Donald Binney

Binney’s appreciation for his native land is ever-present in his artistic output, no less so in the present lot through his careful and considered painterly approach. Yet his work is also imbued with a sense of melancholy for the changes that have occurred in the environment he so loyally devoted his time to. R. B. Sibson was the schoolmaster at King’s College who later became a good friend and guide to Binney in the field of ornithology. Sibson was the first to encourage Binney to notice the cuckoos signalling summer’s coming and in birdwatching Binney “found a way to enter the landscape and know it as an environment”4. Binney’s interests in ornithology and the environment found a pathway into conservation and activism. Living through some of New Zealand’s most environmentally-challenged decades, Binney made continuing efforts –often against huge odds – to save remaining and globally unique native flora and fauna, and in particular birdlife.

As Binney himself said “conservation, spirituality and art usually conjoin in societies living indigenous to natural habitat… The role of any artist – in the fullest definition – can aid other specialist initiatives in habitat recovery, not just as a recorder but also as a celebrant”5. In this manner Binney leaves for us not only his legacy of exceptional artistic talent in representing the New Zealand landscape but also his passion for ecology and the environment. As such, we are also left with the knowledge that these two subjects, the art of landscape painting and environmentalism, must be entwined.

4. Ibid.

5. Tobias, M., 18 October 2012, Don Binney (1940-2012): Tribute to A Great Artist and Conservationist (online), Forbes

PROVENANCE:

The

PROVENANCE:

Pickles