Artist Euan McCleod Photo: Supplied
Since the 2020 lockdown the way we view each other from afar has changed dramatically thanks to technology.
FacingTime: Portraits of Geoff by Euan Macleod at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery is a series of 346 portrait paintings recording Macleod and Geoff Dixon’s daily catch-ups on FaceTime. Euan painted while Geoff sat - at the other end of a smartphone.
Friends since the '70s, the Australian-based New Zealand artists have been collaborating for decades, with Dixon often a model for Macleod’s paintings.
While Dixon is in Northern Queensland, Macleod has lived in Sydney since 1981. He’s held more than fifty solo shows in New Zealand and Australia, and won the celebrated Australian portraiture prize the Archibald in 1999.
Meanwhille Clare O’Leary and Glenis Gile’s film Geoff Dixon: Portraits of Us is currently screening at the Light House Petone, Wellington and then at the Lumiere Cinema Christchurch from June 29. Details here.
