situation I realized that I could be helpful to them and decided to stay longer. I threw my return ticket in the bin. Thus began a sojourn in New Zealand of two years and ten months. After an initial period of staying with friends, our wonderful friend, Annie, offered us her house in the inner Auckland suburb of Cox's Bay. I wasn't working so I had time to cook and shop for and visit my parents often, do their garden, entertain the various cats that came into our life at Annie's place, transform Annie's garden and...observe the nearby environment and paint!

The exhibition I called Recent Paintings was the result of this period and was held at Annie's house in the summer of 2008. It was a lovely sunny summer's day and Annie's garden looked spectacular. People came and went and enjoyed popping in for a look at my paintings and, to my surprise, many of them sold.