After 26 years of selling miniature collectors' items, Alan Waters had an ‘‘aha moment''.
‘‘I was in Australia at that point,'' Waters said.
Out walking one day, he discovered a branch which had fallen from a Banksia tree and was overcome by the ‘‘rustic beauty'' of the fallen branch.
‘‘I was stunned at how beautiful something could be".
‘‘I had another business - miniatures for collectors - really, really fine pieces. But I had an aha moment and this voice came out of nowhere and said ‘Alan you have to paint for the rest of your life'.
‘‘So I sold my business and I've been painting ever since.''
Banksia Branch became Waters' first professional watercolour, 12 years ago.
He became a full-time artist, leaving the ‘‘huge'' business world of miniatures behind after selling in Australia, New Zealand, England and America.
‘‘I was fairly well known. In fact, I'm still getting the odd inquiry from people".
While living in England, he also designed gadgets for medical equipment to be used for people with disabilities, work he continued in New Zealand for a time with the IHC.
‘‘As a child, I was always pulling things apart and trying to figure out how they worked. ‘‘I guess it was just a natural progression from there.''
Born and raised in Invercargill, Waters returned to New Zealand in 2002. Most of his paintings are now sold through Fisher Galleries throughout New Zealand.
In October last year, Waters settled with his wife Chris, an interior designer, in a house, complete with a gallery, built high on the hillside at Bannockburn.
The public were welcome to view his works in the gallery there, he said.
‘‘It's the first time I've ever had my own gallery. It's brand new. I just love it here.''
Waters designed the house and has established a house-design business offering his concepts and ideas for building projects.
Working in acrylic and watercolours, his quirky painting style is also reflected in cartoons, jewellery and sculpture.
‘‘I'm open to all sorts of ideas and things. I love challenges.
‘‘I'm also the only artist I know that paints with both hands. I've been reasonably ambidextrous all my life.''
Waters describes his works as ‘‘contemporary, with touches of pleasant surrealism and the unexpected''.
They are ‘‘extraordinary and vibrant watercolour paintings not bound by conventional style but subject to the delights of imagination''.
His works are in private collections worldwide. Waters has been working on a series of greeting cards to be sold by Central Stories promoting Central Otago through its birds and insects. He has developed a fascination for rabbits, collecting their bones to make a rabbit alphabet.
‘‘It's going to look magic and I've got a beautiful little skull I just found the other day.''
- One of Waters' paintings has been donated for a Child Cancer Foundation fundraising day and will be auctioned on March 29, about 3pm, at Dion's Hyundai Central, in Cromwell. All proceeds will go towards helping children who have cancer in Central Otago.
