Wilson Boys Boat

Grahame Sydney was born in Dunedin in 1948. He graduated from Otago University with a BA in English and Geography and became a secondary school teacher. After travelling to the United Kingdom and Europe from 1973 to 1974 he returned to Dunedin and commenced his full time art career. Sydney has worked widely in oils, watercolours, tempera, etchings and lithographs. His landscape paintings are created with great skill and subtlety, appearing simple, but their plain reality tenders deeper emotions than simple recognition. Sydney's realist paintings of the Central Otago Landscape and his stark paintings of nudes are recognisable to many New Zealanders. He was awarded an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for his services to painting in 2003.