Artist’s generous gesture

Having left behind about 50 paintings, prominent former Arrowtown artist Ping Wang is generously selling them off to benefit two local causes.

Proceeds from a pop-up at Arrowtown’s Lakes District Museum next Friday, from 6pm, will be split between the museum and community support group Baskets of Blessing.

Ex-museum director David Clarke, who’s organising the exhibition, says the paintings are mostly watercolours with some oils and will likely sell for between $300 and $1000. Wang, who later returned to China, lived in Arrowtown from the mid-’90s to about ’06.

He also taught art, founded the Arrowtown Badminton Club and was a local pool champion. Clarke says "he just wants to see his art go to good homes for a reasonable price". 

— PHILIP CHANDLER