Tokatoka Farm II

Don Binney is best known for his signature paintings of birds in flight above the New Zealand landscape. A descendent of the regional realism tradition, he practised a tightly controlled hard-edged style pioneered in New Zealand by Christopher Perkins, Rita Angus and Bill Sutton. Up on the hill, beneath Tokatoka mountain sits a small white farmhouse, and the inclusion of this vernacular architecture links Binney to other artists of the post-war generations including Robin White.

In this densely drawn image, the land and surrounding flora appear compressed and clearly defined. Rather than capture each leaf, Binney uses soft shadings of crayon to give a general impression of the different kinds of foliage. Drawing was central to Binney's practice, and he stated that he saw the relationship between drawing and painting as a 'lifelong symbiosis'.

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