Paradise revisited

On Monday evening at the Beachcomber Contemporary Art Gallery Rick Welland’s re-imagined collection entitled “New Works” was launched. When the first reports of the Islands of the South Seas reached the old world, it seemed as if paradise had indeed been re-discovered, and, in 1962, when Welland first laid eyes on Rarotonga, an Island that James Michener had described as ‘one of the loveliest in the Pacific’ he could have been forgiven for thinking the same.
Permanently escaping his former occupation within the super hyped world that is California advertising, Welland instantly gelled with his new environment and within days of his arrival had painted and sold his first work. For the next three decades, he painted his journey, fusing the popular fantasy perspective with the elemental reality of life on a small Pacific Island.
Welland’s vibrant and expressive realism painting style perfectly captured the universal moment that he found himself within. Images of stunning Island maidens, families & landscapes burst forth from his canvases, eagerly consumed by visitors to the Island and, at various times sold through galleries in Tahiti, Fiji and Hawaii. Of particular renown are Welland’s paintings of Cook Islands Legends of which one (Ina & the Shark) is now permanently enshrined within a local $3 currency note.
While Welland’s Legend series was delivered in his usual, visually expressive manner, they also contained poignant social commentary encompassing the culturally fatal delivery of the Christian gospel to the Cook Islands and can be considered some of the first significant contemporary art works to be produced in Rarotonga.
Following a two decade ‘stint’ in Mexico, Welland returns to his artistic origins as the 2010 BCA ‘Artist in Residence’ where a new series of work has been created. While earlier themes are revisited, these new paintings serve as a commanding visual experience, a culmination of half a century of a life experienced in two worlds. The exhibition entitled “New Works” in currently running at the Beachcomber Contemporary Art Gallery until the 7th of June.

Herald Issue 463 10 June
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