Te Araroa Trail; Artist captures landscapes on the Te

Artist captures landscapes on the Te Araroa Trail

For ‘Late to the Hut’ in DEPOT Artspace’s Street Front Gallery, emerging environmental artist Sarah Adam has created a visual account of walking Te Araroa – the 3000 kilometre trail stretching from Cape Reinga in the North to Bluff in the South. Painted in oils ‘en plein air’ over five months -- the equivalent of one painting a day as she walked the trail -- the series of 140 paintings (150mm long each) resembles postcards and depict the geographic character as it transforms each day from North into South.

When she was planning the trip, Adam was unsure whether to paint every day, or just focus on the wellknown beautiful parts. Then read Gordon Brown’s writing on Colin McCahon’s Northland panel: “I was inspired to look for something beautiful in the landscape every day. Be that obvious, in the picturesque Southern Alps and Marlborough Sounds or harder to see, in the expansive plains of the Waikato or urban areas of Auckland,” said Adam. There is equal beauty in the ordinary lowlands, seascapes, and forests and the iconic mountains and lakes. A painting of unremarkable trees in a nameless valley in the Manawatu - Wanganui region sits alongside well-known places. Moving through the land, Adam perceived its timelessness and diversity yet was equally struck by how short our human history is and how penetrating our impact has been.

Imagine being so immersed in the landscape that you forget the time. Spending hours trying to capture every nuance of the light as it plays across the terrain. You finally notice as it grows dark that you are cold and hungry – but at least you Working from life, ‘Late to the Hut’ have finished the painting before the light became too thin. You also realise that you draws our attention to the beautiful still have six or seven kilometres left to walk moments in the landscape that most of to the next hut… us would miss. Reminding us that we are just ‘passing through’ and urging us to reflect on the impact we have on our surroundings. Coincidentally, those walking the Te Araroa trail in 2022/23 will be walking through Devonport while ‘Late to the Hut’ is on view. Adam is currently working for the Department of Conservation (DOC) on the Hen and Chicks Islands, in Northland. Whilst living on these remote nature reserves, she is dedicating every free moment to ‘plein air’ painting. ‘Late to the Hut’ opens to the public from 10AM Saturday 3rd – Friday 21 December 2022. Gallery hours are Tues – Sat: 10AM – 4PM. A percentage of the sales of her paintings will go to Forest & Bird. Above: right: Sarah Adam painting on the Te Araroa Trail. Above right and above: Two of Sarah’s paintings on display at the gallery.