Don McAra

Don lives in Christchurch. He was educated at the University of Otago and completed his MA at the University of Canterbury, and a Diploma of Drama in Education at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. His early art studies were at the School of Art, Dunedin and he studied water colour with H.V. Miller (Dunedin) and Life Studies with Doris Lusk (Christchurch.)

“In making my artwork I enjoy the co-ordination of hand, eye, and perception that make up good drawing and composition. I enjoy applying paint not so much as a subject matter in its own right, as a medium for communicating quite simply and directly what is before me, or what is in my imagination. I enjoy the step by step realisation of images which never turn out quite the way I had envisaged them, and the moods and feelings evoked as I work.”

Don has exhibited widely throughout the country over the past 30+ years, often with other notable fellow New Zealand artists. He allows time to travel to Europe to help further fuel his passion for painting. At Don’s 2007 Dunedin exhibition, held in conjunction with the launch of the book he wrote and illustrated ‘Hold Very Tight Please’, based on the historical trams of Dunedin, over 40 paintings were sold. Trams are a past-time Don is very keen to see revisited.