The White stuff

Thinking more about how artists can define landscapes, we left Highway 1 on a drive south to check out Mangaweka and see if the Puha Palace, once owned by poet Sam Hunt and the subject of one of Robin White’s most famous paintings, was still standing. It was. In fact the place is still much as White left it except the truck with Mangaweka painted on its side is long gone. On the side of the building we saw that someone has attached a Robin White mash-up, a painting/sign that combined bits from the Mangaweka work, Morris Commercial, Hokianga and This is me at Kaitangata. We figured it might have been an entry, or perhaps a winner, in the annual 2008 Mangaweka Visual Arts Festival themed Painters and Poets. That the 2007 theme was Fakes & Forgeries probably had something to do with C F Goldie (the name change chosen by art forger Carl Fedora Sim) setting up shop further down the main street.