Naseby artist Jane Whitaker is originally from Yorkshire, and has found a sense of home in the rugged terrain and wide-open spaces and skies of Central Otago.
After completing postgraduate study in English literature, she was influenced by the idea of the land as an epic, untamed, unspoilt wilderness in books like Narnia and The Lord of the Rings - a setting fit for ''the deeds of heroes''.
In C.S. Lewis' autobiography, he describes seeing an illustration and being struck by an overwhelming joy and recognition of what he called ''Northernness''.
Whitaker has transferred that concept to her ''Southernness'' exhibition, in which she seeks to capture the sensation of freedom and timelessness in the New Zealand landscape.
Humans are seen as travellers rather than inhabitants: even if they leave traces of themselves behind in buildings, fences and mining sites, the natural wildness prevails.
Having begun her painting career with watercolours, Whitaker has since expanded to using oils, and the collection includes examples of both.
A favourite among the watercolours is Waterfalls and rock face, which is beautifully painted in strokes of contrasting dark and light, and looks almost like a lithograph.
Nelson Lakes - lonely tarn and From Mt St Bathans - Southern Alps are the attention-grabbers of the collection: large-scale oil paintings that reflect the grandeur of the landscape.
The mountains seem to stretch infinitely beyond the horizon, and the viewer is left with the impression that they could be looking at a scene one hundred years in the past or as far forward in the future.
Hullabaloo Art Space closes the year with a group show that required the artists to work to a collective theme - in this case, all entries had to be circular or round.
With the brief interpreted in many different ways, the end result actually highlights the creative diversity rather than the common link.
There are several disc-shaped landscapes: Nigel Wilson's Orchard Series is a clever, abstracted, autumnal-toned work that gives an effect of rain having fallen on the trees, the puddles on the ground reflecting light and movement.
Lorraine Higgins' atmospheric Dusk is beautifully worked in jewel tones of blue and green, with wavering black lines of tree branches standing out against the fading pink of the sky.
Rachel Hirabayashi's Gorge perfectly captures the peaceful serenity of the evening, the last rays of the sun glittering in the water below.
Her metallic sculptural piece Recycled Rondo, by contrast, is a dynamic, aggressive take on the traditional flower subject, like a picked bloom from a futuristic or steampunk garden.
A particularly attractive ceramic work from Lynne Wilson's Mandala Series is painted in a mosaic of tiny patterned squares, like looking through a magnifying glass at an intricately tiled old-world floor or stained glass window.
Jillian Porteous's Bird Totems stand in solemn conclave nearby, a ring of dignified little bird elders engrossed in silent conversation.
Adding a scattering of festive cheer, Gail de Jong's glitter Records could be a visual ode to the glitzy high spirits of disco and jazz.
The geometric theme continues at Wanaka's Gallery Thirty Three, with the focus this time on the triangle.
The artists were sent a triangular canvas and no further instructions.
The resulting works are fascinating, ranging from landscapes to abstract patterns to portraiture, photo-realism and three-dimensional illusion.
Deidre Copeland displays her characteristic expertise with human hands and faces in Hide and Seek.
Her subject might be the hider or the seeker, pressed up against a peep-hole, half-hiding his intense, glistening eyes and using his fingers to both shield and peek.
Elizabeth Moyle's far more abstracted but equally expressive portrait Mother and Child has a misty, dream-like appearance, as if the image is distorted behind water or cloud, or beginning to emerge from a sculpture.
Teenage artist Alice Toomer presents a more literal interpretation of the shape challenge with her Pool Balls, to striking effect.
Toomer's handling of light, reflection and perspective would be remarkable in an artist three times her age. She has a deceptively effortless ability to turn everyday objects into something extraordinary on the canvas.
Ben Foster's Polygon Mountain incorporates an origami effect of raised pyramidal surfaces, adding depth to the landscape and playing with the eye as it attempts to find a central point of focus.
Kate Alterio's Balance divides and multiplies the triangles, keeping the canvases almost monochromatic apart from small slices of colour, and the finished works are oddly absorbing, seeming to create new patterns the longer they are observed.
-by Laura Elliot
