Great Reviews for Ron Esplin's Exhibitions "A Portrait of Dunedin" and "Visions":
Great Reviews for Ron Esplin's Exhibitions "A Portrait of Dunedin" and "Visions":
Having produced three other "Portrait of...." books featuring paintings of Ron's adopted country, New Zealand, Ron has turned his attention to the city that he and his family settled in from Scotland in 1954, Dunedin, "The Edinburgh of the South".It seemed appropriate to launch the book of 90 paintings and accompanying editorial with an exhibition of Dunedin paintings, and that happened on the second of September 2016 at The Robert Piggott Gallery at 8 Jetty Street in Dunedin. In a second smaller Gallery the show was complemented with examples of Ron's ground breaking "Braille Art" under the title "Visions", and the two newspaper reports in the Otago Daily Times accompany this Newsletter.
Dunedin, "The Edinburgh of the South":
For those of you unfamiliar with Dunedin here is a brief synopsis.Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. The Lay Association of the Free Church of Scotland, through a company called the Otago Association, founded Dunedin at the head of Otago Harbour in 1848 as the principal town of its special settlement. The name comes from Dn ideann, the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Today Dunedin has a population of over 120,000. and is considered one of the four main cities of New Zealand for historic, cultural and geographic reasons. For an artist like myself it provides an endless variety of subjects to paint given the unique and picturesque setting of this beautiful "Edinburgh of the South".