Painting in open air provides inspiration for artist

You won’t find much of Brian Badcock’s work in art galleries. He compares most of them to commercial music – interior decorating stuff. Marlborough’s only ‘plein air’ painter, Badcock learned the art form from his father Douglas who was also a prolific and well-known painter. Brian Badcock spends a minimal amount of time in his studio, preferring to be outdoors to capture the feeling and experience of the landscapes he paints. Brian Badcock spends a minimal amount of time in his studio, preferring to be outdoors to capture the feeling and experience of the landscapes he paints. “Plein air”, French for “open air”, is a term used for painting done in the open instead of in the studio.

Badcock’s current exhibition at Brian Badcock Gallery are dominated by his “plein air” works. On the walls white-capped mountains and braided rivers are transformed into more abstract pieces, the order in disorder and patterns barely glimpsed from the corner of the eye. The former intermediate school art teacher travels all over Marlborough and New Zealand to find the inspiration for his landscapes. “It’s an amazing experience.” A painting takes about four or five hours, or around 35 years, depending on your perspective. Brian Badcock loads up his truck and travels to out of the way places with just his dog. Brian Badcock loads up his truck and travels to out of the way places with just his dog. He said creating a work of art was much more than purely the mechanics of producing something.

“People think it’s about pictures,” Badcock said, “it’s more like music. “You’re borrowing stuff from the landscape and putting down something unique.” He said people often had plans to paint from pictures they had taken around the country, but painting had nothing to do with photos. “It’s the experience, it’s being there,” he said. The key thing to a painting, or any art form, according to Badcock was that it needed to communicate. “I want to create something edifying, that makes you feel good,” he said. “There’s enough negativity in the world.”

Badcock, a devout Christian, said the Lord had done amazing things and “taught him so much” while he was painting. “For me, the joy of painting comes from a delight in the creation and a connection with the creator,” he said. “As you develop as a painter you begin to understand more about yourself.” It wasn’t about the money or fame for Badcock. Any money he did make from the sale of his paintings went to India, to build churches. “It’s providing something that will encourage people, lift them.”