Rural artist Graham has lived the majority of his life on and around farms within the Manawatu/Rangitikei region. His father, grandfather and great grandfather were all farmers and from a young age Graham worked on shearing gangs and hay trucks before studying agriculture at Lincoln University and going on to spend a lifetime within the agricultural sector.

Now retired, Graham lives on a farm near Ashhurst and paints from a large light-filled studio – fittingly, a converted room at the back of the barn. In this exhibition Graham takes his lived experience and captures moments in time that many of us will recognise from our own memories of rural New Zealand. A rocky streambed with ferns growing along its shadowy banks, an old barn that has seen better days, farmers gathered at the sheep yards (most likely grumbling about stock prices), cattle peacefully grazing on a warm autumn day. All scenes that we know or recognise from our own lived experience - and perhaps reminding us of a simpler time.